บท 184: First difficulties
While Konstantin was preparing new throwing projectiles, I tried to follow the process of their creation, but, unfortunately, I could not make out much, because the wizard used not the usual weaves, but complex multi-stage pentagrams, which reeked of demonic mana. The spatial energy, which in theory should block communication with Black, was also present, and there was also light mana. It would have been strange if it had been without the latter, but the holy water-filled pomegranates were the basis for it.
However, it didn't make much sense to delve into the creation of these disposable artifacts, because the weapon was too situational. It was like a local antimagic barrier, but it was designed for only one type of energy, and I couldn't cast it even with Abby's boost. The source simply can't give out the necessary amount of mana at once, and other people's mana is not suitable for such subtle manipulations.
But what was really interesting was the reason why the whole thing didn't detonate immediately. I'm still a novice mage, but light and darkness are literally antagonistic energies, and there's no way to synergize similar types of mana, as Simon and his half-demon, half-zombie nature suggest.
"And how did that thing not explode?" I muttered loudly enough when John was done with the first shell and paused briefly to catch his breath and replenish his magic reserve, which had sagged considerably.
The wizard did not let my expectations down and began to tell me with a clever look that it was enough to clearly delimit the opposing energies with a neutral barrier, and also to fill mana not with amorphous spell threads, but with some more material things. Even a stone picked up from the ground would do, around which you could then form a completely new structure. To make it clear, he slightly shook the second billet, demonstrating that inside the vessel there was a separate space in the form of a long cylinder filled with an analog of gunpowder, so that the probable enemy would not only be doused with holy water, but also stunned and hit by shards charged with light mana.
Eh, at such moments you realize that a couple of read reference books, a lecture performed by a sexy illusionist and a dozen handmade magic trinkets do not give you the right to be called even a novice artificer. But I definitely found a mention of similar enchantments, but the knowledge just lay dead weight until the associative series was triggered. Mentalist mages have it a little easier: they can create a catalog of all their memories and have direct access to them. But I have a great memory, but my knowledge is more like a piled book on the floor, some of which has torn pages, because normal memorization still requires a certain level of concentration. But that didn't really matter, because John's words gave me a great idea, which I immediately started to test, stepping aside and taking out a tablet with copies of magic books to refresh my memory.
Enchanting the desired barrier was really quite simple and it was easy enough to form it in the form of the usual weave for the test, and the only difficulty was only in the conversion of mana, which must necessarily be neutral. But here I already had my hands full enough and I could draw the conversion rune in any state. Even drunk on ambrosia at the feast of the Amazons, which was confirmed in practice.
The concept was simple. I have a few favorite spells that can be recreated with a tattoo, but the spells themselves are starting to conflict with each other due to different schools of magic. So why not try to separate them from each other with small barriers?
After sketching out a rough plan, I concentrate on the energy flowing through my body and start "creating". I cast an ordinary shield not far from myself, and then I created a neutral barrier anchor point on top of it, and after that I started to create a standard air blade as the most harmless in case of failure. Concentration on such a maneuver took a lot, because I had to hold three fairly complex spells at once. At some point their threads even began to spread, but the maneuver with the addition of prana helped to stabilize the structure a bit, and bring the matter to an end.
What can I say in the end? I did it! Thanks to a thin layer in the form of a neutral barrier, it was possible to literally hold two weaves from different schools at the same time, thus creating a very peculiar sandwich.
"I was distracted by the voice of John, who was lighting a cigarette. - You just have too little control and mana density, and you're not used to controlling ready-made structures. Then you'll be able to hold a dozen of these spells without the use of neutral barriers," he illustrated by creating a translucent shield of flames in less than three seconds, using two different schools. And this is despite the fact that fire by its nature is much more aggressive than air, which means that the destruction of the weave should be even faster. - Now you'd better concentrate on the cast speed and shuffle the necessary spells, or just make the distance between them bigger.
"What if I plan to use this approach when creating an artifact?"
"You want to create a defense-attack artifact? Well... If you don't have the right material, you can use barriers, but that's a dead end. Look at Dr. Fate. Each of his artifacts is an incredibly powerful item, but, mind you, they each have some sort of narrow specialization. Protection from magic, protection from physical damage, mind control, flight... Many mages have tried to create a universal artifact, but the result was a lot of nonsense that wasted a lot of rare materials and time. If you want to create a grimoire, you should create a grimoire. But be sure to think very carefully about how to protect it, so that no one can intercept it, or you'll be left bare-assed against a band of undead with a Death Knight at their head," the man shuddered slightly, clearly remembering his violent past.
