542 The Ineffable
Cain stared at Titania with his fists resting on his hip, his head slightly tilted to the side. From where she stood, his eyes seemed white to her.
“Teach him a lesson,” Titania said with a disappointed voice.
The guard immediately lifted her staff, “You dare disrespect her majesty?”
“Of course, I value people by how much they value everyone. To me, a hardworking magicless pixie is far better than a snotty bee like you.” Cain replied, his magic slowly rising. The chimera’s wasp-like wings extended from his back with a lightning crackle.
The guard took a step forward charging a lightning bolt, “Then die you…” Titania rushed in grabbing her staff. “Don’t, he’s mine.” She growled glaring at him.
Mei and everyone else flew away, “Don’t blast my grove!” Mei shouted as she flew away.
Titania smiled, “I’ve never seen a male pixie in over a century, your kind rarely get born from the fey grove.” As she walked, her magic inflated as she set her eyes on the rare treat.
The guard gasped, “We were suspicious about where did she obtain such high-quality mana, it seemed she got her hand on a male after all.”
Cain just smiled, “You’re free to think that. Let’s see who is the better mage, me or the snobby queen.”
Using the [Spirit core] that Sylph gave him, Cain easily changed his mana to similar to that of an elf, something far closer to the fey world, a spirit.
“To think you’re staying here playing, why won’t you seek the capital? I bet you would be treated better there. How did you even leave the fey grove?” Titania stood facing him, their noses almost touching as their magic covered the whole place.
“I never escaped the grove, I was born like this,” Cain replied as he glanced over the queen’s stats.
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<Name: Ishtar Gladys><Race: Fey Spirit><Level: 98/100><Exp: 1025200/9855000>
<HP: 3430><MP: 6419><SP: 3038>
<Strength: 21><Dexterity: 40><Constitution: 17>
<Intelligence: 28><Wisdom: 38><Charisma: 55>
<Martial Skills><Retract>
[Flood hand]: A hand-to-hand fighting style developed by the royal pixie court, it was merely practiced as a form of entertainment until its lethal uses were discovered.
<Resistances><Retract>
[Fey ancestry] Titania is a pixie who held the fey blood, slowly evolving into a fairy, a spirit, and then to a fey spirit. This grants her full access to all resistance held by her powerful bloodline.
[Magic resistance]
[Charm resistance]
[Illusion resistance]
[Mind control resistance]
[Mind read resistance]
[Influence resistance]
[Spirit resistance]
[Fear resistance]
[Petrification resistance]
<Magic Skills><Retract>
[Unreadable due to level gap and the mind read resistance]
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“Lick my feet and I will forget your insult,” Ishtar growled with a smile.
“Back your words with power.” Cain smiled back.
In a moment of silence, Ishtar touched Cain’s cheek and stared directly into his eyes. “Look at my eyes…” A glow emitted from her eyes as she used her charm.
Ding! Everything turned black, she stared around her confused…what did just happen. This place was strange, she couldn’t sense any magic around her…she never felt such…calmness.
SLIP! She felt a slimy thing touch her toes, she looked down expecting to see Cain licking them. What she saw instead was a long tentacle slowly climbing her leg. She tried to run away but her body won’t move an inch.
“What is this place…” She cried. Another tentacle climbed her other legs, move grasped her arms and torso. As she struggled, her head happened to glare at the sky.
It wasn’t dark, hundreds of cow-like eyes glared down at her with a menacing blue glow. She froze in place.
“You said I should lick your feet?” A deep voice growled and a tentacle pushed into her mouth. Now my foot is in your mouth.
As she glared in terror, she saw a massive black dragon sleeping, a white-haired devil standing by its side.
Far behind the dragon, she saw a person’s back, an old man wearing a mage robe and holding a wooden staff. His long beard was visible from afar. The old man was reaching with his hand to something far out in a black sea.
What he was reaching to with his hand cannot be described. There is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled.
“God!…” her mind couldn’t begin to comprehend what she was gazing upon. The thing of the idols, the green sticky spawn of the sea under the stars, had awakened to claim his own.
The eldritch bean growled, flinging Ishtar’s body with tentacles from left to right, and then slammed her to the ground.
Falling on her back end, “GRA!” Ishtar cried, her face covered in sweat and snot, her eyes tearing as she looked up at Cain. This was no male pixie. “What are you?” She glared at him as he smiled.
“The ineffable, you tried to seduce which you can’t understand. I suggest you refrain from entering my mind, as you will only end up swallowed next time.” Cain said with a passive voice.
“Your majesty, what happened?” The guard rushed at her with a worried face, all she saw was Titania trying to charm Cain and then her falling.
“I see, but a mere illusion. Such pity tricks, let’s see if you can hold up.” Ishtar lifted her hand and a green light covered it. The grove started rumbling, [Spirit burst] she extended her hand toward Cain releasing a beam of green light.
Everyone had to cover their eyes from the blinding light, for a moment it seemed as if Cain got disintegrated.
BAM! BAM! Two bangs rang from within the beam. It started fading, getting absorbed in a swirl that originated from Cain.
“An elemental burst spell, all you did was infuse it with spirit magic and changed the name. I would call it renaming more than an invention.” Cain erased her magic with a single fling, she had the raw power. He had more knowledge and a ton of Mana to work with.
“What did you do?” Ishtar gasped, no one had survived that spell from her.
“Let’s see what the best weapon is. An adamantine blade or hundreds of sharp crystal shards.” Magic had three factors that determine a spell’s power. Two mages casting [Firebolt] can get different results.
Those three factors are [Magic formula] [The amount of mana used] [The quality of the mana used] Even though Ishtar was far above Cain’s level, she fell behind Cain in all of those three.
Cain clicked his fingers, and the scenery immediately changed. Ishtar and her guard found themselves standing in an empty stone field. A warm sun and slightly humid air.
“A demi-plane, how could this be?” The guard gasped, she knew the spell wasn’t something to easily cast. Most mages only used it as a ritual or through scrolls. The last time she saw one as a scroll, it was after a deathly battle raiding a dragon’s lair.
Up in the air, Cain floated with a smile… “He we can fight it as much as we want, you’re a witch, right? You like throwing spells around.” He giggled. His smile gave Ishtar a creepy feeling. That smile was familiar.
“Fine!” Ishtar growled flying toward him at a blinding speed, the moment she became close her body disappeared. Tin! Tin! Tin! Tin! Tin! Tin! She appeared and disappeared again and again around him as if she was fazing through reality. Each time she left a glowing bubble of light.
[Spirit Storm] All the bubbles exploded in a radiant glow, even the guard had to cover her face to not get blinded.
“Another one?” Cain said with a disappointed voice, “This is just a light version of the storm series.” He referred to spells like [Fire storm] that he taught to Sofia, [Ice storm] used by Jella and Bela, and [Lightning storm] which he never like to use because lightning can strike random objects.
Ishtar started charging another spell, growling. BAM! Cain lifted his finger [Dispel magic] her spell shattered.
“Spirit magic is attuned to nature, using it in the form of radiant light is just wasteful.” He said with a smile, “Shut up!” Ishtar screamed.
“I learned this from a kind elvish lady, she said…What do you get from mixing light with water?”
Cain grinned.
[Sylph’s Grove]