Scholars of the Time Paradox

Mission Details here
Part 1

At first, Levinia found herself in a wild maelstrom of runes and magical energy. The feeling was overwhelming, and threatened to pull apart the portal that she had opened to a world that she knew nothing about... yet. She closed her eyes and tried to focus herself. It was a delicate process, transporting herself and another across dimensions, and to complicate things, to a place she had only felt, but had never been to, personally. It was true that she was just getting to understand her powers, but if there was anything she knew a little about to be confident enough in its use, it was her Black Amulet Grimoire: Absolute Dimension. Truth be told, when she had discovered that she had powers of teleportation, she had more or less 'abused' those powers, trying to glean the extent of the range of her ability to transport herself. She had noticed that distance was not an issue for her if she concentrated well enough... at least, as far as travelling around Fiore was concerned. She had never actually tested it beyond travelling to her 'Vault', nor had she had reason to travel beyond the boundaries of Fiore to the rest of Earthland and beyond.

Theoretically, it was probably the same thing. Wherever the globe-headed ghost had escaped to could be accessed, provided she knew the way. And she had gotten that information from the gate the ghost had opened. In essence, she was doing some sort of space-time piggyback; riding the signature of the ghost's portal to its source, with a portal of her own. She had expected it to be tougher than the normal sort of teleportation, but she didn't expect it to be this chaotic. At least, it wasn't like she had not succeeded in transporting Beira and herself out of the forest; it was obvious that they were no longer in Magnolia. If she could succeed at that first step, there was hope for the rest of the way.

First, Levinia took charge of her runes. Everything had to follow an orderly pattern to work; her Grimoire magic was no different. She reached out to the runes, willing them to follow a spherical rhythm that was conversant with Amulet Grimoires. For a moment, it was a little like a mental tug-of-war, but she was finally able to draw them into the required pattern. That was a very good sign. Calming herself even further, she poured out her magical energy as fuel into the strange bubble that transported her mentor and herself through unknown dimensions. The universe was a very vast place, and the void, the space between dimensions, even more so. Letting the spell fall apart at this time possibly meant that they would be lost forever where it would be almost impossible for anyone to find them. She was starting to feel the strain of transport, but she ignored it and focused on following the trail to the end.

For all intents and purposes, they were really going far. Levinia was starting to wonder just where exactly they were headed. It was too late to wonder whether it was a prudent idea to just jump straight down this rabbit hole, but in her defense, the decision was made in the spur of the moment, so as not to lose a golden opportunity. If she was to deduce the distance from her original location that she was being transported to based on the time spent fueling this Absolute Dimension, she would guess that they were being transported way beyond the boundaries of Earthland. Such a thought filled her with both trepidation and excitement. She had always been interested in going to new places, seeing new things, but in the case she was in, this place was much likely going to be rather hostile, judging from the one she was pursuing, and so she might not get to enjoy some tourist privileges. Still, if all this would unravel the mystery behind those who were after her life, almost anything was worth it.

She sat on her heels within the Grimoire, as it streaked through realms unknown. Then in her head, she saw a light. Were they approaching the end of their journey? At this point, the space-time energies around the Grimoire became a lot more unruly and chaotic, forcing her to pour in all of her concentration, all of her will into maintaining the bubble of runes. Beads of perspiration dotted her forehead, and then moments later flowed in rivulets down her face. Levinia kept her eyes tightly shut, her hands gripping the fabric of her pants, as she mentally strained against the powers that sought to break through the Absolute Dimension. She had come close to finding answers. She was not going to allow anything to clip her progress just when she was at the edge of...

The sudden loss of strain caused her to involuntarily gasp and open her eyes. They were in an empty space, hurtling along faster than the speed of light, or slower; time was a difficult thing to guess when teleporting. The Absolute Dimension grimoire sailed towards a large glowing orb that looked like some sort of planet, though any person with adequate observation could easily tell that they were not in the space that separated planets, the darkness that hung beyond the skies of Earthland. The space seemed to give off a gentle glow of its own, and instinctively, Levinia knew that this was a different dimension. If only she could carry out some research on how time flowed here, and if this place was related to Earthland's dimension in any way. She was not ignorant enough to think that there was only one universe; nay, there was a vast assortment of worlds and planets out there. Somehow, she could sense that the closest point Earthland's plane of existence had to this place would be the strange wonder known as the Wakusei Portals, that hub that linked Earthland to many other dimensions. Perhaps it was simply because that place was a point of space travel, and so was similarly connected to many other dimensions.

Levinia could make out a strange floating island in the distance, and the Absolute Dimension headed there unerringly. At that point, a heavy fatigue washed over her, and she struggled to maintain the grimoire until they were safely on solid ground. In an instant, it was as though they passed through a pulsating film of energy; the runes spiraling outwards and unraveling to drop its inhabitants safely on what looked like black polished tiles. The skies above resembled glass, though it was not too easy to tell just by looking at them. Perhaps they were solid, perhaps the floating island was in some sort of cavern or building, no one knew... at least, not the both of them.

Levinia groaned softly and fell forward, her mind spinning from the exhaustion. She couldn't even manage to catch herself, but sprawled on the cool smooth floor. She faintly mumbled something about getting a little rest, her fatigue so great that she could not even consider whether the both of them were in any immediate danger. Of course, that was not very wise, but she was not even conscious enough to think.

Everything had happened in quite a rush after Beira had managed to escape from the time stopping powers of the strange ghostly creature with the flaming ball shaped head of gold. Most likely using the ability of one of the myriad weapons that Levinia had learned to summon and handle, the redhead had managed to slice through the incorporeal form of the strange ghost, and while it refused to die, to Beira’s irritation, the being seemed to have been injured enough to desire to escape from the two mages and the field of battle in Magnolia. Another possible road, whose door annoyingly had smashed shut when the ghost ran away. Fortunately, though, it seemed that Levinia could track the strange ghost by virtue of having touched the energies from the portal which the creature had used to make good its escape after being vanquished by Levinia’s spirit cutting weapon. It was such a pity that this ghost with the golden ball head did not act like the assassins who had currently seen the vanity of attacking the two mages. The assassins at least had the niceties of offering to leave the mages alone, if they lost their fight against the mages. This ghost had however decided to run away, and probably live to fight another day. A most unpleasant situation, in Beira’s opinion, seeing as it probably had learned more about them, and having escaped, could prepare itself to better fight them. As for Beira, she hadn’t fought the ghost long enough to know much about it except that it could control time, and it could not be harmed by conventional physical means. With Levinia announcing that they had to find the ghost’s real form and defeat that, Beira realized they had just been fighting a projection. That being the case, fighting its real form would most likely be a more difficult endeavour. Still, there seemed to be no other way to go than forward.

”Let’s go then, Levinia!” the God Slayer cried, running to her friend’s side. Having great vitality was such a boon, seeing as she did not have to expend magic energy to heal herself; as there was no battle being fought, Beira only had to rely on her natural regenerative capabilities to heal from the wounds of the previous battle in Magnolia. Levinia’s runes danced around, and then homed in on the two mages, and there was darkness. There was this odd feeling, but Beira was accustomed to it; it was the feel of crossing from the medium of one dimension into another. Beira could perceive nothing, aside a storm of magical energy around the two mages, the wildly gyrating runes around them, and an infinitely endless void. Soon, Beira could make out a bubble surrounding the two mages; she was certain it was Levinia’s work. Slowly, the wildly spinning runes began to arrange themselves in a more orderly arrangement, and the bubble in which the two mages were moved along at a great speed, with the silence of a strange space surrounding them. Beira had no idea how to assist her friend and protégé, so she just decided to remain passive, watch, and allow her friend do whatever work she was doing in silence. It was quite evident that the Godling was exerting a lot of concentration, with the way she was sweating and posturing. Now was probably not a good time for talking; it seemed Levinia was concentrating an awful lot at present, and bringing up a subject for discussion was certainly not the best way to help.

Suddenly, there was a feeling of freedom, it was difficult to describe, but it was like the bubble had passed through some turbulent, difficult dimension and into a freer place. Beira hardly paid attention to the surroundings, though. She could see the strain on her friend’s face, and hoped Levinia would be alright. But to disturb the Godling was not in any way acceptable. She would let Levinia finish the work, and then do whatever occasion presented her the chance to do. The bubble alighted on some strange floating island, with a black earth which reminded Beira of volcanic glass. Levinia, as soon as the bubble dissipated, passed out from exhaustion. She had done well and deserved the rest. Beira, for her part, would now see how to continue the mission. She looked around, seeing that the ground around where the two had touched down was generally plain and flat, for about a hundred meters, before a set of stairs raised the ground to a point from which a golden light shone into the heavens above.

Of course, checking out the light was the next point of action. Picking her friend, Beira began walking with Levinia in her arms. The Godling wasn’t large, and Beira’s physical power was quite much more than was normal for her size, so carrying her protégé was no issue. She had not walked up to fifty meters before she was alerted to a whispering sound, and strange black ominous shades materialized around her and began to approach, their strange whispering voices echoing about. Definitely, these things were not here to make acquaintances. There were three of them, approaching Beira from all sides. She kept walking. As they drew closer, she utilized her Durum: Psionic Wave, releasing a omnidirectional blast of pure mental energy from her body. The wave tore into the shades and with an otherworldly shriek, they disappeared. This event happened three times after Beira had walked for a bit, until she got to the top of the stairs. There, she saw that the black ground evened out to form flat land, and in the center of this elevated land, rose to form a throne, upon which a robed creature sat. The sae creature that had attacked the two mages in Magnolia. This one however did not appear intangible, as its body was opaque. From its golden head shone a bright light, and a spire of this light rose into the sky. This was the source of the light that rose into the sky. With a head such as its, it was difficult to say where the being was facing, but with the way its upper body shifted when Beira walked up the stairs, she was sure she had its attention.

”Thou and thy friend have shown great perseverance with thy presence on my land,” the creature said, ”and thy battle worthiness hath granted thee leave to speak in my presence. Ask what thou wilt.” Beira remembered the creature’s quaint way of speaking. At least it didn’t seem to be eager to continue the battle. ”If I can prevail on you to stop attacking my friend here,” Beira replied, putting the Godling down gently on the black floor, ”I would be most obliged of you. She has done you no wrong, as far as I can tell.”

”Nevertheless, she must needs die. I cannot be wronged; no agenda have I save the rectification of wrongs that Time mayest suffer. These abuses I suffer not to be had.”

”Well, I shall not let you harm her, as far as it lies in my power.”

”Thou canst not avail thyself in battle against me forever. I cannot die. Death, however, she can feel. Thou, for thy part, can die as well, but I have not aught against thee. Eventually, whether by chance, or by thy feebleness, I shall, in time, gain the mastery of thee, and the Godling’s crimes shall be rectified.”

Beira sighed. ”May I ask then, since you’ve decided to allow me questions, who you are, and the nature of Levinia’s crimes.”

”I am the Rectifier,” the golden headed shade replied, ”and guilty shall I judge those who afflict the stream of time, as thy companion has.”

