From Mortal To Divinity

Aife awoke this morning with a foggy mind yet with a certain amount of awareness that she has never had before. She had thought that someone had cast a spell upon her when the pain began. It was as if someone were trying to split her apart. Then the information started to pour in. Memories that she does not remember making and knowledge that she has no business possessing. Eventually the pain ceased to return peace to her, and with it came an awareness to her true identity. She is not Aife, rather she is Azula. Daughter of Jupiter and Venus, Ruler of Rome, and according to this world's history, one of the greatest elemental witches to ever live.

Once Azula fully gathers herself, she begins to peruse the memories of her time as Aife. She was born as the daughter of Ardgeimm and frequently had conflict with the legendary warrior woman, Scathach. Why? Well, she no longer remembers. They have quarrelled with each other for so long that by now it is more out of habit than true dislike for each other. Like her enemy Scathach, she is a formidable magician, healer, and warrior and is considered to be Scathach's equal before she was designated the ruler of the Land of Shadows.

As Aife she cares for her horse and chariot to a frightening degree and no one knows why. It is only now that she is aware of her true identity as Azula that she knows that it is a bleeding effect from her fondness of horseback riding with Ambrosius.

Having collected herself, Azula gets up and takes care of her morning ritual. Once dressed she walks to the gates of her castle where the stable boy has prepared her horse and awaits her arrival. Mounting her horse, she quickly spurs it on towards the Land of Shadows to speak with Ambrosius.

As she enters the woods where the path to the Land of Shadows lay, Azula hears a strikingly familiar voice screaming. Recognizing the voice as Ambrosius' she spurs her horse further as her heart sinks the closer she gets to the screaming.

Azula has experienced many things, not as much as Ambrosius, but still plenty. She has fought in two wars against supernatural beings all alongside Ambrosius. She has known him for the majority of her life and not once has she ever heard him scream so much. To make him scream is a feat by itself. He just has far too much willpower and pain tolerance to even utter a grunt when he is experiencing any type of discomfort. So far him to be screaming so much, and to sound so broken while doing it must mean that the situation is truly dire.

As she arrives at what she estimates must be the halfway point to her destination, her path is blocked by two teenagers around nineteen years of age. Without bothering to slow down, Azula summons two lightning bolts and strikes them with it. Not expecting to be attacked at all, let alone in such a manner, Setanta and Ferdiad take the full brunt of both of Azula's lightning bolts and are promptly knocked out.

No longer paying them any mind, Azula continues on her way, eventually arriving in a clearing where she finds Ambrosius himself hanging from a tree with a spear piercing his side. The sight itself is enough for her to swear vengeance upon the cause of this and their entire family down to the last generation.

Studying the clearing further reveals to her the cause, her enemy Scathach herself. Earlier she had been ready to bury the hatchet with Scathach since it seemed to her that she was an ally that Ambrosius cared about. However, now all Azula can think about is burning the witch alive and torturing her for the rest of her immortal life. She may not be very informed when it comes to torture, but she is sure that she can draw inspirations from her Olympian family, both their Roman and Greek personas.

Not willing to wait any longer, Azula lets out an enraged war cry and launches herself from her horse towards Scathach, the sky darkening above as lightning flashes and thunder rumbles in response to the demigodesse's burning rage.

Landing in front of her enemy, Azula summons Crocea Mors and raises it just in time for a lightning bolt to strike. With hatred on her face, Azula brings the sword down and launches the lightning bolt at Scathach, only for her to block it by writing a set of runes in the air that creates a shield of wind.

"What is the meaning of this Aife?" commands Scathach as she takes the battle away from Ambrosius.

Ignoring her, Azula channels lightning through her sword and cuts the shield of wind apart. Then she launches a stream of blue fire at Scathach who simply dodges to the left. Before she can retaliate however, the stream of fire turns into a whip and quickly wraps itself around her right arm, immobilizing her for a second. Taking advantage of that second, Azula sends another bolt of lightning at Scathach that is once again blocked.

"I know that we have had our differences, yet it is unlike you to attack me unprovoked or without issuing a challenge. What is the cause of this unprovoked attack?" asks Scathach as she dodges a fireball and blocks a windblade.

