Until death?

by Andur

I understand it! I gives me the cold sweat when I think that I am next! Even though Tongord hasn't done anything evil to us!

  …....yet. He hasn't done anything YET. Yes that's the correct way to think about it. You are right Celes! All raccoon geezer are some kind of monster cockroaches! You are never allowed to underestimate them.

  So I walk up to Tongord next and put my hands into my pockets. I don't really have a good idea how to fight him either. How do you fight a guy like him, without a huge difference in strength? From our time with Nicosar, I know that you can blow them completely to pieces with an explosion.

  For starters, I pick up a small stone with telekinesis and accelerate it, placing it directly between Tongord's eyes.

  *Splash* a cloud of red goo exits the hole in the back of his head. Who ever said you need to throw big rocks at someone to kill him? But I know this won't work. I did that already a few times to Nicosar. It made him just angry.

  Now that I have won some time, I need to put up some defences! “Shield!”, “Stone Skin!”, my preferred defence skills.

  Tongord is already done with healing up, small wounds seem to be no problem, even if you hit a vital spot.

  “Somehow it disturbs me, that you fight with your hands in your pockets! I was at your introduction party and I know your abilities are no joke. But it still disturbs me. I want to correct that manner!”, Tongord complains to me.

  “I am sorry, but it is my style to fight this way. There isn't much my hands can do, what my mind can not anyway.”, I answer.

  “Then I want to see, what happens when you use your hands!”, a voice says behind me. I turn, but Tongord already struck at me, breaking my shield.

  “What I wish is thunder!”, I call out as Tongord grabs my collar. My mana channels and converts into electrical energy, running through Tongord and me.

  Ever touched the wires of a commercial power supply? Yeah, not good, I know. We both light up like a Christmas tree and are blown apart. I fight to stay conscious. Thanks to that body of mine the lights didn't go dark completely. “Heal!”, uh that feels good. Much better now.

  This was a little bit risky, but electrical attacks are the only thing I didn't try yet on Nicosar. I sit up and see Tongord coming my way.

  “This ability is just a cheap cheat!”, I scream. “Then use your hands. If you don't I will find ways!”, Tongord is almost over me!

  “FINE!”, I scream and hold out a hand to him in a gesture like I would grab him - “FORCE”. Tongord suddenly stops and is lifted up like being grabbed by a gigantic hand.

  Ugh. Not good this is tiring. That's the reason why I find this fighting style stupid. I strain myself again and smack him in an arc into the crater which Celes had created.

  Upon hearing the nice sound of an impact I strain myself again and close my hands in front of me, which makes it easier to create the effect, I wish for. The earth around the crater starts to move and piles up to bury Tongord beneath it.

  After a nice little mound is formed, I relax and go to my knees.

  “Haaah, haaah, stupid... way.... to.... fight....”, I am exhausted now. See? I told you, only stupid magicians do something like that.

  “Yay! We won! The geezer is no more!”, Celes runs up to me and picks me up, shaking me happily like a doll. Stupid strength monster! Tanja, Sven and Sandra run up to us too and cheer!

  Suddenly a part of the thrown up earth moves and a hand thrusts outward! We all go silent. “Uuum, isn't the class about to end?”, I ask.

  All of them nod and make a run for it! “Don't leave me behind, I am out of power here!!!!”, I scream.

  Celes turns around to grabs me by the neck to pull me after her. Ow! Ow! On second thought! Just leave me with the monster!

  19 - Interlude - At the centre of all things!

  I walk through a white nothingness. But when I concentrate, I can see currents and paths, which lead me to new places and new worlds.

  When I reach out, I can feel them. And if I grab one, I get carried away to the place it leads me to. Inside this network, I can see dead zones.

  Places where a soul can neither move forward, nor backward. If you loose yourself in one of those, you may never find out again. With no path to guide you, you would be damned to wander there forever.

  That's why the others fear those places, but not me. At least not any more. A long time ago I got lost in one of those. I don't remember how long I wandered there. In the end my mind knew nothing but white. And I gave up, I sat down and just watched the white nothingness.

  But then I saw it. The place wasn't void of paths. They just flowed so slowly, you had to remain still and silent for an eternity, in order to become aware of them.

  And so I found my way back. But the world I found when I came back, I didn't like it....

  The path I walk on ends and I step onto a world of crystals. Before me is a shining City, populated by beings, who are beyond comprehension. Above me shines a blue sun, which is dancing a deadly dance with a black hole.

