The Storm King

The Thunderbird was urging Leon to get up, but he ignored her for a moment. By his estimation, both his magic body and his physical body were fine, though his soul realm had been severely damaged at the edges—he’d have to repair that damage before continuing to gain any power. However, for all that he was physically all right, he felt like he had a foot in the grave. He knew that he had to get up to continue dealing with the current situation, but he needed a moment to compose himself.

To that end, one of the first things he did was probe the connection he shared with Maia. It seemed that either whatever that Primal God had done to his soul realm had blocked him from speaking with her again, or he’d never spoken to her in the first place when they linked back up. He supposed everything he’d heard from her had probably been the Primal God spurring him to make hasty decisions by presenting something as an ongoing threat to his river nymph lover.

Or maybe it wasn’t just that; Leon had a bad feeling that even if there wasn’t a gargantuan horned snake laying waste to Sigebert’s fleet, there was still something terrible going on back at the island’s remnants. So, he quickly took a deep breath and focused on forcing himself to push all of dark thoughts down until he had a better time to process all of them.

He was ready in short order, but he could tell from the look of concern visible in the Thunderbird’s avian face that he probably looked about as well as he felt.

“You said we needed to have words,” he croaked. “So let’s have some words…”

If the Thunderbird thought he was going to continue after that, she was sorely mistaken, and it seemed that took her off-guard a little. There was a short silence between them as Leon laid back on the floor and stared up at the misty sky, wondering just how in the hells he’d gotten into this mess, and he wasn’t in any particular mood to talk, or even to feign politeness. He hardly even cared that Nestor was still lost somewhere out in his soul realm.

“You just faced a Primal God,” the Thunderbird whispered, though her alien voice was still perfectly audible to Leon. “You survived. That’s no small thing.”

“Can hardly attribute that to me. How exactly did that happen?” Leon asked as he shifted position so that he could look at the Thunderbird out of the corner of his eye. For a moment, he thought about the Primal God transforming to look like Artorias, and he wondered if he were truly looking at the Thunderbird, especially since he already knew from the look-a-like that the Primal God knew what she looked like. However, her aura was identical to how it always was, carrying that unique blend of lightning, wind, and water, along with a hint of something a little more special that he couldn’t quite identify, but was probably what gave their lightning its mind-protecting properties.

She was the Thunderbird, there wasn’t much doubt in his mind about that.

“The God that invaded here was well-known during the Primal Age,” the Thunderbird slowly said, her voice tinged with both apprehension and maybe a layer of guilt. “He was known for taking apart living things and putting them back together in different ways. No doubt he’d describe what he did a little more elegantly, but he deserves no such courtesy from us.”

Her feathers puffed out a bit in indignation and affronted pride, and Leon couldn’t help but let a smile lightly grace his lips.

“He was originally responsible for the creation of angels, I believe. It seems he somehow survived the genocide of the Primal Gods and found a way to call you here and invade your soul realm.”

“Where is he now?” Leon asked. He felt quite a bit of urgency fighting against his mental exhaustion when he thought about Xaphan, Maia, the rest of his retinue, and the Bull fleet, but with the Thunderbird here, he felt none when he thought about the Primal God. Just quiet anger and resentment.

“Gone,” the Thunderbird replied. “For whatever reason, the humans did not kill him when they seized the Nexus. The Great Black Dragon fixed that error.”

Leon nodded in acknowledgment before what the Thunderbird said truly sank in. When it did a moment later, he bolted upright and stared at her.

“The Great Black Dragon felt it rooting around in your blood, and took issue with that,” she explained, though her tone was far less arrogant and didactic than usual. She sounded almost soothing as she explained what happened after she showed up. “If I fought that Primal God as I am now, setting aside whether or not I would even win, I think you would’ve been killed in the fallout. But the Great Black Dragon had no such issues. It smote that arrogant bastard with ease, eliminating it for good. You’ll not have to worry about him ever again.”

Leon stared at his Ancestor, his mouth agape. He briefly wondered just how a being in the same position as the Thunderbird could summon enough power to kill that monster, but for now, that question could wait. “So… the Great Black Dragon actually… showed itself?” he asked.

“He did,” the Thunderbird replied. “Not for very long, and he screwed back off after his job was done, but he came here when he felt something trying to undo the suppression effect he placed upon your blood.”

