Ends of Magic
Chapter 16: A City Falls

Nathan just blinked at Faline for a moment. “How did you get in here?” More adventurers caught up to him and goggled at the elite Adventurer for a moment.

“This muckgrabber’s asshole.” She prodded the body she was crouched over, a victorious smile on her face. “I saw him watching you. Almost killed him there, but decided to watch and only intervene if he did. He thought about it, but all his assassination tools are magical, and he wasn’t stupid.” She pulled out a wand and spun it between her fingers before it vanished into her robe.

“Ah - here.” A large gem glinted in the assassin’s hand. She inspected it with a sultry smile before her gaze moved languidly back to Nathan. “The Nails have long feuded with Exea, and he decided to sneak in here and purge the enchantments.”

The assassin gestured towards a dark corner of the room, where a hidden door stood open. “I knew there was a hidden passage into this place, and would have traded a grand Insight for the secret. But the Nail knew it, and he had this.”

She held up the iridescent gem, which glinted with many colors. “This is a keystone for the Halsmet enchantments. It will unlock the magic which would normally be keyed to Exea’s hands.” She walked around the magical control room to the master panel. In front of it was an incredibly overstuffed armchair, almost a throne of fluff.

Faline glanced over at Nathan. “I’d be filled with sadness if this chair is trapped. Can you…?”

He took a second to process her request, then stepped gingerly into the room, trying not to brush up against anything important.

I’m stuck somewhere between grief, vindication and anxiety right now. I just want a good meal and to stare at a wall for a while. But Giantsrest will be coming… and this city isn’t fully reclaimed. There’s so much to do.

He scanned his perception through the chair, puzzling through the assortment of enchantments on the furniture.

There’s nothing in there to explode. A triggered shield of some kind, but otherwise it’s just an automatically adjusting temperature-controlled chair that can massage people. It probably took somebody a year to enchant that, so Exea could sit in comfort at this table.

Nathan suppressed a burst of Rage that almost caused him to spontaneously disenchant the enchantments. He consciously activated [Battlefield Meditation] for the first time since his unhinged rage. A clarity swept through him, pushing back the anxiety and stress as he waved Faline toward the chair.

It’s just a chair. Save it for the actual bad guys. Not their chairs.

Faline was watching him with pursed lips and a frown on her face. “Who died?”

“Artha.” Nathan met her eyes, and the other Adventurers shifted behind him. “He broke down the gate, and Exea disintegrated him.”

She closed her eyes and nodded deeply. “A brave man, and a worthy act. Remember unto Endings.” Her eyes opened. “Have you added another Archmage to your tally of deeds?”

“Fled.” The voice was Khachi’s, as he stepped into the room. Even here he glowed with divine light, and he eyed Faline with a small level of suspicion. “What is your intent for that stone?”

She sat in the chair with evident satisfaction before slotting the gem into a central slot on the enchanted panel. The entire room thrummed slightly as the enchantments switched from standby to active, and the dials all around the room lit up. The assassin reached out to manipulate the controls hesitantly. They had labels, but they were clearly intended for somebody with more familiarity with the system.

Nathan meanwhile was busy absorbing every scrap of information he could about the control center though his magical senses. This was the center of the spiderweb, the place where all of the signals from all the enchantments across the city came together. He traced incoming magic, feeling for meaning behind the interplay of mana.

Stella dragged Egall into the room, looking around in wonder. “How does this place work?”

Nathan was the one to answer. “It’s based on the Edrani empire system. The consoles don’t just look similar, the whole design is copied over. But shittier.” He closed his eyes, not needing to see the changing displays. He could sense the magic inside of them, flowing back and forth.

This is like understanding a pretty awful logic circuit. It would take forever - but I can see the state of every node, and the setting on every gate.

“Stop.” He pointed at Faline’s hand, frozen from where it was twisting a dial. “You were about to overload the power of the detection enchantment. It would burn out in only one or two pulses on that setting.”

He couldn’t see her face, but the response was annoyed. “Then how do I change the settings? I want it to display Giantsrest mages still in the city.”

Egall moved towards a specific console along the wall. “This one controls the targeting. I’ve seen things like this before - but not this complicated.”

Nathan traced the lines of magic that flowed in and out of the indicated portion of the enchantment. He furrowed his brow. “Yeah. That's it. And then…”

“What does the rest of this do?” Stella was walking around the room in a semicircle. “There’s so much magic.”