"You know what you have done witch. Now face the consequences of your actions and suffer." replies Azula as she rushes Scathach to meet her in close quarters combat.

"Whatever it is you believe me to be guilty of is wrong. I am innocent." says Scathach as she jabs her spear towards Azula's throat.

"You dare!" exclaims Azula as she deflects the spear with her sword and tries to get in Scathach's personal space to make the spear useless. "I have caught you red handed, and you dare to claim to be innocent?"

"What are you talking about?" asks Scathach as she uses her superior skills to keep Azula at bay.

So engrossed in their battle, that neither of them notice Ambrosius stop screaming as the ritual finishes.

Pulling himself from the tree and removing the spear from his side, Ambrosius is barely able to stand and is forced to use the spear as a cane. The first thing he sees upon steadying himself, is the battle between Scathach and who looks like Aife. Still feeling the effects of the ritual, and quickly losing consciousness, Ambrosius takes control of the storm overhead and summons a lightning bolt to strike the ground between the combatants and separating them.

"Enough." he says weakly yet still with a certain firmness, his words barely heard by the combatants.

"Why are you defending her!? She tortured you!" exclaims Azula.

"Aife---" begins Ambrosius only to be interrupted.

"Azula." interrupts Azula. "I remember now. I am Azula. 'My name is Azula, princess of the Fire Nation, I will be the best version of me I can possibly be, I will earn my people's respect and lead the Fire Nation into a glorious age, even if I have to pry my father's charred corpse off the throne.' That is what I told you when I rejected my father's teachings and accepted yours."

"Heh." chuckles Ambrosius as a smirk grows on his lips. "Good. Now stop fighting and listen to Scathach explain." he says before falling unconscious and hurtling towards the ground.

Controlling the wind, Azula catches him before turning back to Scathach.

"Well?" she asks with narrowed eyes.

"Let us get him healed first. Right now he is at death's doors and shouldn't have even been able to talk, let alone stand or summon lightning." replies Scathach as she begins to make her way to Dun Scaith.

"One thing one quickly learns about him is that he has a habit of doing things he should not be doing with just his ungodly amount of willpower." says Azula as she follows.

"That is an accurate description of it. I must ask though. Did you at least spare my students?" asks Scathach.

"If you are speaking of those 'guards', then they should be awake in a few hours." replies Azula.

"Good. Then they can just find their way back to Dun Scaith by themselves." says Scathach nonchalantly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The first thing I notice upon waking up, is the fact that I am underwater. I do not know how long it has been since the ritual, where I am, nor do I remember falling unconscious. The effects of the ritual must have caught up with my body, and as soon as I finished making sure that there were no negative effects I must have passed out.

With a small amount of effort I slowly sit up and survey my surroundings and immediately recognize where I am. At some point during my stay in Dun Scaith, I had created a lake from which I could go to and heal. When Scathach started receiving more students, we turned the lake into a healing pond. We inscribed runes in a circle on the lakeside to give it healing properties, and when the students had a particularly bad day I would use my powers to boost the lake's healing properties.

Sitting on the ground at the bottom of the lake, I focus on the state of my body. From what I can tell, my body has mostly recovered with the only lingering issue being the weight that I lost. While I am no longer thin and frail, it will take a few months for me to restore my body back to its previous peak. Well, it would take a few months if I refrained from using magic to speed up the process and optimize my gains.

Having made sure that I am healthy, I now turn my attention to the ritual's effects. Even without using magic, I can already feel the effects of the ritual. It is subtle, however it is there. Every single rune that I have learned, I easily recall their meanings, their functions, the most optimal way of using them, even combinations that the previous would have thought outlandish. I know it all without even having to focus on them. It's similar to how I can breath. I don't need to focus on it, I just do it, and this is just the most miniscule benefit.

However, before I focus on the other changes, there is something that I have been meaning to try but never really got around to. Runes are not exclusive to the norse. Many other pantheons have them, but in different formats or different ways of using them. The Egyptians are a prime example of this. Unlike the norse, Egyptian runes come in the form of spoken words. They are called divine words, hieroglyphic spells or Words of Power. They are called 'divine' because they enable the magicians using the commands to wield godly strength and powers. Magicians speak them to create or tweak reality. To use them, no papyrus or other equipment, such as amulets, potions, shabti, and statues are needed.