Leon’s eyes drifted from the Thunderbird and ventured back out into the mists, slowly widening in thought and wonder. He wondered what exactly his life might’ve been like if his other powerful Ancestor acknowledged him, he wondered what he might accomplish if that power was his. He also wondered what his life might’ve been like if that overgrown lizard wasn’t connected to him at all—he would’ve been killed by that Primal God, probably, but he also didn’t think he’d even have been in that mess. The Great Black Dragon denied his existence and the power he inherited, but Leon’s entire life had essentially been defined by his connection to the Divine Beast; so much so that he even just trying to contemplate his life without that connection was nearly impossible. If he’d been born at all, he probably would’ve grown up a proper son of House Raime, a noble of the Bull Kingdom, his father married to some other noblewoman. Everything would’ve been different.

In that case, he didn’t think he’d ever have known the Thunderbird personally, met Xaphan, or Maia. He didn’t like to admit it, but for as much as he’d gotten from the Thunderbird, the Great Black Dragon had arguably more impact upon his life.

But Leon pushed those thoughts out of his head as he turned back to the Thunderbird. He needed to compartmentalize until he could meet back up with his people. Already, the initial shock of his losses was wearing off, and his desire to return to Maia and the others was rising quickly, overpowering everything else.

“Is there anything of critical importance that we need to discuss?” he asked.

The Thunderbird’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “That Primal God did muck around in your body a bit before Great Black destroyed him. I’m unsure how much he accomplished, but if you have something you need to do, I suppose this conversation can wait until a more opportune time. We need to evaluate your condition.”

“I think it has to wait,” Leon said as he turned toward his throne. “My body is still lying on top of that pyramid, I need to find a way out of it.”

“That shouldn’t be too difficult,” the Thunderbird said as she closed her eyes. “It looks like that the Primal God was able to interact with the enchantments within this tomb from his own resting place, so finding the enchantments that control this place shouldn’t be too difficult for you.”

Leon, before he forgot, waved his hand, and Nestor’s ruby flew out of the woods by Leon’s Mind Palace and landed back on his stand.

“What is going on?!” he shouted as soon the ruby touched down.

“Later,” Leon growled as he sat down on his throne, and a moment later, opened his eyes with his mind back in his physical body.

He was still lying where he’d fallen at the top of the pyramid, but as if to underscore how much time had passed, when he glanced back down at the plaza, the entire place was starting to well and truly flood. About two feet or so of water now covered the entire floor, though strangely, the many thousands of angel skeletons that decorated the plaza remained right where they were, unmoving.

It was a little harder to see them, though, because the great beam of light that had once connected this pyramid to its counterpart hanging from the ceiling had vanished—presumably shut off now that its occupant was dead. More comfortingly—and, at the same time, more chillingly—about halfway up the pyramid’s large central staircase was the dead body of the angel that the Primal God had resurrected, looking like it had fallen in the midst of a mad scramble to climb the steps. Its body was still largely intact, though all of its feathers had vanished, and its flesh was slowly dissolving into motes of light. It was going slowly enough that Leon guessed the entire massive cavern would flood before it finished dissolving, but Leon only registered that it was dead before turning his attention back to his surroundings.

[All right,] he said to Nestor and the Thunderbird, [what am I looking for?]

[No consoles in sight?] Nestor asked, his tone impatient and affronted from how Leon had treated him, but at least cooperative.

[None that I can see,] Leon replied.

[A place like this wouldn’t be controlled through consoles,] the Thunderbird replied. [It likely uses ancient runes in its design.]

As she said this, Leon heard Nestor groan.

[What am I missing?] Leon asked.

[Control consoles are the best way to control enchantments using modern runes,] Nestor dejectedly explained. [They’re precise and static—easy to use, but locked to one position. The control schemes used for ancient runes are as esoteric as the runes themselves are, more about sensing and manipulating the flow of magic in an entire area instead of using a tiny spark of power to activate a runic glyph. Much more intensive and difficult to manipulate using your own magic power.]

Leon nodded, but as he did, a loud cracking sound resounded through the cavern as the already destabilized roof became even more so, and another great torrent of water began to fall through a new crack.