”I know she can manipulate time to an extent, by virtue of her magic, but I did not think that was supposed to be an issue for something such as you, being a cosmic being and all that.”

”Tis not the magics of thy friend that I execrate, but her meddling with the laws of Time that must be punished. For by her deeds have risen anomalies that have desecrated the balance of worlds, that have pushed civilizations to the brink of destruction.”

”Wait, what?” If this creature had no issues with Levinia’s time controlling magic, what was it talking about, when it mentioned that Levinia was responsible of untold calamities by desecrating the laws of Time? It made absolutely no sense.


WC: 1419 words
Total: 2630/20000

From the point Levinia dispelled the Absolute Dimension till the point Beira carried her to meet the Rectifier, everything was like a dreamlike mash up to her. She was not completely unconscious, because she was somehow aware that she was being carried. Yet it all still felt sort of foreign, like she was experiencing a dream or a sort of trance. Even though her mind was fuddled with all the strain she had caused herself due to transporting the both of them to this dimension, she was still sentient enough to be grateful that Beira was with her. And this was because they were not the only ones here in this world.

The inhabitants of this dimension were not friendly, at least judging by their behavior, but Levie couldn't blame them. The two mages had come uninvited, and the one they had followed to this place had not offered any invitation. In fact, they had followed him (at least, judging by the voice) here to conclude the hostilities that had been initiated in Magnolia. Certainly, the orb-headed ghost had an alliance with these strange creatures, and these would seek to harm Beira and Levinia for their intrusion. Thankfully, they seemed to be rather weak, and Beira had no difficulty dispatching the ones that dared come close.

By the time Beira set her down, she was starting to find it easier to gather her senses back together. The floor was cold, and black, now that her eyes could focus on it. The feel, although hard as expected, was somewhat comfortable, and had she not been on an incursion into enemy territory, she might have liked to relax on the floor for a while longer. Her ears were the next to start functioning properly, and she could make out Beira having a discussion with someone. Judging from the quaint way he spoke, it was none other than the orb-headed ghost that had tried to kill her back in Magnolia. Well, that was hopeful, if they were only talking and not drawing arms. This meant that at least, for the time being, everyone was being reasonable, and there was a slim chance that she could get to know what was going on, and even settle whatever misunderstanding had risen between them.

Levinia sat up with a soft groan and ran a hand through her hair, as she considered whether she was strong enough to stand.

She had the opportunity to look at the Rectifier's throne, for that was what he called himself. It was rather stately, and Levinia was sure that he was the ruler of this domain, or at least, he had some level of power over it. This throne room seemed to be the center of this dimension, and while it seemed to be relatively small when compared with places like Earthland, many planes were deceptive in their vastness. She looked up at the shaft of light that emanated from the orb that was set on the Rectifier's shoulders, following its trail up where it pierced through the strange skies above, and by the time she lowered her eyes to rest on the orb, she felt that the Rectifier was watching her. With a little bit of effort, Levinia got to her feet.

The Rectifier's name was self explanatory, in her opinion. Now, if he was after her, that meant she had damaged something by manipulating with the powers of Time. However, she was aware that her powers over Time were almost merely parlor tricks, compared to what the Rectifier seemed capable of. There had to be a mistake somewhere.

"I think there must be some misunderstanding, Mr. Rectifier. I can't remember doing any time-breaking things, unless healing injuries and curing lycanthropy. Surely, that couldn't have... how did you put it, 'risen anomalies' that are destroying the time line or whatever."

The Rectifier leaned back and laced his fingers together. "Nay, Godling. Thou speakest of paltry machinations that bear nary a dent on the stream of time. Other grievances art thou responsible for, and thou shalt pay for thine trespasses."

Levinia's face flushed a little while he was talking. She took great pride in her abilities to read the past and rewind time to heal injuries, and he had called them trivial and useless? Still, it was just a thing of pride and of little importance to the problem she was in. If she understood what he was saying, then it was not any of her magic spells that had caused these problems. If that was the case, she was not to blame, for there was no other way she had interacted with the flow of time beyond what was expected of every mortal creature.

"Um, if that's the case, Mr. Rectifier, then could you kindly tell me exactly how I committed such sins? Because I don't remember doing anything that is even close to what you speak of."

"Thrice, thy iniquities were revealed to me... and yet..."

"Yet what?" Levinia pressed.

"Of a different mien somewhat you seem, being thou bodily present before me, still Levinia Arx Creuset it was who sinned."

"Then I'm innocent!" she protested. "I don't even understand what you're saying. Do you?"

In reply, the Rectifier pointed, and a strange distortion began to form in the space before his throne. At first, Levinia thought that he was initiating an attack, but then she realized that it was some sort of viewing device. As she peered at the distortion, she could suddenly make out some strange humanoid figures, like ogres. As she tried to recognize whether she had seen them before, the figures shifted again, to some strange giants rampaging over the land. Once again, the figures shifted, and she saw something rising from the earth. It was huge, that was all she could tell.

"In three times apart from thine, behold the confusion thou hast caused."

Levinia looked at the Rectifier, then at Beira. "I've never even seen any of these things before."

Denying that she was responsible was not going to help her case. Being a pragmatic individual, Levinia was more interested in resolving this matter, rather than proving her innocence.

"I'm not the one who did any of these, but I suppose that doesn't really matter. How do I clear my name? If there's anything I know about time travel, it can be done, given certain circumstances. Whoever did this probably performed some time travel of their own, and somehow implicated me in this. I'm not going to ask you to let me go, because you probably won't. I'm going to ask you to let me solve this, and give me a chance to find out who did all this."

The Rectifier seemed to consider what she said.

"Come on. You have nothing to lose. I, for my part, would very much like to clear my name."

The glowing orb made a slight movement that seemed like a nod. "On this proposal, we stand in agreement." He rose to his feet and gestured, and a small circular medallion appeared in the air between the two mages. "So shall it then be. Thou shalt travel unto these aberrations, and thou shalt rectify them."

"Like your name, huh?" She snatched the medallion out of the air and observed it in her palm. "Tis a key, and guidance shall it give, till thou comest to the heart of each anomaly. It shalt shew thee that which thou must do. And it shalt make thy passage through time convenient."

Having brought Levinia up to the throne of the Rectifier and fortunately not had to fight the strange creature, Beira had, though out her interactions with the golden headed ghost, felt that she had been merely stalling for time, while she spoke with it. Seeing as she was not the one with whom the Rectifier had an issue, the Utgardian God Slayer assumed that Levinia would be much more in a proper position to argue her case with the Rectifier. Beira was almost certain that it was some sort of mistake that had fingered Levinia to be targeted by the rectifier, at best, or some carefully manipulated set up. Seeing as the two had, between them, fought through disgusting white skinned ghouls, similarly skinned summoners, three giant abominations and finally a three-headed dragon, not to mention the subsequent assassins of varying hues and dying breaths that had harried their every step, Beira was quite convinced that whatever was happening to her friend was simply because someone out there, someone yet unknown, wanted her dead. Whoever it was had to be quite the schemer, although Beira was unsure why this person would go to great lengths to get rid of Levinia, who had appeared quite harmless, if strange, when she had first crossed paths with the Godling. It was probably a case of “kill the grub and spare yourself the moth”.

To Beira’s relief, Levinia had regained consciousness, allowing the God Slayer to keep quiet and listen to the exchange between her friend and the Rectifier in peace. That her friend could cure diseases with her magic was quite impressive, and Beira was able to feel a great deal of empathy with Levinia, when she saw the Godling’s face flush a little as her magic power was described as ‘paltry’. As someone who had been trained in war, and had seen one or two battles of her own, the Utgardian was well aware that to heal was much harder than to destroy, and healing was not, in her opinion, paltry in any way. Still, it was not even for these things that the Rectifier wanted Levinia dealt with. Eventually, the ghost confessed that whoever had committed the crimes seemed to be different from Levinia, but it still maintained that it was the Godling herself who was guilty of these crimes against time. Even if that was a little step forward, it was something, for it certified to Beira that there was indeed someone behind the scenes responsible for the whole ‘time crime’ affair. An impostor, it would seem. Levinia seemed to voice Beira’s thoughts, stressing her innocence, and the Rectifier in response made a gesture with his hand.

If the Rectifier had probably been someone else, Beira might have attempted to make a pre-emptive attack against the creature to prevent it from carrying out what might have been perceived to be an attack in the making. However, the Rectifier seemed to be a rather straightforward creature, and Beira did not expect it to make dubious attacks against the two mages in its presence. Her judgment call proved right; the ghost merely wished to show the two women visions that were presently unclear to the both of them, although it clarified matters by saying that Levinia was responsible for these things, which according to the Rectifier, were serious issues that her meddling with time had caused. Levinia, for her part, was quick to realize that the Rectifier was not going to be content with a plea of innocence, and opted to take responsibility for the crimes, asking for how they could be rectified. To be fair to the Rectifier, the creature did not brush off her offer and insist on her death, which was another good step in a favourable direction. If these anomalies could be corrected, everyone could go home in peace, though there would really be no peace until whoever was responsible for the whole impersonation and set up had been brought to book and made to answer for their crimes.

Eventually, the Rectifier agreed to having Levinia clear her name, by finding the time anomalies and correcting them. A strange medallion appeared in the air between the mages, and Levinia reached out and took it. Beira stepped closer to look more closely at the item herself, though she didn’t believe she would see anything of notable interest on it. Fortunately, whatever the medallion was, it would provide guidance, which made Beira feel a lot easier. If what was to be done was known, doing it was less of an issue.

Beira looked up at the Rectifier, and then her gaze turned from the creature to a number of shades which had congregated at the base of the stairs of the elevation on which the Rectifier had its throne. ”And what of those things?” she asked, gesturing at the forms. ”Might they not seek to prevent us from carrying out our duties? Perhaps you should let them know that we’ve been… what, employed by you, yes?” By the manner in which the Rectifier slightly shifted its body, Beira knew that if it had a conventional head, it would have turned to look at the gathered shades. Then its body readjusted to face the two mages as it had been before. ”Fret not thyselves with the beings yonder,” it hissed, before seating itself once more on the throne. ”Ye have shown thyselves mighty enough to dispatch them. But take heed to thyselves. The Time Wraiths exist for to slay transgressors of the Order of Time. Thy victory in the matter of propitiation of the time flow shall divest thee of the burden of these creatures, and they shall seek thee no more, only if thou shalt prove thyselves successful in thy foray.”

”Well, they seemed rather eager to harm us when we arrived here, but they don’t seem so eager anymore, which implies you can probably control them. And yet, you still mention that they will attack us. So why not just tell your children to stay away from us till we’re done with this mission?”

”The Time Wraiths answer not to me, nor are they the substance of my crafting. For the iniquity of thy companion have they been created, by laws greater than I. They answer not to any, but they fain would attempt not to assail me. For as long as thy feet remain before my throne, they shall draw not near to thee. Still, there are ways ancient and deep which are known to them, and the Time Wraiths may yet find thee in many places distant from my throne. Now, avail thyselves of this opportunity I hereby grant thee and thou mayest save thy friend.”

