It was a cold night in Narshe, as it often was, what with the coal mines city being the furthest north of any of the towns and kingdoms located in the world. The cold winds blew with a vengeance, as if trying to force anything out in the open to take shelter. Truly only the sturdy lived here. Those and the ones that had nowhere else to go, for the conditions of the region were harsh even to its natives.
But still, it was on a night like this that Lina had to come out. For the past two days, she’d wanted to get a look at that Esper, but the Guards had been patrolling the entrance to the mines in the back of town with fervor and purpose. There was no way she could’ve snuck around without her magic.
So she had to depend on Nature to be so forceful, that most of the guards had to flock to cozier shelter. And with the exception of a few Guards with Lobo patrolling the streets and one large group of Guards and their Vamammoths out in the open in the route between town and the mines, it would be a piece of cake. The mine entrance itself was left unguarded.
That’s when Lina Inverse traveled into the confines of the mines, challenging the weather itself and the dangers inside just for a look at this Esper Arvis spoke so much about. It was definitely warmer than the outside, the only sound being a drip of water from a stalagmite now and again. There were cart-rail tracks to follow at least, so she knew she wouldn’t get lost... But some of those rats in the distant corners from the light looked rather nasty... And rabid. And that just seemed awful to her, especially since they were big. They were literally the size of wild turkeys!
So being as stealthy as she could, the redhead moved on.
Being practiced in the arts of sneaking around, (as it tended to help one stay alive), the redhead was able to move past all of those rats. None seemed to pay any attention to her, really, just scurrying about on their own business.
She sighed in relief when she saw no more rats and continued on her way, determination in her eyes. Lina would see that Esper.
But THEN she came across something she hadn't been expecting.
A set of steel-bar gates with padlock.
“What the...?” She asked to no one in particular. Why would they close the mines here? They wouldn’t if they had nothing to hide... Nothing they wanted to protect...
The redhead frowned and decided that she now definitely had to get past these gates. But without magic, it looked like she’d have to deal with a little lock-picking skill. Something she learned to help her when it came to cleaning out Bandits’ loot.
After all, any self-respecting thief treasure hunter knew how to pick locks.
So Lina reached into her pocket for the necessary tools as she approached the gates, taking hold of the lock to see how difficult this would be. Quick inspection revealed it was a thick and heavy pad-lock, one that couldn’t be broken into easily. But it was at least a key-operated lock.
‘Perfect,’ she thought. Lina had enough experience to open such a lock, even if it could take a while. The redhead went at said lock, working as quickly and carefully as she could. If there was anyone in the mines besides her, she didn’t want to alert them of her presence.
It was difficult work, but after five minutes of fiddling with it, she finally heard an audible clicking sound.
‘Success!’ Lina mentally cheered as she took the lock off of its hook. Slowly, she tried to pull the gate back to one side as gently as she could for minimum noise. She wasn’t counting on the fact that this gate had never been properly oiled, though
Wincing, Lina could only open it up so far before she slipped through. She then slowly closed it again. Wouldn’t do to have someone coming and finding an open door, would it?
So turning around, Lina decided to venture in and-WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?
...
Some sort of large pink, cones shell with some spikes sticking out...?
That thing couldn’t be the Esper, she decided. It didn’t radiate as much magic as it should and...
And...
.....................
It couldn’t be... could it?
Hesitantly, Lina took a closer look and...
“Ghuur?” came a sound from the shell and slowly something started to poke out. Something long, and flesh-toned, eyes on stalks and little slimy bits just hanging out. All definite traits of the mollusk persuasion...
Soon it was out completely. The fleshy body larger than Lina herself. Dear god, it was a SNAIL! A HUGE! ARMORED!! SLUG!!!
Whelk blinked his beady black eyes as he stared at the shocked person before him. “Ghuur?”
All thoughts of stealth left Lina’s head, replaced with...
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” She cried out and ran like hell.
