196 — Book 4, Chapter 40 — The Grand Assault, Pt 3

Neither Cale nor any of the mages on the fortress with him had the patience to deal with the egos of the Red Hunters, so they concocted a plan to deal with each one as quickly as possible. The crux of the plan was simple: between them, they had divination capabilities that far outstripped anything the Red Hunters could do, so they would use that magic to take key mages within the Red Hunters down before they could even react to their presence.

That divination magic relied heavily on Syphus and Professor Imrys. Syphus's new [Depthless Eye] had evolved out of its [Infernal Eye], and while the spell was still infernal in nature, it now gave Syphus a more nuanced control over what it saw of the secrets of those around it. Most of its training within the Black Vault had been about learning how to control this power—it was easier to do, apparently, when the world around it wasn't rife with divine intent interfering with its own.

Now it had gained enough control to direct the effects of its eye to any given target. This was important because there was going to be very little time to have a conversation with the Red Hunters they were fighting; if any of them were there against their will or something similar, then Cale wanted to know before their small army of mages crushed them.

As powerful as its new eye was, Syphus would not have been able to project that power out of the fortress and into the minds of the Red Hunters were it not for Professor Imrys's cane, which, as it turned out, had a range-extending enchantment built into it.

Though "enchantment" was putting it lightly. This was Imrys they were talking about, after all. The cane was a modified ancient artifact, and the "enchantment" created an array of magnification runes that would not have been out of place on a relic created by the gods. It was capable of anything from extending the length of the cane to projecting a spell halfway across the continent.

The two of them together made for a strange sight. Syphus stood at the gates of the conjured fortress with Professor Imrys balanced on its shoulder; she held her cane up to its eye, and it squinted through the projected enchantment toward the tiny figures of the Red Hunters below. Whatever it found and saw it reported to the others, who concocted a plan to deal with each Hunter as they came.

Helspeth of the Red Hunters was not there against her will. She thought Utelia was a backwater realm and wanted nothing more than to be sent to a realm where she could join the "frontier of magic." Cale saw no reason not to grant that wish, as long as she wasn't here in Utelia to bother him.

[Impact] has evolved to [Dimensional Shove]!

Sadly, the new spell wasn't very accurate in terms of where it sent its target. Cale had imbued his intent with his knowledge of the Streaming ritual, but spell evolution was a finicky process, and the Streaming ritual didn't allow much in the way of targeting in the first place.

He had made sure to target a high-mana realm, though. It remained to be seen what she would do with that. Some high-mana realms could be especially dangerous, with a thickness in its veil that made conventional mana control far more difficult, but if she wanted so badly to stand at the forefront of magic... well, she could deal with it.

Then there was Espre of the Red Hunters. He was fascinating, it turned out. Unlike Helspeth, he was here against his will, but only in a manner of speaking. He had, technically, volunteered to work with the Grand Magus, and his power was the direct result of the Grand Magus's experiments. He was one of the earliest experiments into the creation of artificial wyldfires, which explained the stuttering flame in his mana core.

Unlike Eli, his core could be sustained without the power of a Red Relic constantly draining another. In exchange, however, his core was considerably more weak than a traditional wyldfire's core, and he was reliant on the Grand Magus to provide him with a constant stream of magical supplements so that his core would not burn away at his soul.

Cale supposed that explained why Espre was struggling so badly to sustain his [Greater Dimensional Ward] against Leo. That spell was perhaps the entire reason the Grand Magus had chosen him for the experiment.

It was a good thing labyrinth magic was the one thing that could counter it.

Cale turned to Espre.

He cut an intimidating figure at the moment, he knew—his anger was still great enough that his mana billowed out of him in plumes, causing his cloak to flutter even with all the winds of the Golden Stands stolen by his [Fortress of the Gilded Storm]. His features were half-hidden by the glare of sunlight behind him and by the prismatic haze that rose before him.

So he wasn't that surprised when Espre scrambled backward, kicking up sand and dust. "W-wait!" he said. "Wait, I can—I can lead you—I can get you to the Grand Magus!"

Cale snorted. "We won't need your help for that," he said, tossing a capsule to Espre. The artificial mage flinched, clearly expecting it to be some sort of spell; when it instead bounced harmlessly off his beak, he opened his eyes, confused. "What..."

"Take that," Cale said, already striding toward the temple. "Akkau and Thorn cooked it up with some advice from the people of the Golden Sands. It'll safely put the wyldfire in your core out so you can refine it the right way."

