Touch of Fate

Chapter 240: Eye of the Storm

Sera managed to make it to the top of the keep just in time to witness the attack. In unison, the swarm of undead birds turned and fell on the encampment from every direction. The droning buzz, created by the flapping of millions of mummified wings, grew to almost intolerable levels as the wall of rotting bodies fell down upon the camp's defenders.

It reminded Sera of her most recent venture into the open ocean, when Mike managed to awaken some kind of primordial sea monster whose mere arrival created a wave capable of shattering full ships. While they were radically different encounters, the sheer size of the hostile presence was similarly overwhelming. So much so, in fact, that she'd largely discarded the idea of helping with her bow. No matter how many arrows she shot, it wouldn't make a difference at this point.

Instead, she was struck by a sort of fatalistic apathy as she watched the approaching swarm. The threat had fully transcended the point where she could even help, and all she could do was pray that Mike had a solution.

She finally managed to break her gaze away from the approaching wall of doom when the encampment's defenders unleashed their last, desperate barrage. The flashes of various energies, combined with the perspective skewing spell the Marshal had used before, gave her enough of a reason to look at her party member.

Mike was seated near the center of the keep's roof, brow furrowed in deep concentration. The stone around him had been painted with dozens of strange runic markings, arranged in a chaotic and spiraling pattern. As she watched, a floating blob of ink began applying itself to the floor, quickly morphing into another of the symbols.

[I'm not really sure what he's doing, but I guess its something that will help. Can he finish it in time?] She thought as she moved to stand near him, careful to not step on any of the already painted runes. While she quietly waited for him to take notice of her, Sera couldn't help but marvel at how calm she was, all things considered.

Part of her felt that the undead birds weren't as dangerous as they appeared, even given their unnerving numbers. She'd never received a vision about them, so her instincts told her they weren't a real threat at the moment, all evidence to the contrary.

The rest of her, however, was beginning to come to a realization about her party's leader. After surviving a long series of increasingly life-threatening scenarios that Mike managed to resolve with a combination of his ridiculous abilities and bizarre luck, she was starting see a pattern. It was almost as if some god or a simliar entity was altering events in a way that forced him to undergo progressively more difficult challenges.

This of course made sense, when considering the destiny he'd inherited. The gods who had bestowed it on him would naturally want him to grow into a more powerful champion, and there were few better ways to do that then to throw him into battle. However, she doubted that they'd force him to take on anything he wasn't able to handle. They wouldn't want to risk losing him before his destiny played out fully. Which was why, on some instinctual level, Sera knew that things were probably going to be alright here.

Intellectually, however, she understood that her life was in danger, and only something on the level of a miracle would be able to save them at this point. Speaking of which, as she was engaging in this round of introspection, a pale blue dome of energy formed around the camp.

Harnik had evidently succeeded, but she could tell that his efforts only bought them a little more time. Already the light of the shield was beginning to fade, as continuous waves of undead birds pummeled into it, exploding in the process. She estimated that there were only a few minutes before it broke down completely.

"Alright, that should do it." Mike muttered to himself while standing. He took a moment to survey the situation, and noticed Sera as he did so. A look of concern flashed across his face, "Didn't see you come up. You alright? Did something happen? Where's Tal?"

[Is there something wrong with my facial expression right now?]

"I'm fine, and Tal was also fine the last time I saw her. To my knowledge, she's still down by the walls, helping the rest of the mages. But do you really have time to be worrying about us right now? Weren't you in the process of doing something important?"

He frowned, but nodded. "I am, but that doesn't mean I can't be worried too. Anyway, I'm still focusing the mana I need to use this formation. Can't really speed this part up."

[Formation?]

"What exactly is all of this? What's it supposed to accomplish?" She asked while gesturing at the symbols inscribed on the roof.

Mike grinned at her. "I'm about to do something pretty damn epic, is what."

Sera suppressed a sigh. Couldn't he take this a little seriously?

The air pulsed suddenly, as the presence of an overwhelming amount of mana made itself felt. So much so in fact, that she was having trouble breathing and her vision was narrowing. Not that Mike seemed to notice.

"Alright, here I go." He said gleefully, before starting to chant.

[What in the hells is he doing?! This is almost as bad as the time the Cabal nearly summoned a Demon Lord. If he ends up killing me by accident with his stupid spell, I'm definitely haunting him!] She complained silently as she fell to her hands and knees, no longer able to keep herself upright. It took all of her strength just to gasp for breath, let alone call out to the idiot who was still focused on his spell casting.

While in a desperate situation, Sera still had enough presence of mind to realize that he was using an extremely unusual chant. Unlike the lilting and lyrical language of the High Elves that she was used to hearing from mages, this sounded guttural and primal. Something about it resonated deep within her soul, making her feel even sicker in the process.

After suffering for what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, Mike finally finished his spell with a thunderous exultation. "[Kark mor na gant!]"

The symbols, starting with the ones at his feet and continuing in a spiral pattern around him, began to glow. A bank of mist formed along the edges of the roof and began to swirl in a circle, creating a ring-shaped cloud with Mike at its center. It was small and slow at first, but gradually gained both speed and mass. Pretty soon the keep was at the center of a spiraling column of tempestuous clouds, that continued to grow as more of them streamed in from outside of the shield.