Whelk blinked its eyes again slowly before it retracted itself back within its shell. What a strange person.
Meanwhile, Lina was running further into the cavern, which seemed to open up more. Bad slug! Bad, bad, BAD SLUG!
Finally, when she was out of breath, and pretty sure she lost the damn thing, Lina stopped... and cursed herself. Damn it! Now she was probably lost!
The redheaded sorceress panted for breath and supported herself on the wall. But at least she got away from that... THING!!!
It was official now. This world royally SUCKED!
Mazoku lords she could handle. Greater demons she disliked, but could deal with. Dragons out to destroy the world she understood.
But GIANT SNAILS!?
Lina shuddered and looked over her shoulder, as if that snail would’ve followed her all this way. “I hate snails...”
Fortunately, it seemed to have decided to stay where it was, or had lost track of her. Good.
But still, where was she? And where was the source of that pale blue light coming from?
Wait a minute. Light, but there were no torches down here, none since she passed the gates. Could it be that...?
Slowly, Lina turned on her heels, eyes wide. It was a large block of ice, but thanks to what was inside it, radiating power, she could see it easily enough.
The form on the inside was a cross of a greater fire-bird and a dragon. Almost like a drake, but with scales that actually seemed to be like feathers. It also was slightly larger than any drake she’d seen, and its face more of a bird’s beak than reptilian, even if it did have a forked tongue. And she'd certainly known NONE of the aforementioned creatures to wear Centurion soldier helmets!
“So... this must be it... the Esper...” Lina muttered as she stared at the being in front of her, unconsciously approaching the glowing creature. The power that radiated from this thing was unbelievable. While it wasn’t giving off an aura that was greater than anything she’d faced before, she also had to take into account that this... this Esper wasn’t active as far as she could tell. So if its power was this impressive dormant...
What would happen if it were to awaken?
If this was an Esper, Lina now had a very good idea of why the Empire was after them for power.
Lina knew she couldn’t let this Empire get their hands on it. But what to do? She herself was without magic, and from what she could get out of Arvis, they already knew HOW to use the Espers already! The only thing she could do was try and one-up the Empire, try to get this Esper to react to her somehow like the sources of magic she used in her own world.
But how in the nine hells was she going to get the Esper to do THAT!?
...
Wait!
Didn’t Xellos tell her that her trick to using some magic was the Demons Blood Talismans?
...it couldn’t hurt to try.
Raising her arms in front of her and taking the posture of a true cross, Lina closed her eyes. “Four kings who rule the darkness of four universes; I implore you on your fragments I have; That by all the power you possess; Give me more magical energy.”
Slowly, all four of the Talismans began to glow a bright red...
...until three sputtered out, leaving only the one on her left wrist glowing.
And then it started to glow blue? Oh crap, the Esper was glowing brighter! Well Lina did get a reaction...
Slowly, both the Death Fog Demons’ Blood Talisman and the Esper started shimmering the same blue in sync with one another. The Demons Blood Talisman started to vibrate, shaking Lina’s arm along with it as there was an obvious chain reaction. Still, Lina stood her ground, facing the Esper without fear as she waited to see the result of her use of the Talisman.
Slowly, the vibration calmed down for a moment, the glow of the talisman somehow traveling up her body, sending a tingling through her muscles and down to the bone as it traveled, feeling as though it would ignite her blood and nerves. When it reached her head, the power caused Lina’s body to stiffen in pain, but somehow caused a feeling of euphoria at the same time...
And suddenly, how sorceress viewed the world changed. Lines of crisscrossing power started to show up, flowing here and there. Lines of black and white and gray all moving in tandem with everything around her, slight colors outlining the lines of power.
Lina knew it had to be ether, there was a large concentration of the black lines it crisscrossing through and around the Esper, mostly highlighted with reds, blues, and yellows. It was so much alike, and yet so different, to the magic she was used to. Yet it was power nonetheless. Immense power.