Getting up, I conjure a spartan shield and place it on the floor of the lake. A lightning bolt strikes in my mind as my magic circuits activate and I speak the divine word 'Ha-di'. Immediately power rushes from my voice as the corresponding hieroglyphs form in front of my mouth and the shield explodes into hundreds of small pieces. Dissolving the now broken shield, I examine the amount of magical energy I have spent only to find myself still at one hundred percent. I know for a fact that I used magical energy since I felt the od travel through my circuits when the spell activated. The only explanation left is that the expenditure must be so small that I cannot even measure it. With a smirk on my face I try another word 'Se-kebeb'. Immediately the water temperature lowers as the lake almost reaches freezing temperatures.

Now that I know other forms of runes work and not only norse, I turn my attention to another question of mine. Am I restricted to only existing runes or can I use runes from places of fiction such as the runes from The Mortal Instruments series. In The Mortal Instruments series, beings like angels and demons truly exist, with various other supernatural races mingling with humans. In it, runes, also known as Marks, are symbols that grant beings various supernatural abilities, with both angelic and demonic runes known to exist. For Shadowhunters, humans who fight the supernatural, runes are a complex runic language given to them by the Angel Raziel, which grants them powers beyond those of mundanes. They were able to use them to fight on par with demons, vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural races.

First I control the water at the bottom of the lake to create a space with no water. Then I conjure another shield, wooden this time. And inscribe the shadowhunter rune for fireproof on it. Using norse rune, I conjure a fireball and send it hurtling at the shield. The shield barely holds for a second before catching on fire.

With a frown I let my control over the lake go, extinguish the flame, and ponder. I know that it was not a failure, not a complete one anyway. I saw the rune work for about a second before the shield caught on fire. I also know for a fact that the flame did not overpower the rune, rather it was the rune itself that stopped working, almost as if it had no power.

Shaking my head, I gather myself and start to make my way out of the lake. I will figure this out at a later time.

Walking out of the lake, I make my way to the courtyard where Scathach and Azula will most likely be.

I arrive near the courtyard to the sound of laughter from two voices I did not expect to hear from, Scathach and Azula. As I get closer I can just make out what they are talking about, Scathach's torturous training methods.

"...you should have seen his face when he stuttered out '...b-b-but you can't do that.'" comes Scathachs voice as she tries to refrain from laughing.

Azula however has no qualms about doing so and is leaning against one of the walls of the courtyard holding her stomach while laughing.

Both are wearing clothes that are easy to move in with each one holding a weapon in hand. It's easy to tell that they had been training and are currently on break and seem to be getting along very well. I send a prayer of thanks to every god in existence for that. The last thing I need is the drama.

Noticing my approach, Azula collects herself before speaking and drawing Scathach's attention to me.

"It is good seeing you up and about sleeping beauty." she says.

"Indeed. You have slept for about three months now. That must be a record somewhere." says Scathach as her eyes gain an unnerving glint in them. "Now that you are awake and healthy, I believe that you and I need to talk"

I take back my prayers. Every god in existence can go to Tartarus and rot for all I care. Those two are not going to be a good combination for my health.

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Name: Ambrosius Malphas

Gender: Male

Age: 27

Height: 5'11

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Gold

Looks: Ozymandias from Fate

Build: Medium

Body Type: Athlete

Stats (Without Enhancements)

Strength: B++

Endurance: A++

Agility: A++

Magical Resistance: B+

Magic Circuits: 50

Od Output: 2500

Luck: B

Origin: Runes

Elemental Affinity: Divine Letters

Sorcery Trait: Rune God

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Name: Azula

Gender: Female

Age: ?

Height: 5'9

Hair Color: Red

Eye Color: Red

Stats (Without Enhancements)

Strength: B

Endurance: B

Agility: A

Magical Resistance: A

Magic Circuits: 100

Od Output: 5000

Luck: B

Origin: ?

Elemental Affinity: Average One