Beira turned to Levinia and shrugged. ”Might as well get moving, Isuppose, though I’d wager that medallion doesn’t come with one of those… uh, manuals that come with purchased technology.”


WC: 1149 words
Total: 5030/22000

Levinia glanced backwards as Beira drew attention to the ominous figures that had gathered close to the steps that led up to the throne, but had made no attempts to ascend the stairs. They did not seem to be in the direct employ of the Rectifier, but it was certain they were aligned with him. And unfortunately, the Rectifier did not seem interested in causing them to stay away from the two mages. He seemed to trust their abilities, though, and from his implication, they just needed to be careful to avoid them, or dispatch them outright if they needed to.

While Levinia was tired of the Rectifier constantly calling her a criminal, she decided not to express her disapproval, yet. It was up to her to prove her innocence by undoing the problems that another had caused. While cleaning up the mess of another was not exciting for anyone, it was a necessity in her case, and the ability of this venture to identify the true enemy that wanted her dead was its major attraction. The sooner they did this, the better. She turned to Beira as she held the Key between two of her fingers.

"Nope, this doesn't have a user's manual, but I've got a feeling that it should be easy to use..."

She thrust some magic power into the Key, and the artifact began to thrum. "Let's go, Beira. I think I'm rather eager to clear my name... not to mention that I'm quite interested in finding out just where this rabbit hole leads."

The Key released a pulse of golden light, which surrounded the two mages, and as the humming from the Key increased, the environment of the throne room, with the Rectifier and his attendant Time wraiths, faded into the blackness of the void. Once again, they were journeying through space and time, but in this case, Levinia did not have to bother exerting herself beating a path through the powers of Space and Time. The Key was doing the path finding for them, bearing them towards the source of the anomalies they were to fix.

Levinia watched the vibrating object, which now gave off a clear hum. She thought the Rectifier had mentioned that it would show them what to do. Perhaps she was being impatient, but the best time for a mission debriefing would be now, while they were en route to their destination. Suddenly, as if it had heard her thoughts, the Key suddenly gave off a slightly different tune, and the darkness surrounding the orb gave way to a misty reality. At first, Levinia thought the journey was already over, but she still felt that tingling, that sense of displacement that was only natural when traveling between worlds, and so she was sure that they had not yet gotten to where they were headed.

The mists seemed to give way a little, and the two mages could see a mountainous region. While it looked like a location in Earthland, it did not seem to be familiar. A date seemed to be whispered into their thoughts, a time that predated the current era by one thousand and fifty years. The vision continued, and a crude village could be seen, inhabited by large, ogre-like brutes. Levinia had seen them in books before, but their kind seemed to be rare on Earthland.

"These guys were the first things I saw in the Rectifier's vision," she whispered. "Bolgans."

According to what was playing out before the mages, the Bolgans seemed to be preparing for some sort of conquest. Their leader, who seemed to have spiritual powers, had suddenly been struck down. As they watched, the Bolgan king died from his injuries, and the Bolgan civilization slowly fell apart. Here, the vision seemed to pause, and then rewind itself until the point where the Bolgan king was injured. Then it continued, but this time, the results were different. Something (or was it someone?) appeared and visited the Bolgan civilization. It tended to the Bolgan king and he recovered. From there, he led his armies to acquire a certain destructive artifact, then proceeded to rampage throughout the entire world, destroying everything completely.

Looking closely at the thing that had tended to the Bolgan king revealed skin that was chalk white and diseased-looking, the very same thing Levinia had been treated from.

The vision rewound itself again, this time pausing at the point after which the Bolgan king had recovered. The anomaly was obvious: the Bolgan king was not supposed to live.

Then the vision blinked into nothingness, and returned with much sharper clarity. They were in a clearing, and interestingly, could feel the wind on their skins, and the crunching of dead leaves beneath their soles. The Key made a buzzing sound and stopped humming, slowly sinking towards the ground, as its glow receded. Levinia picked it from the air and slipped it into a pocket.

They had arrived at the location of the first anomaly.

"Wow! That was a fluid transition. I almost didn't realize that we were done with time traveling."

It was obvious that they were not far from the Bolgan settlement. War cries and drums were already sounding loudly, and the smell of smoke seeped among the trees of the forest.

"Looks like some people are readying themselves to destroy their world, huh? So, I think this is straightforward enough: the Bolgan leader was supposed to die, but somehow lived. And that destroyed this place. So, we ensure that he dies and stays that way."

She looked towards the direction of all the clamor and noise, then crept towards it. Using her White Augural Grimoire, she noticed that the forest was more of less devoid of life, except for the trees. It was a little bit strange and unsettling, and Levinia was sure that the Bolgans were more or less responsible for that. At the edge of the forest, she hid behind a large tree and peeked out at a large gate set between two cliffs. It was a strategic position the Bolgans had built their base, and getting inside might prove a little difficult. Heck, this act of anomaly rectification was probably not going to be a walk in the park. "We're going to be up against an army. How do you propose we attack, Beira? I think a plan would be in good taste."

It seemed, to Beira’s relief, that although Levinia had spotted no such thing as a user manual, she appeared convinced that, despite having never used such an item as the strange key which had been given to the two mages by the Rectifier, the thingamajig would be easy to use. As if to prove her point, the medallion began to hum, probably because somehow, Levinia had activated it. The Godling stated her interest in beginning the quest to render herself blame-free, and mentioned her curiosity at finding out what would be at the other end of wherever it was that this key would be taking them to. Beira apparently didn’t have to do anything except stand close to Levinia, as a golden light emanated from the amulet, engulfing the two mages, while everything which was beyond the light, namely the Rectifier, the Time Wraiths, and the dimension in which they had all been, faded into blackness. The two mages were traversing the unknown void once more, but this time, Beira was glad to see that Levinia was not having to stress herself to keep up the sustenance of their strange vehicle. If not for anything, the fact that the two mages were most likely going into dangerous territory was enough reason for both of them to be on their feet, and with all their faculties intact.

As the mages traveled along, Beira became aware of the dull hum which emanated from the medallion, as it drew the two questers through the intestines of the interdimensional void. Suddenly, the humming of the key changed its tune, and a form began to coalesce before the moving capsule in which the mages traveled. Initially, like her friend, Beira was inclined to assume that they had arrived at wherever the key was taking them, but she soon realized that whatever was forming before them was more like some sort of mirage, an illusion.  Most likely, it was the key providing guidance for whatever quest the Utgardian and her Godling companion had set their minds to complete. The Rectifier had informed them that the key was meant to not only get them safely to where they would do the rectification of time, but it was also supposed to give them some sort of mission debriefing, so to speak. That was most likely what it was doing. Ah well, that was better than accosting the mages in some sort of abnormal voice.

As the images formed, Beira could see hulking images in a crude village of thatch and poorly crafted wooden structures, high in the mountains. She was also aware of a time, most likely the time of the occurrence they were travelling to meet, which meant that they were traveling back through time. To travel back a thousand years was impressive, although Beira was opined that Utgardr’s position in time was even much further back. All the same, she was sure it wasn’t to the same plane of existence as Utgardr that they were traveling to. Levinia called the hulks ‘bolgans’, a name Beira was not familiar with. With the way they brandished weapons and screeched into the air, it was almost certain they were on the war path. Then their leader got killed. Why and how, she could not say; maybe these questions were not relevant to solving the time anomaly. Leaderless, the bolgans began to slowly disperse, with infightings and lack of motivation to continue to war being the dispersing factors. But suddenly, the vision seemed to go into reverse, right up until the bolgan chief was about to die. Then someone, for reasons Beira did not know, healed the bolgan chief, and the world literally went to hell in many bolgan-sized hand baskets. Then all was gone, and the mages found themselves in a forest, as the medallion slowly fell, having ceased its humming. They had arrived.

”Sounds straightforward enough, but there are some things that I wish I could figure out the answer to,” Beira said in reply to Levinia’s own verbal version of the debriefing. ”Firstly, I believe we have arrived after the bolgan chief’s healing, yes? Why not before, since we saw that something had come and healed the bolgan chief, which caused this matter we’ve come all the way here to solve, so we can kill the time meddler as well? Because it seems all we’re meant to do is make sure the bolgan stays dead, and leave the tie interloper alone. Wouldn’t this be a waste of time, if the time interloper can travel back here and undo what we’ve done to save this peachy little world? Maybe I’m just overthinking things, in any case. For a forest, this place seems awfully silent, by the way, though the trees appear to be just fine. Must be the bolgan hygiene.”

Beira followed Levinia to their spying point, from which they watched the gate of the bolgan settlement. In response to her question, the God Slayer chuckled. ”Plans are always good, but let’s keep it simple. I get their attention, you go for the chief. Or we can do it the other way round, if you’re more comfortable with that. Personally, I like being the center of attraction, and my ice magic is designed to attack multiple opponents at a time, so let me cause trouble. While I’m doing that, you can find a way in, and go for the chief. Let’s do it. Oh, and I believe you have some sort of sense that doesn’t rely on your eyes. You’ll need it a little, because visibility is going to be poor.” So saying, she rose and began walking towards the gate as though she owned the place. A bolgan scout saw the approaching woman and sounded an alarm, by shrieking at the top of its lungs. A well-aimed javelin of nether rime flew through the open aperture from which the horrid noise was emanating, and the alarm was immediately silenced. However, the bolgans knew there was an approaching threat. Precisely what Beira wanted.

As they drew their weapons and shrieked incomprehensible challenges, Beira raised a hand and clicked her fingers. The wind seemed to respond with a shriek of its own, as the whole place was suddenly plunged into a raging blizzard. For someone like Levinia, who was not a foe, and thus would not be affected by the blizzard, visibility would still be lowered, though not totally hindered. For the bolgans, however, they were going to realize that their single eyes would suddenly be rendered useless, as the blizzard attacked every one of them, inflicting pain and blindness. Beira knew that the blindness lasted only a little while, so she would not take her precious little time. She would be a swift and efficient killing machine. She had after all been trained to be so. Creating tow long knives of nether rime, Beira kept marching forward. For every bolgan she met, the formula was the same, cut the hamstrings, then pierce the brain through the eye or slice the jugular. Rinse and repeat.


WC: 1176 words
Total: 7270/22000

Prior to all the death dealing, Beira seemed skeptical of the Key's wisdom in sending them to a point after the anomaly had happened. It was true that it would be a lot more time conserving if they had dropped in around the time the anomaly took place, and stopped it from happening. Then, perhaps there was something about the flow of Time that made some parts in the past, and perhaps the future, fixed. It would then take careful tweaking and understanding of how time worked to manipulate parts of the past, or future. And if these manipulations were severe, or caused severe issues, they would become an anomaly. And the Rectifier would be called in to kill anomaly causers, and somehow restore order to the timeline, or perhaps even leave it like that, though that would be quite irresponsible, or so she thought.