"What about the Symbol of the Seven?"
When I was studying the history of the magical world, I came across a reference to a powerful item wielded by an ordinary American detective more than seventy years ago. And there was a lot of stuff in it: damage reflection, exorcism, mind reading, and force field. Even clairvoyance got in, though this school is quite specific and requires a certain mindset. In short, the thing is extremely interesting, but, unfortunately, it was destroyed during the invasion of demons from Tartarus.
"My companion coughed, choking on the cigarette smoke. - Are you really comparing the handicrafts, even of powerful wizards, to a conceptual object that divine creatures literally put a part of their essence into?
"That was a really stupid thing to say. Hmm... You're a little too talkative today," I noticed the wizard's strange behavior only now. It's like he's trying to talk longer, because he realizes that as soon as we stop having intellectual conversations, we'll have to go to Arkane's house. There's even Shepard, holding two modified holy grenades, tapping his hoof a little, hinting that the conversation has gone on too long.
"Yes, my intuition insistently hints that I was wrong to get involved in all this," the wizard replied doomedly, flicking his cigarette into flight.
In just a moment, a spell pentagram flashes around the discarded object, and it streaks of light towards the problematic area of the defense, where it explodes, destroying a large group of creatures.
"Oh, well, it's too late to back out anyway."
While I was doing some fascinating research, there were some changes in the team. Instead of Harley, who had gotten carried away with slaying enemies, they decided to take Simon on a mission to save the world, whose abilities impressed everyone present. Still, it's one thing when someone modestly says that a little bit of demonic magic, and quite another when several huge black and white tentacles appear out of thin air and mow down dozens of creatures at a time. What to say, if even Konstantin was pleasantly surprised by the demonstrated abilities despite the fact that before this he had already managed to communicate a little with the chimera and should have been aware of her powers. However, only after what he had seen did the charmer decide to give the boy his card with a proposal to meet in private sometime and exchange experiences more thoughtfully.
Now I'd have to tell Simon about all the pitfalls, so that he wouldn't be fooled or do something stupid, because "selling your ass" to the metaphysical essence of an entire city was a little alarming. Though auric vision together with partial connection to the infopole should help my acquaintance to cope without help.
Harley wasn't upset that she would miss Beaver's main match with Donkey because of the reshuffle, and there was one very good reason for that. She really enjoyed the genocide of the Black One's spawn too much, and she wouldn't have that kind of fun in Arcane's lair. If she was even allowed to fight at all, because the squad was really powerful. It wasn't the League's main force, of course, but Steppenwolf would be sad to see it.
I understand my beloved's feelings perfectly well, and maybe I would even join her, if it weren't for the desire to help Abby. After all, sometimes you want to relax a little and just crush the skulls of bastards, using all available means, as if at a therapy session in the anger room... Unfortunately for our enemies, the blond cutie decided to take full advantage of the chance. She'd twisted her methods of retaliation: a pistol, an assault rifle as a crushing weapon when she ran out of ammo, a couple of short knives lubricated with a toxin developed against Rot that made the red flesh bubble up and peel off the bones, the usual grenades and dynamite, modified footsteps in the form of spiky gloves or a big drill, surrounding objects in the form of lampposts and road signs, the girl even turned into a live projectile a couple of times, just by activating a protective tattoo to turn monsters into tortillas when falling from a height. The main weapon, of course, also had a job to do.
At maximum reinforcement, the weight of the pink bat was close to a hundred kilograms, and the initial swing speed was maintained (at this point, physics showed the unwitting spectators the middle finger). All in all, if not for the reinforcement runes, the steel would hardly be able to survive even a couple of blows with a force of two hundred thousand kilograms. Just for comparison, the force of a heavyweight boxer's blow is about one and a half thousand kilograms, and here a hundred and thirty times more. So the first blows of the lucky beauty literally tore the creatures apart and made the asphalt covered with cracks, as if from a mini earthquake. At times, it even seemed that the monsters were trying to stay away from the blond angel of death, whose lips were smiling madly and happily.
"Okay, the enchantments are quite fragile, so don't even think about actively using your abilities, at least not until we get inside the Tower. Lantern, this is especially true for you."
I was distracted from the contemplation of the beautiful Valkyrie sowing death by Konstantin's serious voice. He would have to go into the enemy's lair, because he was the only one who could camouflage a large enough group and get it to the destination point without being seen.