Information flowed through Nathan, and he burned through the last few scraps of focus left to hold it all in his head. He remembered everything he’d felt in the control system underneath the Edrani empire outpost. He hadn’t had the same level of magical perception or understanding then, but he’d stuck his hand through the most important piece of it.

Power was flowing away from the center of the room, and information flowed back to populate the large illusion. Nathan frowned, knowing what was missing. In the Edrani empire outpost, there’d been a big magical crystal - which wasn’t present here. Then he figured out what was going on.

“This entire thing - it’s powered by a crystal stuck in a dimensional space anchored under the illusion. That button would blow it up.” He pointed to a small and unobtrusive orange button near Faline’s elbow. “This entire console is for power distribution, not overall control.”

“Teach a mage to light a candle, fighter. I dread to smother…” The sneering voice of Ayen cut off as somebody cuffed him.

Nathan’s focus ran over the memories of all the times in the past few days he’d interacted with different portions of the city-wide enchantments. The different portions all worked slightly differently, and he could sense the connections that converged on this room, threading through individual consoles and towards the central node. Each had a different flavor and focus.

High-tier Enhanced Memory 10 achieved! Congratulations, you have maxed out this utility skill! It cannot be improved any further. You must achieve Insight to develop it to the next level. As it is high-tier, the kind of Insight will greatly affect how it develops.

His Focus ran out entirely, but Nathan was pretty sure he’d figured everything out. Eyes still closed, he pointed to the different consoles around the wall in turn. “That’s the inner wall security grid. The next one is for the outer wall, and the one next to it can spend mana to reinforce or even rebuild different portions of the walls. This one regulates spatial spells inside the city. I think the inactive one over there can project a massively powerful force spell over the mansion, or a less powerful one over the inner city. The one Egall is next to is for controlling the detection grids. That one is some kind of announcement system, but it can also block [Messages] in and out of the city if we route it enough mana.”

He opened his eyes to see everybody in the room staring at him, even as his understanding of the room settled. He still couldn’t touch any of the consoles, but he was confident he could achieve any result that was needed from the room.

Congratulations, you have developed the [High-tier Identify] utility skill into [Magical Intuition].

Utility skill [Magical Intuition]:

You will easily understand complex magic, even from incomplete evidence. This skill extends to spells, enchantments and other magical effects, but not natural phenomena. Will enhance your understanding of mana types and spellwork.

And Eldred dismissed [Enhanced Memory] when I asked him if he wanted it - but it was key to figuring this thing out and letting me Develop [Identify]. [Magical Intuition] lost some breadth - it doesn’t apply to nonmagical things anymore. That’s a bit of a loss, but magic is where I need the help. I’ve spent two decades understanding the physical world, but only half a year on the thaumaturgical one.

Stella had moved over to the spatial console. “How do I stop [Teleport] from working?”

Nathan coached her through the process. Faline obeyed with amusement, refusing to give up Exea’s control couch.

In short order they blocked teleport spells within the city. Then Stella and the other mages spent a moment sending and receiving last-minute [Messages] before they blocked those off as well. Finally, they reversed the detection enchantment so it would latch onto anybody bearing a mage mark.

Faline looked down at the map of Halsmet, marked with every surviving mage of Giantsrest still in the city. They were scattered around the inner city. Cut off from each other and leaderless.

She looked up from the map, and her bared teeth were a promise of bloodshed.

“Time to hunt.”

—

They quickly organized into teams to chase down the remaining mages. The Adventurers and freed elites allowed themselves to be tagged by the detection enchantment so they would show up on the map. Vhala took charge of the control room, using some volunteers from the household staff as runners to keep everybody in touch.

Before Nathan left, she waved him over. The dark-skinned woman’s face was hard, and she didn’t speak for a second.

Nathan spoke first. “I’m sorry about Artha - I couldn’t…” He trailed off.

“I would trade a grand Insight that he be the last of my comrades to fall.” Vhala’s words were careful, even though her tone was bitter as she studied the holographic map of the city. “Remember ‘till Endings - and hold what his death has gained. We are isolated, and if those mages group together they could challenge us. Kill more Adventurers. Kill those who could be freed.”

The middle-aged woman tossed her head, the beads in her dreadlocks clicking as she fixed Nathan with a steely gaze. “I have heard of Harthi. You have captured the mages of Giantsrest before." S~ᴇaʀᴄh the ɴ0velFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

He nodded, waiting for her to continue.

“Do not do so now. We are too few in number, and I would not invite a soul eater into our village. Kill them, and move on. We will attempt to free as many slaves as we can, but we will not try to save the mages. By our blood Halsmet belongs to Giantsrest no longer, and I will follow that light above all others.”