Levinia had rubbed her chin in thought. "Well, my theories are mostly conjecture, because I can't even attempt to claim that I know how all these things work. Perhaps we, being time meddlers of a sort, are not permitted to meddle in the affairs of other time meddlers. We would come before or after them, to uh... rectify the problem. I guess that's how it works. So, perhaps the job of the Rectifier is to kill these sinners against Time, so that they can't travel around to cause more anomalies or undo his work, and then he corrects the anomalies, much in the same way we are about to do."

That sounded the most logical path, but like she had admitted, she was not really the best person to ask about such matters.

Beira agreed to having a plan, though it was a lot less stealthy than Levinia had expected. Beira would walk in and carve a bloody path to the bolgan king or away, whatever she wanted to do. The job of regicide would fall on Levinia's shoulders. While it was a little brash, it was actually rather doable, and from the warning her mentor gave about low visibility, it was not as simple enough for anyone to figure out until it was over. And since it was bolgans they were dealing with, the plan was rather likely to succeed.

Levinia could have easily followed Beira into the camp, and weaved her way past Beira's icy murder to find the bolgan shaman king, but she wanted to try her hands at a new approach. Having read up about these creatures some time ago, she knew that they favored brawn over brains, and their chieftain would be the largest or strongest of the bunch. Besides, in the vision of the Key, the bolgan king did seem to be the largest. She would just look out for the one that had the large, ugly helmet.

Beira sauntered off to begin her mischief, while Levinia chose one of the tallest, sturdiest trees at the edge of the forest. With her superhuman might, she jumped clear of the lower branches, and grasped a thigh bough close to the top, which she pulled herself onto. The bolgan camp was not very large, and very close, so she expected that her plan might be feasible. Peering ahead, she was able to make out the bolgan king, surrounded by some real uglies, right before Beira's winter storm kicked up and blinded everything in the area. Levinia smiled. The bolgan king was not too far away; he was within her magic sensory range. Perfect.

Keeping a mental, or magical eye on the regent with her White Augural Grimoire, Levinia laid prone on a thick branch and secured herself to ensure that she would not be shaken or moved easily. The storm had engulfed parts of the forest, concealing the young mage from view of the village. She stretched an arm forward, and a soft silver outline of a long gun, easily swallowed up by the blizzard, appeared and coalesced into a sturdy rifle, just as her fingers closed over the trigger and barrel. She smiled slightly as she fingered its reassuring surface, then she aimed and closed her eyes.

She could easily still detect the bolgan war chief. The brute was obviously riled by Beira's irreverence, and had picked up its weapons of war: a thick shield and a massive sword. Levinia wondered how easy it would be for her to wield the weapon; what with her insane physical strength, she would find it very easy. The only issue would be if her small body was capable of swinging the weapon around. Size had its advantages, sometimes.

The bolgan king was now swinging the sword above his head, and a circle of flame was beginning to form, following the trajectory of the blade. She paused for a moment, ensuring that her aim was perfect, and then she fired. The report of the rifle was muffled in the storm, so that it was only audible to herself. The bolgan king stopped short, however, as his helmet was blown clean off his head.

"Nutcracker, go boom," she whispered, as she squeezed the trigger a second time. Levinia gave as little a window as possible between the two shots; the second bullet, powered by magic, streaked through the snowstorm and into the bolgan king's only eye. The king stood absolutely still, with the stunned expression stuck on his face, as if the cold temperatures had frozen his face solid. Levinia could sense that Beira's blizzard was very powerful; the neat hole that passed through the bolgan king's head had already been rimmed over with ice. The bolgan shaman king fell backwards, dead as a door nail, with his bodyguards none the wiser as to what had happened.

The moment this happened, Levinia felt the Key vibrate sharply in her pocket, and as she looked towards her hip, where the artifact was stored, she noticed a golden glow. The Key let out a strange, almost digital sounding blip, before the glow faded. Somehow, she knew that the Key was acknowledging the fact that the anomaly had been rectified.

Levinia focused on Beira with her magic, and the Winter Goddess Slayer would hear the voice of her protege in her thoughts, being projected via telepathy. "Hey, Beira. Levie here. Consider the bolgan assassinated. I think our mission is done, because the Key just let off some kind of tune that sounds like a 'well done'. Don't ask me how I knew that; it just felt like it. But there's no need for me to spoil your fun, if you're having fun, that is. I'm ready to leave this place when you are."

Levie dropped from her perch and landed in the snow, then walked into the storm to join her friend. Her rifle was at the ready, which she used to mow down any bolgan that was trying to figure its way around Beira, despite its blindness. Using her White Augural Grimoire, she positioned herself at the gate of the camp and offered some long ranged assistance.

As the Utgardian God Slayer worked her magic of death, she gently hummed a childhood song she still remembered and loved. It was in poor taste, or so her royal tutors would have exclaimed, had they discovered that she was singing while engaging in the act of taking lives. It was annoying and nostalgic at the same time, to remember how rigid those fellows were. She considered herself to be somewhat traditional and unwilling to adapt easily to newer cultures, but she almost laughed aloud when she thought of how one of her stiff tutors would have coped, had the fellow been displaced, like she had been, into Fiore. They would most likely not cope, with their extremely fixed outlook on life, and their absolute lack of humor. Beira remembered when a training mate had once cracked a joke to alleviate the stress of waiting in ambush for a giant raiding party for a day and a half. Their instructor, who doubled as the mission captain, cracked down so hard on everyone who laughed, that by the time the giants came their way, the Utgardians butchered them with such vitriol that it alarmed the instructor, who of course told them that it was unseemly to not be in control of their emotions.

As Beira walked further into the camp, she suddenly sensed a spike of magical power; someone had a relatively powerful weapon there. Reaching out with her Cosmic Resonance, she sensed that it was the biggest bolgan in the yard, the bolgan chief and Levinia’s mark. ”Okay, Levinia,” the God Slayer thought quietly, as she continued with the execution of the bolgan slaughter as though she had no idea that something close by was planning on smashing her head with a burning sword. Best to not let the bolgan chief be wary of her awareness of the brute, till Levinia had struck. If the bolgan leader knew that Beira was aware of its approach, it would probably get into a guarded position to face her, and a defensive position meant less open spots to take advantage of. If Levinia, for some reason, did not choose to attack the bolgan till it got into a fight with Beira, she would respond to its attack at the last instant, seeing as she had the advantage over the beast, due to the reduced visibility. It would no longer be blind, however; the nature of her blizzard was such that it was terribly damaging at the first, but later evened out into something less punishing. It was best that Levinia took the shot now.

And she did. The flying off of the helmet of the bolgan chief without any apparent cause informed Beira that the Godling was taking action. Two quick shots in succession completed the task at hand quickly; Beira could sense the death of the bolgan chief even before it fell to the snowy ground. A job well done. The God Slayer however continued to work calmly, expecting some sort of invitation by Levinia to get out of there, as the Godling would be most likely the one to know whether their mission had been accomplished. Suddenly, Beira heard the voice of her fellow mage, informing her of the mission being accomplished. Best not to waste any further time here, killing these beasts, though it seemed they were unwilling to allow her leave. The sensation of bolgans suddenly dropping dead to the snow informed the Utgardian that Levinia was helping in the mop up exercise. Fortunately for her, Levinia had chosen to get closer, so that Beira wouldn’t have to start going back towards the forest. The last of the bolgans fell, and in a moment, Beira was back at the gate, looking for all the world as though she hadn’t even been in a battle just recently. Fighting in a rather cold environment did well for perspiration, and Beira was glad for the umpteenth time that she had the powers of nether rime at her beck and call. She walked closer to her protégé, her weapons dissipating, as she announced, ”let’s be off, then. There’s nothing fun about killing talentless wastes of space and time, but then they all seem to be dead. Pity. You know how to get us to the next place to cure the next problem, yes?”

The medallion began humming again and releasing its golden light, which enveloped the two mages and plunged them into the vast expanse of interdimensional space. As the globe hurtled through the void, Beira noted to herself that this mission was relatively easy, but she was sure the next mission would be more of a challenge. ”How do you get this thing to give us more mission prompts--? Oh.” For as she began speaking, the medallion hummed in a different note, and an image began to form, just like the one they had seen before. This time, though, the vista was not one of a forest, but of a vast desert, with sandstone buildings dotting the emptiness of the wasteland. A strange temple of sorts stood in view, with a cylindrical stone seated within it, etched on all sides with an unknown language in strange, curving glyphs for alphabets. Then a hooded being appeared and came up to the cylinder. It stretched out a sickly white hand, and the cylinder split from top to bottom, and it left. Meanwhile, the temple began to quake, and as it fell apart, the ground began fissuring, for giants within the earth were tearing the very ground apart, thrusting upwards into open space. Thus freed from the temple, they began to wander the desert, destroying everything they could find or lay their hands on.

What shocked Beira the most was how big they were. ”Is it just me, or did the display we saw in the Rectifier’s place give us an underestimated representation of these giant things?” Beira asked, looking with some levels of misgivings at the display before them. ”And why in all the nine hells don’t we get to kill that white skinned thing before it releases these monstrosities on the world?”


WC: 1019 words
Total: 9460/20000

This anomaly had been resolved, and by the time Beira returned to the gates of the camp, only dead bodies were left behind. Levinia had never found any delight in killing, but at times, it was absolutely necessary, when less violent methods of conflict resolution could not be achieved. Some time ago, Levie would have flinched at the thought of the decimation of a war band such as this, even if they were hell-bent on complete destruction of their world. Nowadays, she was sort of inured to the guilt of taking a life, as long as she had a really good reason for it. In this case, while she had not attempted to contact the bolgans and ask for their side of the story, she was sure that the Rectifier's information was accurate enough to act on it.

They were done here, and the Key was already summoning them to their next assignment.

Once again, encapsulated in a golden sphere, the two mages traveled into unknown regions of space and time. As had been the case before, looking through the translucent bubble only showed an inky darkness that seemed eternally vast. Beira asked if Levinia had a way of causing the artifact to inform them of the next details, but the Key, as though it had heard her, responded. Levie had been about to announce that she had no way of manipulating it to do anything else beyond activating it with her magical energy, but there was no need to answer the question. As the visions materialized, she wondered just what other strange quest they would be sent on.

She saw the bleak desert, and the temple that stood on its sands. She saw the cylindrical stone, and from the scriptures written on it, she surmised it was some sort of ancient seal. She could not read the language; it was probably from some far gone era, but she was sure that if given time, she might be able to figure it out. The academic in her wondered whether she could get a closer peek from what the vision offered, and if she could transcribe anything out of it, but then a solitary figure caught her attention. She squinted at the concealed being, which stretched an arm to break the seal with but a touch. Levinia frowned pensively, as she studied the frail, emaciated hand that caused the deed. Slowly, she looked down at her own slender fingers, then at the smooth fingers of her prosthetic arm. She was starting to figure something out...

Her attention snapped back to the vision, as massive creatures burst out from the ruins that the temple had fallen into. "Oh goodness me!" she said with bated breath, as they stomped and smashed everything in their sights. She turned and looked at Beira, her eyes wide as saucers. "Those things are walking towers!" They were very humanoid, but with some different characteristics, and between the four of them, Levinia couldn't bring herself to imagine the disaster they would cause, were they to rampage into any sort of civilization.