[That’s all very interesting, but I think you should just stick to what I need to do,] Leon said to Nestor.

[Spread out your magic senses,] Nestor instructed, and Leon immediately complied. [Don’t focus on the material things, though; instead, focus your scans on the magic in the cavern, and how it flows.]

Leon did so, but it was hard to just ignore everything else. His efforts paid off, though, and he could sense the magic in the air—it wasn’t so much a cloud as it was an ocean. Instead of billowing together, flowing all in one continuous way, there were many currents and eddies flowing throughout the cavern. Most of these currents flowed into the uncountable number of pyramids that had been scattered about this massive cavern, with at least four or five currents of magic flowing into each.

The great pyramid, however, had many more than that, and all of them converging somewhere within the pyramid, as far as Leon could tell. It was like all of this magic was just flowing through the black volcanic stone and sinking deep into the pyramid.

[Do you sense the currents?] Nestor asked.

[I do,] Leon said.

[Good. Now comes the hard part. Have you ever seen someone play a string instrument? Like a violin or something like that?]

[Yes.]

[Then you’ll be fairly familiar with this concept. Basically, think of these currents like the strings on those instruments. You have to reach out with your magic power and ‘pluck’ the currents to control the enchantments they’re connected to. But you can’t just pluck senselessly; much like an instrument, if you just start messing with its strings without rhyme or reason, you won’t make music, and if you pluck the currents of magic created by an ancient rune, you’ll very easily kill yourself in some unspeakably horrific way. And what you need right now will be fairly complex. You’re going to need to not only identify which ‘strings’ you need, but also ‘play’ them properly to get the desired effect.]

[That… makes sense, I suppose,] Leon said as he frowned, his eyes darting around the cavern as he took in the thousands and thousands of currents of magic power flowing through the air, let alone any that might be in the walls or flowing through the pyramids.

[You can narrow it down, though,] Nestor hurriedly explained, his tone somewhat conciliatory, as if he understood exactly how Leon was feeling. [You need teleportation, so focus on its three main components: light, lightning, and darkness. If you can sense one of these strings of power with just those magical elements, then that’s probably the one you need. Personally, I would focus my search on any strings that are not connected to any of these pyramids, for any teleportation enchantments would have little need to be connected to prisons. If that fails to turn up any promising leads, then focus first on the biggest pyramids and work your way through the smaller pyramids until something catches your eye.]

Before Nestor had even finished talking, Leon had already started scanning through the currents of power. Most ambient magic power was utterly chaotic in its flow, and without taking much time to examine it, the flow of power within this cavern felt much the same way. However, the longer that Leon took to examine it, the more respect he felt for whomever had set it up, for it was masterful work. He would’ve expected something like this to be all tangled up, with the ‘strings’ of power constantly crisscrossing and twisting around each other. However, the more he looked at it, the more it made perfect sense. The pyramids weren’t built haphazardly, and neither were the enchantments that flowed through them; they weren’t quite laid out like a grid, but they were close and had much the same logic to them. It was easy enough to pick out those currents that didn’t flow into the pyramids, for they were largely confined to the upper third or so of the cavern.

Once he detected that, Leon started to analyze their magics in greater detail. He focused mostly on simply identifying their element; most were related to earth, water, and darkness magic. He assumed these were mostly just structural enchantments to keep this immense cavern from collapsing upon itself, and to keep water out—not that it seemed to be doing that good of a job, though Leon could see that there were great holes torn in the ‘web’ of enchantments from where the ceiling had been cracked by the Primal God.

He quickly found a stream of magic power that felt to his magic senses almost identical to the still, silent, and stifling spatial tunnels that he’d experienced, and he figured that was what he was looking for. He could sense the trademark mix of lightning, light, and darkness magic within as well, but that sensation was weaker than other teleportation enchantments he’d seen—since this was apparently a result of ancient runes rather than modern runes, he supposed that was to be expected, but it still threw him off a bit.

As he was about to tell Nestor what he’d found, another thunderous boom resounded throughout the cavern, and another crack opened in the ceiling, increasing the torrents of water spilling in. Even worse, Leon felt the attention of something dark on the other side of that crack, as if there was something large and powerful investigating where all this water as going.