Faline stepped out of the shadows to the side. “Every mage that escapes is one more voice that will argue to retake this city - their home.”

Nathan nodded once. His Rage still boiled under the surface, and he smiled as he imagined killing those who had held power in this city.

These are the consequences coming home to roost for Giantsrest - consequences for how they treated their slaves. This was never going to be a clean fight. If we want to truly challenge Giantsrest, I can’t be squeamish about this.

Vhala gave him instructions on his first target, where two mages were huddled on the second floor of a building only a few streets away from the main square. She was sending other groups after slavemasters or isolated mages, with instructions to avoid challenging slave-soldiers until Nathan was present to break their collars.

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 55! You have killed Heuld dho Wayt and Cifri dha Wayt by taking them by surprise!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to196! You have slain two Enslavement mages of Giantsrest.

The messenger system Vhala was using was much less convenient than the [Message] spell - but the inconvenience was far worse for their enemies.

Nathan’s next target was hiding in a closet, his panicked breathing making it easy to track him down even if Nathan hadn’t been able to feel his mana from two rooms away. He was trying to cast [Message] every thirty seconds, and whimpering in fear every time the spell failed.

The slaves in that house bore the marks of a violent temper, and Nathan felt no guilt about the next set of levels.

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 58! You have killed Arht dho Idham as he cowered in fear!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to198! You have slain an artisan mage of Giantsrest.

As Nathan left, he passed a few of the ex-slaves from Exea’s mansion. They bowed their heads and gave him Giantsrest-style salutes. Once he was past they went into the house and spoke calming words to the newly-freed slaves within, who were in various states of emotional breakdown now that the magic on them had been broken.

Good. I was a little bit worried about what would happen now. They’ve always had the mages as masters, and now that they’re gone I was worried about anarchy. But there’s still organization, and it's one that values kindness.

He joined back up with the Heirs and some freed elites for the next target - where several mages were assembling in one of the squares in front of the mansion on the third hill. They’d assembled a force of slave-soldiers and Slavemasters, and were trying to decide if they should retake the control room or flee the city when the Heirs found them.

Nathan turned the corner and caught the first fireball, which guttered and died in his hand. That simple action spread fear among the half-dozen mages ahead of him.

The fear turned to outright panic after Sarah harvested the slavemasters with a rapid volley of pistol fire from a nearby rooftop. Then Stella focused a viciously powerful light spell on the leading mage, rapidly cycling the color of the spell until his [Mage Armor] shattered and the man screamed as his flesh reddened and his clothes burst into flames.

The mages broke and ran.

“Did you have to make it so bright?” Sarah yelled down, trying to blink away the spots as she aimed. She still managed to clip one of the retreating mages with her rifle, the heavy bullet making the woman stagger and fall even through her [Mage Armor].

Stella yelled back. “If I never use my light spells in combat, I’ll never Develop them!”

Oh - I can probably Develop [Slow Fall] to [Airwalking] now - Kia gave me the Insight for that. But she also said that it was best done in combat. The bar is lower for Talents when you’re in a fight. What we’re doing now doesn’t count. I’ll wait until I get into an actual fight.

Aarl and Nathan chased down the remaining mages. Khachi didn’t join them, merely holding off the slave-soldiers until Nathan could return and free them of their collars. Nathan could feel the cleric’s heavy gaze as he stomped on the fallen woman’s skull, but the wolf-man didn’t say anything to interrupt.

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 62! You have slain Benrir dho Moha and Jachi dha Moha, and exterminated a minor house of Giantsrest!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to 202! You and your team have killed a group of mages and freed their slaves.

Then Nathan bid the Heirs goodbye, since they were needed in different places. They were being sent after any mages in the streets, since the combination of Stella’s spells and Sarah’s rifle usually allowed them to quickly and easily dispatch their foes without much danger.

As the only other complete Adventuring team left in the city, the Oath of Tulin was hunting down slavemasters and the occasional weak mages. Faline was semi-independently going after isolated mages, and small groups of freed elites were scouting and attacking opportunistically.

Meanwhile, Nathan was the answer to a dozen different problems. He was directed to any large concentrations of slaves or particularly powerful mages, alternatingly delivering freedom or death.

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 65! You have slain Acur dho Jolb!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to203! You have killed an enslavement mage of Giantsrest!