She giggled nervously at Beira's exasperated question. "I guess the Rectifier's version was rather underestimating, though of course, there wasn't any notable feature to compare them to, back then."

She slowly inhaled and exhaled, preparing herself for the battle to come. This was going to test the abilities of the two mages, perhaps more than anything Levinia had faced. But where there was a will, there was a way. She sometimes did not give herself enough credit; she had grown quite strong in the past couple of months, and perhaps this would give her a much needed confidence boost if... no, when she overcame.

"I don't think that would be very possible," Levinia replied to Beira's last question. "Like I said earlier, it's purely conjecture, but perhaps there are some laws that do not permit us to do so. Otherwise, the Rectifier could have just killed this time criminal, and spared himself a lot of problems. I think there are some things that can be tweaked, and then become permanent, and there are some that are unchangeable in the timeline. So, the Rectifier finds the anomaly causer and kills it, then returns to solve the problems that the anomaly caused. In this case, we're doing the rectifying. And about that 'white skinned thing'..."

She held up her prosthetic arm. "Did you notice that only its right arm has only been seen? Why do I have a nagging feeling that that arm is supposed to be right here?" she asked, as she wiggled her fingers. "Well, that may just be a theory, but I sure am going to get to the bottom of this, if I can help it."

The Key made a bleeping sound, and the desert materialized around them. A sudden gust of dry, hot wind assailed the mages, as the artifact powered down and became dormant. Levinia picked it and stashed it away again. She didn't want to have to go looking for it in a desert such as this when they were through, even though she had the feeling that it probably could find them when their task was accomplished.

In the distance, the four giants cast this way and that, looking for whatever they could destroy. Eventually one of them lifted its head and sniffed at the air... or that was what it seemed to do. Then it turned and stared at them. It would have been described as a giant human, except that it had a skull instead of a normal head, and some strange bony outgrowths encased some parts of its body. There was an ominous glare in its eye sockets, then it lifted its head and screamed. The other three stopped whatever they were doing and looked towards the mages. Then they charged, their singular intention apparent.

"Incoming!" Levinia yelled as the one with the skull face approached, lifting up one massive arm, palm open wide. It brought down its hand in one brutal, crushing slap, hoping to smash the mages into the desert sand. Levinia was already running to one side, and as its palm descended, she threw herself into the air.

"Verdant Amulet Grimoire: Telekinesis!"

Her body suddenly seemed to lose its weight, and she flew away from the hand that struck the sands, which lifted up a hefty amount of sand. She flew towards the titan, which turned its baleful eyes or eye sockets on her. Before it could respond, she threw all her weight into a punch aimed at its jaw. The blow smacked its head upwards, and the force of the attack forced the titan into a standing position, but it did little else.

The titan exhaled steam from its mouth, and as it locked its teeth together again, Levinia felt that the rictus grin of the skull was mocking her in some way. Another titan had approached, this one having two long horns on its forehead, and strange patches of skin that glowed dimly.

It was best to fight this battle aloft. She could be more evasive, and her reach would improve. Releasing her magic, she donned her Alchemy Armor, the Ring of Velocity, and in her hands, the lightning spear, Gungnyr, materialized.

"Okay, let's dance."

The idea posited by Levinia about the Rectifier being unable to destroy the creator of anomalies was a reasonable one. As Beira thought about it, it began to make more sense. Seeing as the anomaly creator was not guilty of any crime until the anomalies were created, if the Rectifier had sent the mages to a time before when the anomaly causer had done their dastardly deed, killing the anomaly causer would be more a murder than a rectification, as nothing was ever set in stone as far as the future was concerned. For this reason, the anomaly causer had to have committed the crime against time by creating the anomaly for which it would be labeled a sinner. With the anomaly thus created, it could then be pursued legitimately by the Rectifier, unless the anomaly it had caused was rectified, which was the present task Beira and her companion had set themselves to accomplish. But this meant that for the anomalies to be dealt with completely, there had to be a way to get to the anomaly causer itself, so that this strange creature could be rectified. Because if that did not happen, Beira had a feeling that Levinia would continue being visited by the Rectifier maybe every one and a half decades or so.

While Beira had noticed the strange white diseased skin of the anomaly causer, she had not realized, until her friend had made mention of this fact, that the anomaly causer had only shown so far its right arm, which was interestingly the same arm that Levinia was missing, at least as far as the natural appendage was concerned. ”Oh, so that means that whoever this anomaly instigator is, they are the ones responsible for the loss of your right arm, as well as the accusations of wrong doing which the Rectifier has against you, yes?” Beira asked. ”Initially, I thought that the antics of this anomaly causer were to further some intricate plot of theirs, but now it seems to be just something most personal. Any side plots created by the causation of these time anomalies is just attempting to kill more than one bird with a single stone. Whoever this person is sure has a lot of answering to do, and it shall most certainly not end well with whoever is behind this. I’m thinking, to that end, we can look for clues that will lead us to this impostor while we’re trying to solve the anomalies.”

No sooner had the words finished emanating from Beira’s mouth that the golden sphere was gone, and Beira felt the blast of desert air. She frowned and placed a hand above her brow to shade her eyes. ”How do you Fioreans were so many clothes even in this sort of clime?” the God Slayer asked in disbelief. To search for the giants was not hard, in fact they were the first things the Utgardian saw. Despite their size in comparison to the giants, one of them noticed the mages, and gave a loud, frightening shriek. The four giants began making their way to the mages, and without being told, Beira realized that staying close to Levinia might put the two mages into a difficult situation. Best to separate. It was nice to realize that she had already begun to trust Levinia as more of an equal than a protégé. The girl had really grown since the two of them had met. But now was not the time to reminisce over past and nostalgic matters. A rapidly descending palm informed the God Slayer that she would probably be slapped flat into the sands if she didn’t make her move fast enough.

Darting quickly away from the descending palm, Beira felt herself blasted clean off her feet by the air that escaped from beneath the creature’s hand as it slapped the sand. Using the momentum of the wind, the God Slayer translated her airborne motion into a twisting flip, turning 180 degrees in the air so that when she landed on her feet, she was facing the giant, not backing it. It seemed however, that the giant was more interested in going after Levinia, along with some other horned brute, which left the two remaining ones to face Beira. The first looked like it was made of wood, had a very inhuman face with a single eye and spindly limbs, and possessed a head which looked like a twisting corkscrew of wood. The second had a head which resembled something more eel like, and its body glistened with some slick liquid, which seemed resistant to evaporation, despite the heat of the desert sun. Intent on giving herself some maneuvering space, Beira charged at top speed, evading a downward punch thrown at her by the wood giant. The fishy one leaped at her, intent on stomping her into the sand, but Beira was too fast to get pinned beneath it. The ground trembled under the titan as it landed, and Beira had to leap high into the air, timing the jump as the fish giant came down, so that she would not stumble when the fish hit the ground and caused the shaking earth to throw her off balance. That would be much too hazardous to be allowed in such an altercation as this.

Out of the corner of her eye, Beira saw that Levinia was flying. A nifty trick, and one which would serve the Godling in her battle. Beira, for her part, was a Winter Goddess, not a bird, and she would fight her opponents with her two legs giving her all the locomotion she wanted. The wood giant came after Beira again, and this time she suddenly changed direction as it lunged at her, causing it to stumble into the path of the fish giant, and sending both titans crashing into the sands. Beira laughed, even though she knew that the fall would not hurt the titans. It did feel good however, to have been the cause of the mighty beings crashing to the ground, even if she had done so indirectly. All of a sudden, for a brief moment, Beira felt a change in air pressure, and instinctively leaped out of the way, as a strange black-colored energy beam with green motes missed the God Slayer barely. The blast of dark energy had been released from the spiral formation that made up the wood giant’s head.

”Oh, really!” Beira said in irritated consternation, ”to think that something as big as this would only need its fists to smash me bloody. Now it just had to go ahead and possess that strange black energy thing?! Fine then, Fishy, what do you do, shoot fire?” As if in response, the eel faced titan reached out at her, its fingers suddenly elongating as they sped towards her. ”Oh, okay, I guess you could do that as well…. Ugh, I need to get them dead and stop encouraging them,” the God Slayer muttered, evading the fish fingers. Seriously resisting the urge to make a pun about the situation, Beira performed a graceful cartwheel out of the way of the fingers, which twisted after her, to her surprise. However, Beira had a trick or two up her sleeves. Utilizing her ability to run on air, Beira changed direction in mid-air, just when it seemed she would be caught, and danced away again, this time almost getting the fishy to tie its own fingers in a knot. Then creating a greatsword out of nether rime, she hacked the creature’s elongated fingers, severing two with a single blow. Good. If anything, the fish was not impervious to her cold blade.


WC: 1278 words
Total: 11950/20000

There were four titans in all, and since only two were after her, that meant that Beira had engaged the others in combat. She knew her mentor could take care of herself; there was no need to worry about how she was doing. The best thing was to focus on staying alive and defeating these things which, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be rather hardy creatures. Skull face (yes, that was a good name for the titan that had spotted them first) was most likely strong of skin and bone, and probably attacked with physical strikes. As for Oni (which Levinia decided to name the one with glowing patches of skin, after some demons from Midian folklore), she was sure it was capable of energy projection of sorts, if that glow was anything to go by. Still, it was just a guess, but it was wise to keep an eye out for long ranged attacks from either of them, but especially from Oni.

The spear in her hands had strong offensive power, and that was the reason she had requipped it for battle. An attempt to gauge the abilities of her enemies was the next thing she considered. A well placed long ranged attack was expected to suffice. And if it ended up obliterating the titans, she would be quite pleased, though she figured that it was quite unlikely. Hefting her spear over her shoulder, like she was going to throw a javelin, she aimed at the chest of Skull face, who was charging in again, screaming wildly. At the last moment, she broke off firing her spell and banked sharply downwards, as Skull face's fist roared through the space she previously was. Best thing to do was to put some very good distance between herself and them.

Still gripping Gungnyr firmly, Levinia ascended towards the skies. In such a position she had placed herself, Skull face would have to jump to get to her, and perhaps Oni would show what it was capable of, now that she was out of reach. She raised an eyebrow as Oni stopped and started gathering sand by the fistful. "Okay, this is new," she muttered, as she wondered what it would do next. The glowing patches on Oni's skin began to flare brightly, and the sand in its fists began to shine as well. "Some sort of charging particle ability. I bet my little haven in the Vault that that sand is going to be quite explosive very soon..."

Oni suddenly threw the sand at Levinia, and with the force of its arm, there was no doubt that the sand would be able to get to where she was. Being airborne certainly had its advantages, as her maneuverability was improved. She flew aside, keeping clear of the glowing sand. As the sand came level with her position, it suddenly exploded in a thunderclap and a sharp flash. Levinia was surprised that the shock wave of the detonation was powerful enough to knock her out of the air, and she found herself spiraling towards the desert sands.