"W-what?" Espre repeated. The capsule had landed in his hands, and he brushed his fingers over them in wonder. Cale realized, somewhat belatedly, that Espre's species did not have eyes, so he probably wasn't actually intimidated by his figure so much as the sheer mana pouring off of him. Or maybe by the fact that he'd shoved Helspeth into another universe. "Wait, what do you—the Grand Magus said the procedure couldn't be reversed—"

"Well, clearly, the Grand Magus is an idiot," Cale said, exasperated.

"But he's a genius," Espre said, dumbfounded.

"Would a genius make an enemy out of me?" Cale asked.

Espre opened his beak as if to argue, then faltered. Cale felt the mage's mana sense brush over him, then over the fortress above now that it was finally within range. Espre paled. "Uh."

"Yep," Cale said. He kept walking, leaving Espre behind to fumble with the capsule he'd been given.

Barvok was a Red Hunter for one reason and one reason only: he enjoyed oppression. He liked seeing the fear in people's eyes when he showed up in front of them. There was a rush of power that came with it, a rush that came with knowing he had the authority to do as he pleased.

He wasn't the foremost authority, of course, but listening to the nagging commands of the Red Commander or the Grand Magus every once in a while wasn't so bad a price to pay. The only real problem with it was that sometimes their assignments were so boring.

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Like this one. The Grand Magus seemed convinced that this site of some old dead guy was critically important to his research, and he seemed equally convinced that other mages would try to steal it away once they knew. He had stationed nearly every powerful mage in the Red Hunters to guard it. It was excessive, as far as Barvok was concerned, but once this was over he could go right back to strutting through the streets and arresting anyone he thought might be a wild ma—

CRACK.

Syphus lowered its spell cannon, its eye quirked into the shape of a frown. "Ew," it said. "Also, that guy didn't even have his barriers up. What gives?"

"Cale's insistence that you learn to keep your barriers up at all times is comparatively unusual for mages. Many mages have other spells to keep themselves alive, or are otherwise very confident in their own durability." Professor Sternkessel cocked his head. "Though as you can see, there is a certain wisdom in Cale's approach. Truly, it is a remarkable lapse to allow one's barriers to falter when acting as a guard."

"I didn't want to fight that guy anyway." Syphus shuddered. That Hunter's mind had felt particularly disgusting.

"You are alright, then?" Sternkessel asked.

"What, because I killed him? Yeah, I'm fine. He's not my first or anything."

"Hm. I feel as though I should be concerned."

Sirossa Carver had joined the Red Hunters in large part because they paid extraordinarily well.

She was a talented mage at darkwood. Not the most exceptional among her peers, but clever enough and with a unique enough set of spells that many institutions were desperate to work with her. Kobolds were known to be exceptionally quick casters and thinkers, after all, and were a valuable addition to any dungeon-delving team. Outside of that, they had an instinct for magic inherited from their draconic brethren, which made them exceptional treasure hunters and relic investigators.

Sirossa could have chosen any of those jobs, had she so desired. They all paid well. The Red Hunters had offered her the most well-paid position of the lot, however, and if Sirossa had inherited anything from dragonkind it was the desire to hoard as much gold as possible. She had to act as much like a dragon as possible, anyway, if she wanted to get draconic magic.

It had taken some consideration, since she didn't exactly agree with what the Red Hunters did, but... eh. She needed the gold! How would she have the money to care for her many, many siblings otherwise? Any of those other jobs would have paid her well, but not enough for all of them to live comfortably. Like dragons would.

So. Sirossa was probably not a good person, and she was fine with that. She had joined the Red Hunters because they offered her enough gold to ignore the whole "campaign against wild mages thing," and she was perfectly fine with perpetuating their work as long as it meant more gold in her pocket. She could have achieved the same results with any of her other jobs, but it would have required more work, and she didn't like doing work. And dragons wouldn't have liked doing extra work, either, she was pretty sure.

She had picked the easiest path forward, and she was comfortable with that. Besides, it allowed her to do some good, too! If she didn't join the Red Hunters, someone else would have, and they would have been less lenient on the wild mages they found. Also, because she had joined the Red Hunters, she knew how they operated and could hide her little brother from them.

That little guy had manifested corn mana as his natural attunement. Honestly, she should probably have realized something was wrong with him with how much corn he was eating, but whatever. He was still her little brother and she would still protect him. Not any of his friends, because it would be far too inconvenient to help that many mages, but as long as she and her family was comfortable, she saw no reason... to...