"Hm, I guess its semi-permeable to air, although, I shouldn't be surprised. It would have to be in order to avoid suffocating its occupants. Anyway, get ready. This next bit is going to be a bit rough." A fascinated Mike commented as he watched his handiwork, still utterly oblivious to her plight.

Even after the casting, she was feeling pressure. If anything, the mana in the air had become denser and more difficult to handle, and it was taking every ounce of her will to not pass out.

[Notice! You jackass!]

Suddenly, the cloud expanded in circumference until the entire encampment was incorporated within its swirling mass. For a moment it stayed there, seemingly creating a perfectly circular barrier that none of the birds could bypass without self-destructing. Then, the last dozen symbols all lit up at once, and unleashed the full fury of the storm Mike had summoned.

With a titanic roar of thunder and the howl of tortured winds, the area surrounding the encampment for hundreds of kilometers in every direction was swept with a powerful wave of wind and rain, as the continent experienced a storm the likes of which had never been seen in this part of the world. It only took a few moments for the undead avian cloud to be subsumed in the currents, and wiped out completely.

The sound of the storm faded soon afterwards, and the stunned defenders were left staring up at the towering wall of spinning clouds, which now rotated around them at a great distance, leaving a circular pocket of clear sky that was ominously still.

Thankfully for Sera, who had toppled over onto her side by this point, this release also let loose the mana which had been crushing her. She celebrated this new freedom by gasping for the air that had been denied to her since the fiasco started.

"Whoa." Mike muttered as he staggered slightly. "That took just about everything I had, but it worked, I guess. I doubt those birds could survive long in a hurricane, even if its a relatively weak one."

He took a few moments to survey his handiwork again, and frowned. "I might have overdone it a bit. Hopefully it won't cause too much collateral damage. Anyway, its pretty cool, huh?" He asked while glancing over at her, only to be shocked to see her collapsed in a heap. "Holy crap, Sera! Are you alright?"

She mustered up just enough energy to give him an angry glare before finally passing out.

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Teun was enjoying a soothing 'bath' when she felt the disturbance in the weather around the central continent. While she was familiar with this type of storm, since they plagued the southern hemisphere of Ea during certain months of the year, the Inland Sea Region was too sheltered from the open ocean for them to occur there. Someone had to have forced the usually temperate air currents of the area to form into a devastating phenomenon.

Growling, she stood and began marching towards her scrying room, totally unconcerned about droplets of molten rock that she was leaving in her wake as her 'bathwater' slid off and began to rapidly cool into bizarre volcanic formations. Ordinarily, she would have let it harden into a spongy consistency and then carefully peeled it off, leaving her skin refreshed and glowing with vitality. However, she didn't have time for that.

Moving through the elaborately made tunnels that riddled her realm, the goddess swiftly emerged in a large circular chamber. At its center floated a miniaturized replica of the planet Ea. Several of her servant Gartuns, sentient plant creatures that resembled a humanoid mass of vines and leafy tendrils, were clustered around the replica, undulating wildly as they communicated in their subsonic language. Normally, they were in charge of fine-tuning the planet's weather, as she was far to busy to do it herself, but it appeared that this was beyond them.

"What's happening?" Teun demanded while stalking forward. She spent a minute amount of effort to summon a diaphanous shift to cover herself. The Gartuns wouldn't have minded, seeing as they were techinicallly nude themselves, but she always found it easier to give commands when clothed.

One of the larger Gartuns, whose name Teun had never bothered to learn, stepped forward and gave a flexible bow. "My lady, roughly a minute ago we detected an anomaly in the weather around the central continent."

"I'm well aware of that. Why else do you think I'm here? No, what caused it?"

The plant genuflected again, "We are still looking into it, but based on the signs, we can surmise it was the product of immensely powerful Elemental Magic."

Teun frowned as she looked over at the replica, taking not of the swirling mass of white clouds which covered much of the central continent. Specifically, she stared at the circular hole at its center. The culprit was likely there. She could tell at a glance that the storm was unnatural, and would quickly disintegrate if she left it alone. At this point the damage had been done, and it would be best to simply wait for the weather to return to normal.

"It would take a Tier 4 Elemental Mage at the cusp of ascending to be able to pull something like this off. What Tier 4s are currently in the vicinity?" She asked, feeling an indignant rage building within her.

"Regretfully, my lady, we aren't aware of any such individuals currently on the central continent, although our divinations have proven unable to reach the eye of that storm for some reason, so I cannot dismiss the possibility that one is hiding there."

[He's able to avoid detection, even from my most accomplished diviners. Sounds a lot like that brat who absconded with the Hero's Destiny. I'd like a visual confirmation, but this thing doesn't have the resolution for it, and of course this had to take place at night, when Aminatrea is functionally useless. Ugh, I really rather not get the twins involved if I can help it. Then again, there may be another way.]

"Murthinax is still living on that volcanic island, right?" She asked while staring at the replica's version of it.

"Yes, my lady."

The goddess nodded, "Good, then prepare to send him a message. Its time that lazy dragon finally earned his keep."