In the process, he sprinted back and forth over the city, often outrunning the messengers sent out with updates and further instructions. His knowledge of the city grew, and Nathan learned the shortcuts and streets of Halsmet as he hunted his enemies through it. But with [Perfected Body] he never ran out of breath, and he never had to slow down from burning muscles.

High-tier Sprinting 7 achieved!

He freed hundreds of slaves, perfecting his abilities to break the myriad slavery enchantments of Giantsrest without any danger, no matter how paranoid the enchanter.

Magical Intuition 2 achieved!

The reaction to freedom varied widely - but most of the slaves reacted with extreme emotion of one form or another. Sometimes it passed quickly, replaced by a grim determination or exhausted relief. Other times people seemed to slip into near-catatonia. Nathan spared a few quick words for each group, affirming their freedom and challenging them to be responsible for themselves.

Leadership 3 achieved!

But he always moved on. There were more places he needed to be.

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 67! You have slain Reche dha Pelogi and Diverus dho Dodra!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to204! You have killed an enslavement mage of Giantsrest and their apprentice!

The freed slaves spread like a tide in the cleared areas, occupying the richest of homes and caring for the people Nathan left behind. Some served as extra messengers or scouts for Vhala, and her hold over the city grew firmer.

A few mages tried to use their slaves as hostages, proclaiming loudly that they’d kill all of them if anybody prevented them from leaving the city. Nathan snuck up on them, sometimes disguising himself as a slave, other times just avoiding their attention and dropping off a roof to snap their necks.

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 70! You have slain Timen dho Beltosk!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to206! You have killed an artisan mage of Giantsrest and saved their hostages.

Mid-tier Noticeability 5 achieved!

Low-tier Disguise 3 achieved!

Low-tier Quiet Movement 4 achieved!

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 72! You have slain Bril dho Memsk!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to208! You have killed an enforcement mage of Giantsrest and saved their hostages.

One disguised herself among the slaves. She was just one among many, headed towards the gates in a large crowd armed with tools of their trade. Nathan grabbed some clothing from a nearby house’s laundry. Then he slipped into the crowd from an alley, ambling along like any one of the mind-controlled laborers around him.

He worked his way through the crowd until his magical senses picked up on a mana pool, then slowly angled himself in that direction. It took a little while to work his way over to where the mage trudged, carrying a gardening tool and blending into the surrounding slaves surprisingly well. She wasn’t actively using any magic, and didn’t even have [Mage Armor] active. The blow to the back of her neck killed her instantly.

Mid-tier Noticeability 6 achieved!

Low-tier Disguise 4 achieved!

Assassin of Gemore has leveled to 76! You have slain Doha dha Nhir as she was disguised in a crowd!

Implacable Antimage has leveled to209! You have killed an entertainment mage of Giantsrest

The next messenger waited for Nathan to break the collars of the group before telling him that no more mages remained on the map. Any graduates of the Ascendent Academy remaining in the city were few in number, and were likely stuck in place by whatever was protecting them from the detection enchantment. Any attempt to reclaim the city would have to come from outside the walls because teleportation was disrupted, and they had posted watchers to give warning.

But Nathan’s job wasn’t done. Many more slaves still needed to be freed, and several groups of slave-soldiers were being contained until Nathan could get to them.

He ran through the familiar streets, finding that the city had changed in fundamental ways. The first time he’d been to Halsmet it had been bustling with an oddly silent industry, as slaves went about the task of hauling and working without a single unnecessary word. After he’d killed Taeol the city had been in lockdown with the only traffic being soldiers and their masters.

Now the primary sound was human voices. Quiet and subdued, to be sure. But Nathan heard a laugh come from a building and stopped, listening to the chatter from inside for a moment before he continued.

That’s why I do this. So people can be people, not automatons. But I’m not done until all of them are free. Not like that’ll be the end of our problems - Giantsrest will try to take the city back.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 5

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 7

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 10

Class: Implacable Antimage level 209

Deepened Stamina: 3028/6570

Antimage’s Impassivity

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Improved Antimagic

Strenuous Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Class: Assassin of Gemore level76

Regenerative Focus: 699/860

Catastrophic Blows

Stealthy Movement

Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 8

Leadership 3

High-tier Sprinting 7

Magical Perception 6

High-tier Notice 9

Magical Intuition 2

High-tier Dodging Footwork 9

High-tier Enhanced Memory 10

Mid-tier Lecturing 9

High-tier Tumbling 6

Mid-tier Noticeability 6

Low-tier Quiet Movement 4

Low-tier Disguise 4

Sᴇarch the NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.