"Not good! Not good!"

She grasped her form with the power of her mind and willed herself back in charge of her body, resuming her flight before she had to face a fatal collision. And then she suddenly noticed that Skull face had jumped, an open palm drawn back. It was certain it meant to bat her out of the sky, much the same way one would swat a pesky insect. Levinia knew she wouldn't be quick enough to get out of the way.

"79th Palisade Grimoire: Adamant Planet!"

Instantly, she was surrounded by a bubble, mere seconds before Skull face struck her with an overwhelming force. The next moments were a blurry haze of color, whooshing sound and motion sickness. Levinia found herself in the center of a deep crater. Her body felt jarred, but she was not terribly hurt. Still, she was definitely not out of the woods yet, as tell tale rumblings informed her that a titan was coming her way, fast. She focused, and held her body with her mind once again, just as Skull face loomed over the crater, and threw in one leg large enough to fill it. Fortunately for her, Levinia was already flying once again, and she narrowly missed being turned to a bloody stain on the desert sands. Pointing Gungnyr at Skull face's neck, she yelled:

"Fulgur's Spear!"

A brilliant shaft of lightning surged out of Gungnyr's wicked point and drilled into the titan's neck. With another scream, Skull face staggered, then collapsed, clutching at its neck. Levinia was sure that the lightning attack had done some considerable damage, though she couldn't tell to what extent. Also, there was still Oni to deal with. Oni seemed slower than Skull face, so she was sure she would not be as hard pressed dealing with it, as long as she avoided its explosive sand attacks.

Oni picked up sand again, but this time, poured the glowing earth into its mouth. "Well, do you never cease to amaze...!" Levinia exclaimed, as she prepared to avoid its attack. It swallowed, grasped its stomach in what seemed to be pain, then turned its head in her direction and opened its maw. This time, a powerful blast of blue energy lanced out at her, like the emission of a plasma cannon. That was some impressive power, Levinia had to admit, as she flitted out of the way, then flew in close and slashed at Oni's cheek with Gungnyr. The otherwise silent titan growled and flailed wildly, but Levinia had retreated again to a safer location. Even though it always had that demonic visage plastered on its face, Levie felt she had annoyed the titan. It crouched, gathering sand into its mouth again, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Skull face getting to its feet, growling.

Maybe she could try something.

Levinia placed herself between Skull face and Oni, her back to Skull face, as she watched Oni and waited. In truth, she was alert, keeping Skull face in her psychic sights with her White Augural Grimoire. As Oni ingested more sand to charge up its special attack, Skull face charged. Levinia turned to face Skull face's approach, and at that moment, Oni fired. Levinia simply winked out of existence, as the blast crashed into Skull face's face. Oni stared at Skull face's body, because the titan lacked a head. Levinia's attack with Gungnyr had injured Skull face quite badly, and Oni's eating sand beam was more than enough to blow Skull face's head off its shoulders.

Levinia appeared close to Oni, already wielding an elegant silver revolver, which she pointed into Oni's mouth and fired off a fiercely glowing bullet. The titan closed its mouth a second too late, as the shot had already gone in, and in the next moment, a powerful explosion engulfed the titan's head. Oni's head was wreathed in dark smoke, and its body tottered, then pulled away from the smoke as it fell backwards, its head nowhere to be seen. Levinia didn't know whether the titans had other vulnerable body parts, but most humanoid creatures had their brains as their centers of operations. Destroy that, and you destroy the creature.

A pensive frown crossed her face as she watched the bodies of the titans decompose rapidly, their flesh falling away to leave chalk white bones. Levie wondered whether all the stories she had heard about deserts and massive bones could be related to an event such as this. Well, if the bones remained, and they seemed not to be going anywhere, whatever civilizations that inhabited this world would have some lessons in archaeology waiting for them whenever they happened here. She dropped her weapons, the arms dissolving into white light and disappearing mere seconds after she had let them go. Having completed her quota of titan slaying, she looked to see how Beira was doing.

If Beira’s hacking of the giant fish’s fingers were expected to do something to slow it down, the Utgardian quickly realized, to her dismay, that that hope was unfortunately not plausible. For shortly after the eel faced titan had its digits severed, the stumps simply grew back as though they had never been cut, as a strange inky black gel seeped out of the creature’s cut stumps and formed its fingers once more, before taking on the color, constituency and coarseness of the eel titan’s skin. It seemed that the giant fishy monster had the ability to manipulate its body, probably for attacking as well as defense. Not to mention the fact that it could regenerate as well. Hopefully, that was all the titan could do. The woody one, for its own part, could project beams of some strange dark colored energy from the horn on its head. Although Beira had only started fighting the two giants, she wanted to believe that the wood titan had no other special abilities aside firing that energy beam. Whether it could project this same energy from other parts of its body or not was anybody’s guess. In any case, it was up to Beira to discover the likelihood of that suspicion, while managing to keep herself alive.

She allowed the titans to disentangle themselves from each other, after they had tumbled into a heap with their botched attempt at tackling the God Slayer. The fish titan was on its feet in a jiffy, while the wood one remained on its hands and knees. Suspecting there was foul play afoot, Beira immediately cranked her senses to the max, an action which spared her a whole world of pain. For quickly, Beira sensed that the earth beneath her was moving ever so softly, so as to be almost unperceivable by the unwary. She leaped high into the air, just before roots burst out of the ground, swarming wildly on top of one another and turning the spot on which Beira had formerly been standing into a tangled mess. So, this thing could also grow roots through the earth to attempt to trap its foes from beneath. This meant that if it was in control of the roots, it was also very likely that the roots had to be connected to the wood creature in order for it to be able to subject them to its will. In order words, when using the root ability, the wood creature was practically immobilized.

”Winter God Bellow!”

A spiraling cone of violent frigid destruction screamed out of the God Slayer’s mouth, smashing into the head of the wood titan. There was the sound of exploding bark, as the force of the blast impacted the titan so hard that its hands, which were still held down to the earth by the roots it had tried to use to snag Beira, were torn clean off its body, and remained on the sands, while the titan was sent rocking backwards, lifting its upper body off the ground. A nice portion of its head was also gone, but the wood titan seemed not to be bothered by that in the slightest. It held up the stump of its right arm, and green-black energy began to gather, as the tell-tale sign of the air pressure reducing was felt. Immediately, Beira discharged shards of nether rime at the monster, encasing its attacking limb in nether rime. The blast did not fire, though interestingly, the strange dark energy could still be seen within the nether rime, seemingly dormant. Sadly, Beira was not allowed to explore more about this interesting discovery, as a shadow above her informed the Utgardian that her life was in mortal danger.

Quickly darting away from the increasing shadow, a huge wave of flying sand informed Beira that she had just avoided being hit by the fishy titan. The eel face made a hissing sound, probably borne out of irritation, as it discovered it had narrowly missed its intended target. Beira, for her part, responded by flinging a Winter God Spear at the titan’s face. It made a howling noise as the weapon found its mark in the creature’s left eye. However, that wound did not seem deep enough to end the life of the titan, and the monster’s thrashing only proved that it still had a lot of life in it. It was time to engage in a little risky business and take out the trash. Quickly using her ability to run on air, and the body of the wood titan as a means to climb, the Utgardian began her ascent up the body of the wood titan. It began swatting at her and attempting to clobber the God Slayer, a feat which would have been probably much more effective, if its hands still existed as parts of its body. Sadly for it, all its swiping proved abortive, though Beira noticed that the ice which covered the stump of its right wrist was still there, and the unfired energy remained brimming beneath the ice. Best to use this to her advantage.

Eager to help its companion, the fishy titan strode up and swung downwards with an earth-shattering blow, aimed at the God Slayer. Sadly, the blow missed, and the wood titan took the full brunt of the attack, reeling as it was smitten by the blow. Beira watched the flailing hands of the titan until their swinging trajectories moved in the direction of the fish titan, and dispelled the ice which coated its right limb, just as the limb leveled with the fishy’s head. The tell-tale reduction in air pressure was felt for a split second, and the blast roared out into the distance, making a clean hole through the fish titan’s face. Whatever the black and green energy was, Beira was glad she had not attempted to defend against it, but had rather dodged it, for the fish titan began to grab at its face, even as what remained of its head began to dry and flake away. The flaking continued as the titan’s flesh dried up and fell apart, until its white skeleton crashed lifeless into the sands. Sadly, Beira could not watch the proceedings of the dying fishy titan, as she still had the other titan to contend with.

A lucky blow managed to score a hit on the God Slayer, sending her hurtling off the monster and crashing into the sand beneath. Fortunately, what would have been a devastating attack on her was mitigated by her activating her Winter God Dominance at the last moment. Realizing that lying there in the desert was just calling for a quick death, Beira quickly rose, just as the wood titan brought down a gigantic log of an arm in her general direction, sending sand and dust flying in all directions. It quickly realized that its attack had missed, for Beira suddenly winked into existence high above the creature, descending towards it with a ridiculously giant sword made of nether rime in tow. Obviously, she intended to introduce the giant blade to the titan’s head, but the titan seemed to imagine that it had her where it wanted, for it lowered its head, and from its horn came the green-black blast of strange desiccating energies. But as the blast touched Beira, it suddenly disappeared, as the God Slayer canceled it using her still active Winter God Dominance. There was a brief truncated shriek, as Beira’s descending blade split the creature’s head down to its neck. It tottered for a moment before crashing into the sand, its woody flesh quickly deteriorating to leave gigantic bleached bones and nothing else.

”Well, that was fun,” Beira said, turning to Levinia, wh had just finished her own battle with her adversaries. ”What’s next?”


WC: 1297 words
Total: 14580/22000

Like hersef, Beira had managed to dispatch her titans without any serious harm to her person. Levinia was starting to feel that between the two of them, they could achieve just about anything. However, a thought suddenly came to the fore of her mind, slightly dampening her elated mood: "What if you're alone? What can you accomplish, then?" It was like the story of the ant and the elephant, where the elephant had crossed a bridge and shaken it in its passing. Because the ant was perched on the elephant's head, the ant had proclaimed that the both of them had shaken the bridge. Perhaps it was the same in her case. Levinia looked down at the rib cage she stood atop, a testament to her ability to hold her own quite well, and without support from her mentor. No, the thought that she was incapable by herself was absolutely wrong. She had some decent level of power, and she had proved it today. Still, she would not rest on her oars. There was still a lot of room for improvement.

Just as Beira addressed her, the Key gave off a beep and began vibrating once again. Levinia pulled the thrumming artifact out of her pocket and let it go. It floated up to about chest level, then released a golden bubble once again that enveloped the two women. And again, the dimension of deserts and titans fell away into the darkness of the void between worlds. They were in transit once again, and this time, they were headed for the last challenge. If they were successful, the Rectifier would have no cause to accuse Levinia of committing crimes against the order of Time. The liberty of acquittal was enough to get her excited, although she was worried that the trail that Beira and herself had been following would go cold at the throne of the Rectifier.