  They are the council. Like megalomaniacs, they decide the fate of all. They wield the greatest powers, under all the gods. But I think they can only wield them because they build their city at this special place. At the centre of all things.

  And the very first law they apparently decided, was for their rule to never end.

  I walk through the City, where I see gods, who are just empty shells. They walk around and talk, but their soul is dead. They are too old to remember what it feels like to live..... like me.

  But unlike me, they are not aware of it. They just go on to exist and don't care any more. But just to exist is not enough for me.

  I step into the great hall in the centre of the city. From here the council rules them all. And all who step here just blindly obey in awe.

  “Seria!” a voice calls out to me.

  The council sure likes to play games. Hiding themselves and just speaking with a voice from the heavens. Do they already believe themselves to be even above other gods?

  “I am here to answer to your summon.” they sure like it if you flatter their ego.

  “We heard from Tjenemit, that you wandered the void zones in the river of souls?”

  “I just take a look from time to time, in order to satisfy my curiosity.” I lie.

  “We also heard you couldn't show him the fallen ones?”

  What the heck did he tell them!? Does he want to create trouble for me?

  “I threw them into a void zone. Only I can wander it, as I already know it well from my past missteps. I keep them there, caged in nothingness. I already explained to Tjenemit that I would take him there, if he wishes it. But there are still risks! I can't guarantee anyone's safety, who accompanies me on such a voyage.” -Me

  “So he refused?”

  “Yes.” Ohoh, it seems like even the Council plays its own schemes and games of power. That makes you even less worth of the role, you wish to play. Did Tjenemit refuse to risk something in order to play the inspector?

  “We will talk about this again. You may go now.”

  “Yes.” I answer.

  Deal with your internal problems first and forget me in the course of it. That would be best. Hopefully they will need quite some time to sort this out, whatever their games are.

  20 - A new form of art!

  Tongord didn't come after us. Somehow I am a little relieved, but I still feel down..... very down. We are currently in front of the arts class and waiting for the teacher to arrive.

  “What's up Angrod? You seem a little more than tired!” Celes and I may not like each other, but we still lived together for quite some time now. It would be strange if we wouldn't be able to read each others mood.

  “Hah, well. I thought about something very disturbing regarding Tongord.” -Me

  “Yes?” -Celes

  “He seems to belong to a pure raccoon lineage.” -Me

  “Yes?” -Celes

  “We killed him at least a hundred times within an hour today and it d
idn't even disturb him.” -Me

  “Yes?” -Celes

  “And Tanja said, his regeneration ability depends on his mana pool.” -Me

  “Yes?” -Celes

  “How many times do we have to kill our old geezer, who has the raccoon heritage and the strength and mana boost from the royal heritage?” -Me

  “....”

  “....We will never be able to take revenge! AAAH! Why did you tell me this!” Celes starts to shake the disillusioned me.

  “Hahaha, your fault you asked.” -Me

  “Stop playing around and enter the classroom! What's the insult still doing here?” Jeniva Guger is suddenly before us. Why are you still calling me an insult!

  I enter the classroom and walk over to my painting. While everyone else starts to paint, I just stare at my masterpiece. Why can't Jeniva appreciate, what I want to give to this world?

  Modern art is the holy grail for every artist, you just have to put some dots and lines onto the picture and you get the big money for it.

  You don't need any talent and just for five minutes of work, people call you the biggest artist of the century.

  Hoh, maybe I am no big painter, but there is other stuff I can do! She wants something that looks real, so she will get something that looks real! I take off my Rorschach painting and start to rip the paper to confetti, then I mix it with water until I have pretty good mush.

  Hehehe. Now I will create a sculpture of Jeniva, using telekinesis. No big artistic talent needed here, I just have to imagine her. An easy task for the great magician Angrod!

  I just have to think of those legs and this stupid short skirt, which almost shows off her panties! And those stockings, she always wears, should be banned to the underworld! Those hip-movements should also be forbidden from school! You can't show off like that in front of children!

  Then the tight jacket, which emphasizes those humongous cow... things! I wonder how much milk she can give? I should write a thesis about this! She violates every law of physics by not losing to gravity.

  Hmmm, maybe she uses some kind of levitation underwear? I have already seen the strangest things in worlds with magic.

  Then there is her hair, which she wears as a pony-tail, going down to her hips. The horse tail and horse ears are just a formality now.

  Hah! Maybe the suit is a little bit tighter after all, I can fix that! Yes, Yes, that looks good! Very good! Very sexy, and close enough to real life. Hahaha!

  Now that I think about it, isn't it a bad choice to give her a figure of herself to redeem myself? Won't my intentions be misunderstood?