Was there a dragon in front of her? She was pretty sure there was a dragon in front of her. Sirossa stared at him, her jaw slowly falling open.

He was exquisite. He had the most gorgeous coating of red scales, and the sunlight reflected off those scales in a way that accentuated how much work he had put into his body. His shoulders were so broad Sirossa she could have sat comfortably on either one of them, and his arms were thick with enough muscle that she thought he would have been able to comfortably carry her and her entire family if he so chose.

It was like he had walked straight out of one of the romance books she loved. He wasn't even wearing a shirt! Just loose robes that cut off at the sleeves, and the parting was loose enough that she could see a glimpse of the jagged scales that only barely hid the definition of his pecs and abs. Was she drooling? She thought she might have been drooling.

"Sirossa Carver," the dragon said, his voice deep and resonant, and Sirossa thought she might faint at just the sound of it. He tossed a bag onto the ground, and her ears flicked and her tail straightened immediately at the telltale sound of gold clinking together. Was this a dream? This had to be a dream. This was straight out of her fantasies. "I am Headmaster Akkau, and that bag contains ten thousand gold from my personal hoard."

Ten thousand gold. That was enough to feed her family and their children and their children's children. She could have wept from joy. The dragon was still talking, muttering something about the gold being cursed and that accepting it would mean she would now have to take responsibility not only for herself but for everyone she met, but Sirossa barely heard any of it.

"Yes," she said, interrupting him and gathering the bag into her arms. She hugged it giddily to herself. "I accept."

Akkau paused, his brows furrowing. "You... accept?"

"I accept your proposal," Sirossa said. "I will marry you."

The dragon stared at her. Instead of breaking out into a handsome smile, like she imagined, he frowned slightly. "Miss Carver, I am afraid you have misunderstood. I am spoken for. That gold is a bribe to get you to leave the Red Hunters and take responsibility for your community, which you have eschewed in your greed."

Sirossa blinked, some of the haze clearing from her eyes. "Oh," she said. She stared at the bag again, this time taking note of the cursed mana lingering around.

...Well, it was still ten thousand gold. "I accept that, too," she said, shrugging. "Hey, you don't happen to have any hot shirtless brothers, do you? Or sisters? I don't discriminate. I would also date either one of your parents if they're single."

"I believe I will take my leave of this conversation," Akkau said. A strange being clad in a white suit with rings for a head appeared next to him as soon as he said the words; he clasped their hands together, and then the both of them vanished.

Huh. Well, Sirossa knew what was going to be the subject of her next painting.

She wandered away from the Temple, whistling to herself. Screw the Grand Magus. He could deal with whatever nonsense he'd called here by himself.

The Red Phoenix was one of the great mage-constructs under the control of the Red Commander, much like the Icon of Battle had been. Now that the Red Commander had expired, she was under the explicit control of the Grand Magus, who had commanded her to act as the second layer of defense in case the first set of mages guarding the temple failed.

Though they were supposed to come and get her if they ran into any trouble of that degree. She was surprised, therefore, when a group of foreign mages walked into the temple without warning or any Red Hunters trying to bar their path.

"Halt," she called, rising. Her wings opened, each feather carrying a dazzling array of magic within it. "If you come any closer, you shall meet your death."

She didn't really want to kill them, but she was bound, and so long as she was bound...

The Red Phoenix tilted her head. One of the mages—a water elemental of some kind?—was suddenly in front of her and pressing a hand against her plumage. This was very strange. The Red Phoenix was not used to threatening someone with death and then being petted in response, but it seemed like this was happening.

Also, quite importantly, she did not feel the immediate urge to kill the water elemental or her friends.

"We'd like your help," the water elemental said. Something about her voice was incredibly soothing; the Red Phoenix leaned into it. For some strange reason, she felt like she could trust this mage. "We're going to kill the Grand Magus."

By all rights, the Red Phoenix's bond should have raged against that statement—it should have sent her into a fury that burned at her soul until the Magus's enemies were dead.

Instead, as the fury rose, she felt the chill of the Abyss surrounding it and snuffing it out. Far in the distance, the Phoenix felt the gaze of something with impossibly many eyes, staring at her...

Calling her home.

She remembered, in a rush, why she was here and how she had been bound.

"I see," the Half-Abyssal Queen said. "I believe I would like to kill him, as well."