[Think I found it, Nestor, but let’s hurry up, I don’t think I’m going to be alone down here for much longer,] Leon said as he shivered in dread. He could still vividly remember making eye contact with Jormun’s kraken, and he didn’t want to repeat that experience with something that lived even deeper in the Endless Ocean.

[That’s unfortunate, because we’ve reached the hard part,] Nestor said. [You have to figure out how to pluck this string in the exact way that will force it to teleport you out.]

[How in the hells am I supposed to do that?!] Leon shouted back in growing anxiety. He took a glance down at the plaza and saw that the water was rising much more quickly than it had been initially. Even as high up the great pyramid as he was, he guessed he had no more than about a half hour before the entire pyramid would be beneath the tide.

[Compare the string to the others,] Nestor hurriedly explained. [Look at how it flows! Get an idea of how strong the current is supposed to be and look for places that don’t match that pattern!]

Leon surveyed the entire stream of power that was within range of his magic senses—the cavern was more than large enough that even with his range of roughly twenty miles, he still couldn’t fit the entire cavern into his magic senses. However, that was still enough space for Leon to analyze the flow of magic and look for any irregularities.

Fortunately, he didn’t see many. There were a few places where the stream tightened and sped up, and a few where the stream expanded and slowed down. Leon quickly pointed these areas out to Nestor as he kept a nervous eye on the rising water.

[It’s hard to say what’s the best course of action,] Nestor mused, to Leon’s mounting frustration. Being away from Maia, and in this situation had him itching to leave as soon as possible. [The general rule of thumb is that the narrower a flow like this is, the more recently it was used. However, we can’t say what that thing was doing before you arrived, or even what it was doing while you were out.]

[It wasn’t doing anything after it foolishly invaded Leon’s soul realm,] the Thunderbird declared. [It had no opportunity to.]

[So that just leaves what we know,] Leon responded. [And what I know… or what I think I know is that its last use of teleportation magic was moving me to that small cave and then leading me here, so its last use of teleportation magic won’t be too helpful. What I think I need…]

Leon trailed off as he began examining the stream of magic in more detail, taking in everything he could about how the magic flowed and interacted with the other countless streams of magic in the cavern. If he wanted to leave, he figured the best way to go about it was to try and follow wherever the Primal God had sent Jormun, and that meant he’d likely need the second-to-last use of the teleportation enchantment, which he managed to locate in fairly short order.

With one last glance down at the water, noting that it had now risen high enough up the pyramid that the skeleton of the angel that the Primal God had resurrected had wet toes, Leon reached out with his magic to the stream of magic power that represented the teleportation enchantment.

[How do I do this?] Leon asked as his element-less power started to wrap around the stream.

[We have to be carefu—]

[Just pluck the string, it shouldn’t matter how much strength your use.] the Thunderbird answered, cutting Nestor off. [Just manipulate your magic like you would another limb.]

Leon’s mind focused as his body tensed up in strange exertion. It was hard going, he’d never tried something like this before, and there were more than two miles between him and the spot he’d identified, but he was a seventh-tier mage and this didn’t have the same intensive power requirements as a fight, so he managed fairly well despite the difficulty.

However, just as his magic power was tightening around the string—it seemed almost solid and resisted his magic power’s natural attempts to mix with it, leading to a strange sensation in his fingers where he could almost feel the stream of power like it was an actual string of an instrument—an enormous tentacle of inky-black darkness burst from the crack in the ceiling where Leon had sensed something’s attention.

Leon’s eyes widened, and without any further hesitation, he used his magic power to jerk quite hard on the string of power. He had no idea what would happen next, but he placed his faith in Nestor and the Thunderbird, trusting that they knew what they were talking about.

Immediately, it seemed that his faith was rewarded as the string vibrated in response to his clumsy handling, and the magic power that he’d projected from his body began to vibrate in turn. He felt his body then begin to shake in response. He soon found himself shaking so hard that he found it difficult to keep his eyes open or his teeth to stop chattering.

In the distance, he could see with his magic senses the black tentacle of darkness magic forcing itself further and further into the cavern, and the dark shape of something behind it large enough to stop up the ocean water and with a great enough aura that he couldn’t identify it, but before he could get any more details, a sphere of darkness appeared from nowhere and wrapped around him, and he found himself whisked away to he knew not where.