Levie sat down and crossed her legs beneath her, assuming as comfortable a position as she could afford. She had noticed that the quests they had been tasked with had been becoming increasingly difficult. And they had all involved giant beings. Maybe it was just her vivid imagination, but she did not want to think of fighting a creature that was any larger than the walking towers Beira and herself had just slain. Still, one could not ascertain the limits of one's prowess, until they had been tested fully. A larger monster could still be killed, even if it was as massive as a mountain. What mattered was if the slayer was strong enough to kill it.

Levinia had no idea how right her line of thought was.

She had closed her eyes, in order to center herself and recover as much spent energy as possible, but with another bleep from the Key, Levinia opened her eyes and looked at it, then at the darkness that surrounded them, expecting the details of their next mission. As before, the gloom lightened to a creature's face. It looked infernal and very ugly, with billows of smoke emanating from its ears, nostrils and mouth, like a furnace. The vision homed in on its repulsive face, and in the center of its forehead was a beautiful well-cut gem, as red as blood and as brilliant as a star. Then the vision faded away.

"Well, all I saw was this hideous thing, and that ruby that seemed so out of place on its forehead," Levinia said to Beira. "Somehow, I feel that the ruby is key to whatever we're supposed to do."

The quest seemed plausibly like some adventure legend mission. Find the evil demon overlord and extract the mystic jewel, which gave him his power, from his forehead. She decided to tell Beira her thoughts, and see what the Godslayer thought about this last mission.

"If we were to put this up with the visions we saw in the Rectifier's throne room, I'd have to say that this ugly that we're after is going to be large. Can't say how large, but it can't be larger than those titans, right? Since it seems that each mission is tougher than the last, I'll assume this one is some sort of magic wielding warlock titan, whose power comes from that delicious looking ruby on his forehead. So, we fight through hordes of his minions, weather his powerful magic, step right up and rob him of his jewel. At least, that's what it looks like to me. What do you think, Beira?"

As the two mages discussed, the Key changed its tonal pitch, indicating that they were arriving at their final destination. The environment around them brightened into a rocky plateau... well, it had to be a plateau, because the flat rock stretched out as far as the eye could see, in all directions. The two mages found themselves standing beside a pedestal of white stone, on which was etched a scripture in an ancient tongue. Strangely, on looking at the text, both of them would find it decipherable. The ancient text read:


"Poetic," Levinia mumbled thoughtfully. "I wonder if..."

The earth beneath them began to tremble, as a statue, larger than most statues they had ever seen, slowly emerged. Then as its dark eyes focused on them, they realized that it was alive. As it watched them silently, cracks began appearing in its rocky skin, which began to flake off like some sort of argillaceous armor. Then its true forehead was revealed, and the blood red ruby flashed brilliantly beneath the darkening sky. The ruby was easily larger than a city's gates, and as the creature pulled itself out of the ground, it was obvious that its height would make the titans they had fought look like ants. It turned away from the mages and began shaking earth from its body, as four gigantic wings were being slowly unfurled.

"Why do I feel it wants to fly with those?" Levinia said, exasperation evident in her voice. "We've got to stop it."

Without really having an idea of how to do so to this colossal beast, Levinia ran towards it.

No sooner had Beira asked her companion what was next, than the Key began thrumming with its usual ethereal tune. This was proof that the two mages had finished the task they had regarding the titans in the desert world, and it was time to move on to the next time problem to be rectified. So far, decent progress had been made, and if things continued the way they were going, it was very likely that by the end of the day, the two rectifiers of the whole time problems would be rewarded with the exoneration of Levinia of the crimes of which she had been accused. It was almost a certainty. What seemed to be the issue that lacked certitude was what the two mages would do after the Rectifier had assured them that it would not be coming after Levinia again. Hopefully there would be a loose end that could be found and followed to get to the unraveling of the mystery. Beira made a mental note to ask the Rectifier if it could determine the current location of where the criminal Levinia impostor currently was, so they could go after the creature, but that was if they ended up before the golden headed creature. In any case, there was also the possibility that the Rectifier would be indifferent to helping them any further, seeing as it had been satisfied. Maybe Beira would try to persuade it that finding the Levinia impostor would be beneficial to both the mages and the Rectifier, seeing as finding this pretender would prevent any more time anomalies from being created and thus give the Rectifier less work to do, while on the part of the mages, they could get resolution to an issue that had hounded Levinia for probably all her life. Whether the Rectifier would consider that bargain to be a good one or not was anybody’s guess.

Soon enough, the two mages were inside the characteristic golden bubble, traveling through the confines of the void to find their next target. With Levinia seating herself on the floor of the bubble, the God Slayer wondered whether she shouldn’t do the same, but decided not to bother. Standing wasn’t stressing her, and she could just as easily get a second wind while standing than sitting. Besides, standing was a more ready position, in her opinion, and she would be able to more easily respond to a threat with her present stance. Her thoughts were hijacked by the different tone released by the floating medallion, and she turned her sights and attention to the display which appeared before the traveling bubble. Unlike the other two pageants that had been seen, this one did not reveal the actions of the impostor that caused the time anomaly. Instead, what showed was the face of a demon, with gouts of smoke exuding from all its facial orifices. Of note was what sat on its forehead: a gem of resplendent beauty, as pulchritudinous as the creature on which it sat was odious. It was clear that this gem was of great import as regards what the mages had to do next. Perhaps it had to be destroyed, or removed. If it was removed, could it be… appropriated?

Beira’s thoughts were distracted once again, this time by the voice of her partner. ”So we remove the ruby, or destroy it. Sounds simple enough, though the doing is going to be the issue.” In response to Levinia’s voiced thoughts, Beira nodded. ”Sounds like the bent of the mission, if my opinions were correct,” she replied. ”But just a note of caution: I don’t think you should have any upper limits on the potential sizes of whatever we have to face.” Beira had seen a few preternatural things, and even beings whose ‘size’ was too large for the realities they tried to fit themselves into, which was why she told Levinia to be open minded about the size of their last opponent. The probability that this thing would be capable of using magic was not something that excited Beira, but she was intent on taking the matter in stride as it came, and handling the problem as best as she and Levinia could afford.

Shortly, the medallion sounded again, and the mages found themselves on a rocky plateau, on which sat a white stone with strange markings which, curiously, Beira could read. As Levinia began speaking, the sound of an earthquake arrested both mages’ attentions. The cause of this commotion was the rise of a statue so colossal that the ones the mages had faced before seemed infinitesimal by comparison. ”Remember what I told you about size, Levinia?” Beira asked, her voice repressed with the awe of looking at something that big. Oh, and it wasn’t a statue. The poem now made perfect sense, especially as Beira saw the four wings of this giant unfurling amidst great clods of earth falling from its rising body. Whatever the celestial prize was, Beira could not say, yet she wondered whether this gigantic monstrosity couldn’t just reach up and pluck whatever it wanted from the skies. Maybe these skies were higher than normal. Whichever the matter, it was clear that the only people expected to do something about this thing were Beira and Levinia.

As Levinia began running, Beira followed suit, but istead began closing distance between herself and the monster by using her ability to control nether rime to start running along, and jumping from one clod of falling earth to the other, as her gravity-defying antics brought her closer to the demon. Eventually, her feet found purchase on the claw of the base of one of its immense bat-like wings, and she began sprinting vertically upwards. Fortunately, despite the height, when compared with horizontal distances, this creature was about maybe 200 meters, a distance Beira could cover in decent time. Suddenly, the wing on which Beira ran began to contort and change shape rapidly, and to Beira’s shock, she found herself on a narrow street, with strange houses lining it. Her Cosmic Resonance informed her that she was still on the giant demon; she hadn’t been teleported somewhere else. And yet, somehow, so was a group of houses. All of this on the demon’s wing. Suddenly, Beira was aware of red eyes, lots of them, watching her from beyond the windows of the buildings. To meet this threat, she created a longsword of dark ice, and waited.

Suddenly, the wing began to move; the creature was flapping. Fortunately, her control of nether rime would keep her from getting thrown off the monster. But with the movement of the wings, the things inside the houses were dislodged: grey, shadowy, gaunt, clawed humanoids, with red glowing eyes and bat wings. ”I’m assuming none of you will be nice and just let me through…” With a  communal shriek that sounded like something out of a nightmare, they dived at Beira. Thus began an intense episode of cutting, slashing and running, which ended with Beira panting and out of breath, ad with a few notable cuts, but nothing to get her out of commission. The shadowy things were all in various shades of cuts and dices, though. And she was now on the apex of the wing. Looking down, she noticed with some consternation that the demon had already begun lifting from the ground. It seemed to be a slow flyer, but with its size, it had reach on its side. Time to act.


WC: 1249 words
Total: 16880/20000

Beira was onto a good idea when she started running on the air to approach the creature. Getting to its feet would mean that one would have to start searching for footholds with which to climb the Archaean. Fortunately for Levinia, she could fly, and so did not really have any need for climbing. Since she could stay airborne indefinitely, she wouldn't have a problem getting to its head... nut that line of thinking wasn't going to work, because this skyscraper was alive, and not only was it capable of movement, it could fly. Being aloft around a creature of this magnitude was very unsafe; for one, the air drafts from its wings could blow her far away from it. Secondly, by flying upwards, the demon would give Levinia a tougher time racing after it to get to its forehead... unless it was hideously slow at flying, in which case, given its size, it would probably not even be capable of flight.

Best thing to do: she would fly till she got up close, then cling to a part of its body and make the ascent by hand and foot. If somehow, it didn't beat its wings much while in the air, she could take advantage of her flying capabilities to make progress. Beira had chosen to ascend the Archaean by way of a wing, and while that had its benefits, Levinia was not too sure if following that path was a good idea for her. She felt she would be much safer clinging to its body and going up from there. With its uneven body surface, she could utilize short bursts of flight and clamber up if the wind drafts were unsuitable for flight.

Like she did back in the sandy desert where Beira and herself battled against the four titans, Levinia took to the air as she ran. The creature was obviously priming its wings, and she began to put all her effort into getting as close as she could. If it flapped powerfully before she got close, she was sure she would be blown away completely. Come to think of it, Beira had probably made a smart move going for the wing. Since that appendage would be in motion, once the issue of hanging on was overcome, she could wait until the wing was closest to the Archaean's head, then make a move to whatever position best suited her. But now that the wings were moving, approaching them was not wise. Stretching out her hands, she managed to grip an out-jut of rock (or was it skin?) that was located close to its shin. As she clambered onto a ledge, the Archaean pumped its wings and lifted its body into the air. Levinia felt a rush of fear and exhilaration, mixed in with a small amount of awe. Such a massive creature must be a wonder to behold in flight, from a distance. It was a pity this whole place seemed devoid of life. She would have liked to have asked someone to take pictures.