It might have been from misuse and abandonment, but the ether reserves on this world were so plentiful! So different in how they formed and responded with the environment... with the Esper... with her...
But it was still ether.
Still manna.
The life of magic.
It flowed in her and around her. Lina wasn’t sure how she would refine such power into the native fashion of magic, but looking down at her hands, she at least had an idea of how to maybe pull some of that ether into herself to finally cast something. It had to be something small, unless she risked losing control and burning herself out.
Slowly, Lina had an idea and decided she should try. Looking at her hand, she chanted. “Light, born from the flame; Gather to my hands and be my power.”
Slowly, she could see as the ether flowed through her, gathering upon her ligaments and through muscle...
...and then her vision returned to normal as a small ball of magical light appeared, floating harmlessly above her hand.
“Yes!” The redhead cried out in ecstasy. It wasn’t a powerful spell, but she had her magic back! She knew she’d eventually have to learn the native style of this world’s magic to be able to do anything ‘safely’, but for now she could at least try to work her way up with her well-versed style of sorcery!
Lina smiled as she turned back to the Esper. She had so much to do, so much to learn.
(------)
Nearby on a cliff-range, three huge forms scuffled to look over the valley below. In the distance, they could see lights all around the base of a small mountain range, hugging tightly against it. The forms were clunky, making grinding sounds of metal-on-metal, a hissing from hydraulics, and a whirring of intense power echoing softly, all of which were barely audible over the intense wind that was picking up, whipping at the three with a harsh frozen bite.
Upon closer inspection, one would find that this group was not a collection of soulless machinery. No. They were just riding them. Behind the protective casing and offensive might of the metallic juggernauts were humans. Two soldiers garbed in brown metal armor and helmets which hid their heads for the most part and which were adorned with a small thunderbolt design in the middle of the forehead. The only other colors of their uniforms being the metallic-bluish undertones tones added to the gloves and boots, and the gold trim on their helmets.
And the last person was a green-tressed woman in rather simple revealing clothing of pink floral silk top and red leather mini-skirt and thigh-high high-heeled boots. Her ponytail whipped on the breeze of the wind, her blank eyes showing she wasn’t bothered by the cold, hell, that she probably wasn’t feeling anything. The armor she rode, slightly larger and more intricately detailed than that of her two comrades, only served to give the woman an added air of menace.
“There’s the town,” one of the two Imperial Soldiers said, while an obvious loyal lackey to some greater power, was the leader of this small troupe of armored combatants. “Hard to believe an Esper’s been found intact there, a thousand years after the War of the Magi.”
“Think it’s still alive?” the other armored individual, a slightly more portly, but still solid MagiTek Soldier asked with a fearful tone to his voice
“Probably...” the one in charge said slowly. “Judging from the urgency of our orders.”
The slightly more portly soldier turned his MagiTek Ride Armor back around to look at their heavily armed back-up. He couldn’t understand how she could just stand there as the wind and snow whipped at her body. Hell, he was wearing somewhat insulated armor, and his ass was still feeling frozen! “And this woman... This sorceress. Why is she here? I heard she fried fifty of our MagiTek Armored soldiers in under three minutes!” And he didn’t want to end up as another statistic!
“Don’t worry, Wedge,” the leader of the group said as he turned to look back at the woman with the blank gaze. “The Slave Crown on her head robs her of all conscious thought. She’ll follow orders.” As if to affirm his statement, the red gem of the tiara-looking device glowed for a moment, the woman’s eyes suddenly glowing with the same red light.
“If you say so, Biggs,” the soldier Wedge said, sounding rather uncertain.
Biggs let out a snort of disgust at his comrade’s cowardice. “Come on. We’ll approach from the east,” he then shouted above the wind, pointing firmly with his right hand to the direction they should take. “Move out!”
And so, the trio of Empire’s cannon-fodder finest made their way down from their vantage point, heading towards their target.
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(Posted Sun, 02 Jul 2006 01:54)
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