The Wordless Mage
Chapter 39: You Should Have Left Her

Chapter 39: You Should Have Left Her

Corien tugged on the tip of his blade, letting the energy dispel behind it before pulling it away from the demon-possessed Rowan.

Liora’s body slumped down, her eyes panged with a look of disinterest--it was safe to say that what he’d done had been a success.

Grabbing her by her shoulders, he lifted her over and out from the crater.

Blitzing through the air to leave disjointed after-images that were all frozen in place, he made his way out of the crater to look on at the energy contained within Rowan’s palms.

The energy sizzled out, the surrounding aether laying still as if they were letting out a huge sigh of relief.

"Did she already do it," he asked to himself, looking down at the still-unconscious Liora.

"What did you do?" Viral placed his hand on Corien’s shoulder, his face twisting to reveal a mixture of confusion and worry.

"I placed Liora within his mind," Corien responded, dipping his head slightly into a nod.

The king didn’t speak, his only movements being the slight tremble in his lips.

"Hey, what’s wrong with Liora!" Kaia roared, her breath carrying with it heat too prominent for the air to withstand, small sparks of flame igniting in the lingering breeze.

"Again, she’s alright," he continued, slowly releasing her from his grip to seat her carefully on the ground, "just trapped within Rowan’s mind--of her own insistence, of course."

"But how?" Lucien was befuddled, panic in his eyes while he looked down at the crater where Corien’d just been, "neither of you moved. One moment, you were walking to deal with Rowan’s blast, the next, the tip of your blade was edging against his face with a brilliant light."

Corien tilted his head to the side, remembering how she’d stopped time. In the moment, it hadn’t felt out of place, but he realized that, even by the most extraordinary standards, what she’d done was unprecedented.

"See, that’s the thing--"

"Hey, look!" Elias pointed down at Rowan within the crater, his fingers convulsing as if he were moving for the first time in years.

His neck snapped to the side, a booming crack coming from its quick motion.

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

Rocks lifted, teeth gnashed at each other, and the air dove with fearful intensity at the whim of the black energy tearing the wind asunder.

The demon’s anger sizzled in the atmosphere, liquifying the ground beneath it from its weight. It was deafeningly intense, a tremor running in all of the heroes’ limbs.

And yet, that wasn’t even the full extent of the demon’s fury.

The weight in the atmosphere fell in a near-instant, its black shroom no longer reaching out to grip their neck and steal them of life.

No, the demon felt that that was far too quick a death. It thirsted for more--for their mutual pain as their entrails knotted with each other to be accompanied only by deathly howls.

"A remarkable trick, but a foolish one. Sending poor little Liora into my mind without so much as considering just who it was you were messing with." The voice was deep--unnaturally so. It had almost enough weight to press down on the earth more than its overbearing aether, although the only thing protecting them from its effects was the great distance separating it from the heroes.

And yet, even that was of little proportion in the demon’s mind.

Wind shoved into their faces, almost lifting them from their feet as the demon appeared just in front of them, energy coalescing in its pulled back hand.

Corien threw his arm forward with open palms facing the demon, his grimoire running through its pages with all the same nonchalance as him.

A blue barrier stretched from his wrist to hundreds of feet to the sides, appearing in the space between the heroes and the demon’s jutting black flame, bursting against the barrier’s vibrant hue with enough dim to enshroud its own body.

"Duck!" Corien barked, his face more hurried now than it’d ever been before.

Like a knife through paper, the very air seemed to be displaced vertically by a guiding force, waving with all the same free flow as a flag.

What began as a tiny slit began to deepen in its length, the vertical translation no longer caught within two-dimensions.

Opening to reveal a hand, the portal shot out a burst of pure Kodo, its red beaming in the air just past where the party’s heads had been just a moment ago.

Swiftly, the portal closed, Corien’s hands falling to disappear the barrier enshrouded in flame.

"Flames that eat away at aether?" He curiously asked the demon, swinging his hand in front of himself once more to summon a strong gust of wind that collected with it the black flame.

"Kyyyaahhh!" The voice shrilled, a darkened figure bursting through the wall of black that had been slowly parting from Corien’s arcana.

’The king!’ Corien roared to himself, materializing a translucent barrier to surround Viral while dashing toward him with all the strength he could muster.

The demon’s assail did not end at the barrier, its body flying just past where the king stood.

The heroes were all mutually frozen--not from fear, no, but from the speed of the demon’s launch. It was too fast to locate, blistering in the air like a jet.

"Shit!" Corien cursed, closing his eyes to locate a specific application of the Way that he’d kept hidden until now.

It was a struggle, calling for it. Although he’d been supplying aether to his legs, he could feel his joints shudder at the beckon of each passing impact under the arcana’s spell, the technique too strong for his human body to handle.

But he knew that if he didn’t call for it, the person the demon targeted would surely die.

More black flames formed in the demon’s palm, flaring past itself to aim for the person just ten or so feet from it.

Thwam!

With a great deal of pain aching his bones and tearing his flesh, Corien slammed his heel into the demon’s wrist, raising it just enough to miss its attack as it shot out into the sky, the flames displacing the clouds from its upward ascent.

"How...? No matter. You’ve condemned yourself to an inescapable death by making contact with my hell-flame. Even if you’ve protected little Liora, you have essentially doomed all the rest by ensuring your defeat." The demon smiled, its mouth a void that echoed only its deepest insanities and fury.

Bits of the flames jumped onto Corien’s foot, quadrupling its rate of expansion as it sped up his ankle in pursuit of the rest of his body.

Jumping back away from the demon and staring at the unconscious Liora who’d almost been eviscerated by the demon’s flame, Corien tried first for sending a gust of wind through his open palm to blow towards his leg, but it did nothing to stop the flame’s continued path, eating away at his skin in complete disregard to the protective layer of aether he’d placed.

Falling to his knees, his face winced at the pain, trying desperately to abate the pain by rubbing his leg but resisting with the knowledge that it would spread to his hands.

"Hrng... I guess you’re right," Corien said, watching the flame consume him.