But now was not the time for anything but action. Her mission was timed: the Archaean was not permitted to reach the heavens. She did not need to know why. As she got used to the rhythmic movement of the flying giant, she looked around for a better or more surefooted way to climb. To her surprised delight, she noticed that this part of the creature's body was like a city, and steps dug into its body made a spiraling pattern upwards around its leg and towards its torso. Well, that was a good development. Without waiting to wonder who had built such structures on the creature's body, she began running up the stairs. Truth be told, though, her mind often wandered to how this thing had been created, and who had been the architects of its form. She had noticed that it seemed to have some structures built into or upon it, like the 'buildings' that were upon the wing that Beira had chosen. She had also noticed that, in order to compensate for the structures on that wing, the wing on the other side of its body was very thick. If she had to guess, perhaps this thing was a construct... although, for a construct, it seemed very alive. It was probably similar to a lacrima powered automaton.

As she ran, she was slowly aware of a nagging feeling, like she was being watched. Strangely, her Gaze of the Hierophant did not detect anything stalking her, but she couldn't shake off the feeling. Until situations changed, or revealed the source of this feeling, she would proceed, albeit as cautiously as her speed could afford. As she rounded a bend, she came to a sudden halt, her eyes full of surprise. She stood at the edge of a circular 'town square' (no puns intended, or perhaps 'town circle'), which was occupied by marble statues. The statues looked very lifelike, and were in various postures. They were humanoid, or at least, most of them looked more or less human. Levinia frowned. She were definitely dealing with some intelligent force here, or perhaps the remains of its works. Somehow, the statues gave her the creeps, so she tried to hurry along the circumference of the circle and avoid them entirely.

Getting past them, she increased her pace, but something prompted her to cast a cursory glance at the statues. She did, and well, nothing appeared out of the ordinary; they were not expected to move, were they? But wait; something was not right. She was sure that none of the statues had been outside the circle when she first saw them, but now, about three of them seemed to have moved a little towards her. Maybe it was the flying of the Archaean that had caused them to shift or something, but if that was the case, then why had none of them toppled over?

Levinia turned to proceed, and her heart nearly flew into her mouth. Standing directly in front of her was one of those marble statues. She could swear by all her locks of orange hair that the space before her had been clear, but now one of these things was right there. This was very creepy, and no one needed to tell her that some sort of mischief was afoot. She edged round the statue, watching it warily, but it made no movement whatsoever. As she got behind it, she suddenly realized that more of the statues were out of the circle.

"Something is very wrong..."

She backed away from them, but then realized that her back was towards where the statue had come from, and there could be others lying in wait. But she couldn't see before her and behind, and somehow, her White Augural Grimoire was not notifying her of any movements. She turned abruptly, and noticed another statue close to her. Like the first one that had scared her, it had not been there before, and this one had its arms stretched forth, as if it was trying to grasp at her. This spookiness was more than she could bear.

"Endovelicus!"

The large greatsword materialized in her arms, and she struck this second statue, making a 360 degree swing as she did so. The blade cut through matter that was in a position Levie could have sworn was empty, and she noticed that another statue had come close enough to be bifurcated. Her blow had destroyed three of them: the two that had spooked her one by one, and the third that had crept up unseen.

"How am I going to look in front of me and behind?" she wondered, as she backed away from the circle of statues. Every now and then, she suddenly turned, expected to be set upon by another of these strange sculptures, but for the moment, nothing seemed to be in her path upwards. She looked sharply behind her once again, and saw nothing, but by the time she turned back, most of the statues had moved towards her. Their arms were stretched outwards, and their visages had turned demonic. What was more unsettling was that the three that she had damaged were nowhere to be found.

Levinia turned and ran like hell was right behind her.

She heard no sound other than the hammering of her heart in her ears, but she was sure that those things were following her. She didn't know how fast they could move, but she hoped she was fast enough to outrun them. A sudden, very painful blow from behind told her that she was not doing a very good job at that. For a few seconds, she found herself sailing through the air, then she hit the ground rather roughly, getting the wind knocked out of her. She rolled on her back and forced her eyes open. The statues were all around her, arms stretched forward, their faces masks of pure evil. The ones closest to her were even bending over her, but they were no longer moving.

Pure terror filled her mind, and she expressed it as a scream and an explosive force of psionic energy that blasted out in all directions, clearing everything around her in a roughly 70 meter diameter. The statues were thrown all about, and in varying stages of damage, but from experience, they seemed to be able to piece themselves together in a matter of seconds. Levinia got to her feet and ran wildly, for she was within a strange hall of sorts that had no openings to the outside, save the door through which she came and the one on the other end.

Another blow hit her on the side of her head, sending her careening into a wall. This time, she did not bother to see where the attack had come from. She just shrieked like a banshee, and let the power of Endovelicus rip through the hall. The spherical burst of vibrating energy shattered walls, kicked up debris and flung all sorts of things away from her. Through a break in the wall, she saw that the ground was far in the distance, although she could not tell how high she had climbed. Without waiting for another moment, Levinia threw herself through the hole in the wall and plummeted for a moment, before catching another ledge and pulling herself up onto it. She was surprised to discover that she had burst out somewhere at its lower back, and even though she had managed to avoid falling, she knew that she had to be careful how she made such maneuvers. The drafts from the Archaean's wings were powerful here, even though being on the outer edges of the wings would have been far worse. Flying would be difficult but possible.

She resorted to taking small bursts upwards. She would fly, then catch and hold onto something, steady herself and wait for when the wind drafts were least troublesome, and move again. As she passed by the hole she had made with Endovelicus, she noticed that the statues had congregated there, and were looking in her general direction. Interestingly, none of them had their hands outstretched that much. She had dropped her greatsword in her bid to escape, but that was not a problem. Already, she felt the weapon return to her Vault, as she dispelled the magics that bound it to this dimension. Casting one baleful glare at the statues, which stared back innocently, she continued her climb up the Archaean. She would stick to its back until she managed her way to its head. No more wandering through maddening structures for her.

Fortunately for Levinia, the rest of the journey was not very eventful, as far as stalking statues that managed to get past scrying means was concerned, and with the feel of joy a mountain climber experiences when surmounting the last peak, Levinia climbed onto its forehead. She was surprised that the Archaean had completely ignored her presence, aside from when it glanced at Beira and herself as it emerged. Since its face was pointed towards the sky, standing on its face was like standing on a plateau. The whole land spread far beneath her, and looking at it felt giddy. Already, the creature's head was in the clouds, so Levinia had to act quickly.

She approached the ruby on its forehead, which by her rough estimates, was about 3 meters across in diameter. It was certainly large, larger than her entire body. Perhaps she would just break it with a tool, then keep a shard for herself, as a jewel, or a memento of her travails. As she approached it, it seemed to look liquid for a moment, but then looked solid again. She frowned at it, then shook her head. This thing was all shades of creepy. Best to just destroy it and not keep anything for herself.

As she stood over it, it looked like a fathomless bloody pool. She held out her hand, summoning her elegant lightning spear, Gungnyr, into it. As she pointed the larger point of the spear at the pool, or was it a jewel, blood red tentacles, most likely made of the same matter as the pool, thrashed out from the surface and at her. Levinia was not even keen on finding out what would happen to her if she were to be touched by the tendrils, or worse yet, pulled into the pool.

"Royal Shield!" she yelled, as she summoned her powerful shield to protect her. As soon as it appeared, the shield emitted its Imperial Absolute Defense, which protected Levinia from the onslaught of slimy tendrils. The tentacles slithered around the transparent barrier, but were unable to secure a grip on it. Levinia raised her spear in the safety of the shield.

"Call of the Storm!"

A series of magical formulae appeared overhead, and bolts of sizzling lightning struck at the tendrils, as well as into the bloody pool. The pool roiled and bubbled, obviously agitated, but the attack was not enough to destroy it. At least, the lightning destroyed most of the tendrils, although more began to sprout out of the pool, once again. Meanwhile, the Archaean began to flap more furiously, as though intending to get beyond the reaches of the clouds as soon as possible.

Looking back at where she had come from, Beira noticed that the shadowy creatures that had assailed her and had been cut to ribbons for all their troubles were nowhere to be found. Perhaps they had dissolved just the same way as they had formed in order to attack her. Well, as long as they weren’t going to come back to harass her, the God Slayer was quite comfortable with wherever they had decided to take themselves. She looked at the back of the creature’s head, even as she used her nether rime controlling powers to remain attached to the tip of its wing. Of course, without those powers, being in her current position was practically impossible, but at least, that was one of the advantages of being the Winter Goddess. From here, Beira began to consider her options. Jumping was probably the best option; teleportation, while feasible, ran the risk of accurately tagging where she would land, which would prove rather troublesome, if she did not have the correctly predicted landing spot. She would have to jump, and rely on her gravity defying abilities to close the gap between the demon’s city-clad wing and its upturned head.

As the God Slayer bent her knees slightly to power her jump, the spot on the wing on which she stood suddenly turned to some strange slurry mush, and her feet sank into it. Aware that this was no time for extra delays, the Utgardian called on the powers of her Winter God Curse, creating a dark miasma of nether rime around her. Then she concentrated her power outwards as she expended more frigid energy, freezing the wing surface for a radius of about ten meters and slowly but successfully solidifying the quagmire trap, before breaking out and clambering onto the frozen surface. Having managed to deal with this latest hurdle, Beira took a breath to steel herself, then jumped, an almost vertical venture. Once she did, she took two more leaps, using nether rime platforms created underfoot to arrest the effects of gravity as she bounded upwards. The last jump was enough, and Beira managed to grab a jut of rock which made up weird formations on the back of the creature’s head. Quickly, she began climbing upwards, her skill in climbing proving quite helpful as she ascended the obstacle. Soon enough, the God Slayer clambered onto what seemed to be a small tableland. This, she knew, was the forehead. The fact that it was flat was proof that the demon’s face was turned skyward. Ten again, perhaps skyward was an improper term, because by the time she had managed to get on top of the creature’s head, it had already reached the lowest of the clouds. Beira had no idea where the “heavens” started, but she was sure that cloud-level was probably pretty close.

A figure stood within a magical shield, wielding a spear against blood red tendrils that assailed the shield from where the immense gemstone on the demon’s head was supposed to have been. So, Levinia had managed to get to the demon’s forehead before her. Good for the Godling. But there was no time to waste. She needed to provide some assistance to Levinia, not to mention that the demonhad noticeably increased its flapping. Striding up towards the bloody pool, Beira took in a deep breath and gathered her magic together, before releasing it downwards at an angle into the blood red pool, bringing the power of her Winter God Bellow to bear on the pool. The red tentacles assailing Levinia’s shield got torn to pieces, as the pool was literally blown to smithereens by the Winter God Bellow. With an ear-piercing shriek which was certain to reverberate across the empty lands over which this race towards the heavens had been carried out, the demon lifted both its hands towards its forehead, as though it wanted to attempt to squash the two mages on its forehead. Then it suddenly froze, as its entire form was suddenly petrified. Suddenly, the guide medallion gave a single chime, and a bright yellow flash of light engulfed the two mages as they were once more thrust into the void, not having the chance to see what would become of the statue of stone so far up in the sky, high above a dead and empty earth.



WC: 725 words
Total: 20000/20000
Right on teh munniez!