A large red pentagram flashes beneath his feet, causing him to tense up slightly, but the familiar symbols of the chameleon's charms instantly calm the paranoia that had reared its head. After a few seconds, the surrounding world becomes slightly distorted, due to the dome around it. After a few seconds, the dome becomes even more cloudy, for the mage has tried to change its energy spectrum, adjusting to the environment. Still, our allies occasionally encountered energy-sensitive opponents, and a large empty space would surely attract too much attention. Then there were the various concealing barriers, and at the end of the flight enchantment to tear the huge slab we were all standing on off the ground, but I didn't bother to watch it, absorbed in two things at once: stroking Abby so she wouldn't be so nervous about meeting her uncle, and modifying her tattoo.
John's words did not affect my desire to create an artifact for myself, because I planned to use not some amulet or staff, but my own body, which would be hard to lose. Moreover, the moment when the control and mana density will be enough to use several different schools at the same time may come even after ten years of active spell practice, and tattoos will increase the chances of survival already now, which is very important, given the upcoming fight with the avatar of Rot. And don't forget that magic ink is subject to my will, and it can always be changed to something more practical. However, it is still not worth using this method of sorcery too often, because in the future the ability to quickly create complex weaves will be much more useful than the speed of drinking the energy of an already finished structure.
The decision was made, and the first thing I did was to completely remove the anchor points of the hypodermic shield from my right arm, which was easy enough. But to create a template for weaving the ice spear, I had to make serious efforts and even remember the Between Worlds for concentration, otherwise the tattoos didn't want to take the shapes I needed. Of course, it would be possible to cram more templates, because magic ink could really penetrate deeper into the epidermis, preserving all its properties and thus creating multi-level constructions that could be separated from each other by neutral barriers, but time was running out, so I had to stop at the most actual variant.
The modification took a little longer, and I was finishing the last threads when we reached the top of the Black Tower, which Arkane had chosen as his main base. John's cloaking complex had worked well, and no one had bothered us the entire trip. Some of the flying creatures came close to the barrier at most, but the light enchantments of the Moroka were perfectly capable of working on their rotten brains, forcing them to adjust their route slightly.
The structure itself was virtually no different from most of the other buildings in Apokolips, brought to Earth through numerous portals. It was just as monumental, ominous, and attractive at the same time. The black metal without a single joint glistened mysteriously in the light of the setting sun, and the jagged crown on top gave the building even more resemblance to the stereotypical lair of an evil wizard from a cartoon.
"Don't get off the platform," John said seriously, as soon as our unusual transportation passed the wide archway leading to the portal platform.
"I don't feel like it," Hal, Barry, and I answered in unison. The others were silent, but they obviously agreed with our authoritative opinion.
Before, the Tower's interior was sterile and respectful of the incredibly reliable technological devices of the space civilization, reminiscent of the necron style of the 40th millennium, but without the beautiful green color, but now there were traces of destruction, clumps of moving red flesh, and abandoned gray cocoons, where monsters had once matured. All in all, it turned out to be a kind of biopunk that would definitely appeal to Richard Geiger fans.
"It's getting dark, don't you notice? - Flash said quietly, wiggling his head vigorously.
The reason for the changed lighting was a large membrane of flesh that had grown behind our backs and securely blocked our escape route.
"Look out!"
John's warning coincided with the fact that a large bone spear suddenly pierced the platform, passing right between me and Lantern, who was standing next to me. The defender of the Galaxy turned slightly pale, because just half a meter to the left, and the world could lose such a beautiful man, who at the request of the wizard weakened his defenses as much as possible, so as not to interfere with the cloaking charms. A flash of green light, and the next spear shattered into shards, colliding with the aura of the Ring of Will.
"Tutum area! - The wizard shouted loudly, activating another large pentagram beneath us.
The platform slammed into the ground, causing the heroes to stagger slightly.
"Aeris fluxus! Obice! - The mage chanted again, and a sharp gust of wind dispersed the dust that had risen, and then a small haze of a protective barrier in the form of a segmental shield appeared in front of my eyes, and a couple of small bone spikes smashed against it.
~Clap-clap-clap-clap~
There was a polite clapping sound from the far entrance, and then, as if out of thin air, a skinless, bald man with a small golden tiara on his head appeared, surrounded by a dozen powerful creatures of Rot. He was dressed in a blue mage's robe with a loose black suit with gold inserts underneath.
Eh, as I knew that the surprise effect can not be counted on, so we act according to plan "B".
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