  Suddenly a shadow falls onto my figure and I look up “Hello, Mrs. Jeniva! You need something?”

  *Whack!*

  ….

  ….

  ….

  I open my eyes. Why is the world upside down? “What happened?” I ask. “Oh, you recovered your consciousness! Good. You can walk by yourself again!” Celes answers and drops me on the floor.

  “Oh... em.... How long was I out!?” I try to get up, but everything is swaying.

  “Jeniva broke her pointing stick on your head. Then she confiscated the perverted figure. I found it would be a waste of time to carry you to the infirmary, so I took you along to the next three lessons and dropped you into your seat.” Celes explains.

  “My innovative art got confiscated? But it was as close to reality, as I could make it! I think I will never manage to pass this lesson! I guess I have be lucky with Samarin's question at the end of the year.” I drop my head.

  “Strangely enough, she gave you a positive evaluation on your first art. And I am not sure any more, if I should call you perverted hermit instead of stupid hermit from now on!” Celes answers.

  “Really!?” Oh, thank you Jeniva, maybe I have some talent after all.

  “She still said you would have to learn to paint one way or the other. Otherwise she won't let you pass.” Celes has a sarcastic smile on her face.

  Ugh. Not good, I am no painter. “Soooo, which lesson do we have next?” I ask. “We will have rune magic.” Celes answers with a displeased face.

  Good, hehe. If I have problems with a subject, you should have them too! So we will see teacher Mirgurd Salar again. He seemed to be the boring type, with nothing but magic circles in his head.

  Mirgurd is a young, but sick looking fellow. He has something like angel wings on his back. The first time I saw someone with such a drastic trade.

  During his first lesson, he did nothing but reciting an introduction to his lesson. Rune magic is all about the correct use of runes, to gain an effect you wish for.

  If you have more complicated goal, you can combine multiple runes into a magic circuit. It is really nothing more than a simple programming language.

  So we enter the classroom upon arrival and find pure chaos there. Mirgurd has papers all over his desk and on the floor. It looks like, he is searching for some documents.

  As we enter together with other students he looks up and counts us, while the bell starts to ring. “Good, good. Everyone here. No injuries!?” he asks into the room.

  “Why should we have injuries?” -student

  “Haven't you heard? There was a terrorist attack on the school yard in the morning! Multiple students and four teachers were paralysed for over an hour with a strange new weapon! Everyone is in an uproar. Nobody knows how such technology could come to be over night, with no implications of its development.” he explains his behaviour.

  Celes and I try to not give away our knowledge of the whole case. But the teacher doesn't go deeper into the matter and starts to hand out some sheets instead.

  “I have a difficult problem here, two incompatible runes which are to be combined via multiple connection patterns. If you paid attention yesterday, you should be able to solve it.” Mirgurd hands out the sheets and immediately takes up his searching activities again.

  It seems like he is the type, who drowns his pupils in work, so he can do whatever takes his interest at the moment. It look at the sheet and ponder over it for a moment.

  Then I scribble the answer down and draw the required circuit. No big deal, it is the same as connecting two variables over a few logical commands.

  Then I want to watch out of the window, which is on my left. Unfortunately for Celes, she is sitting left from me and I notice that her eyes are not where they belong.

  I grin like a devil and lean with my elbow onto the desk to cover my sheet. Now she looks up at me with a grim expression.

  Suddenly I get poked into the rips by something pointy. While I twitch, she snatches my paper and starts outright copying it. The witch used her tail!

  That is cheating, I say! Yes! Aaahhh, its unfair, why can't I cheat in art classes. Should I snitch her? But she hasn't done anything really harmful to me since your contract. Wouldn't that be a violation?

  I am not against cheating. Cheating is not against the rules, as long as you don't get caught! Yes, that's my opinion on this matter.

  Suddenly Mirgurd looks up from his sheets, “Miss Celes, this practice is not meant to copy the work of another student!” Has the guy eyes in the back of his head? He stands up, walks to our desk and takes my sheet.

  After a short nod, he puts it back in front of me. “It's wrong anyway. Next time copy from someone else.” he shakes his head.

  “Huh!? Angrod wrong with magic? Is the end upon us?” Celes asks. I arch an eyebrow and take another look on my sheet, but I find no mistake.

  “Um, can you explain what I did wrong?” I ask Mirgurd. Then the teacher sighs and answers, “You mashed both runes into each other. They have to be put beside each other and then you properly connect them with connection patterns.”

  “Huh!?!? Why should I do something stupid like that!? You would have to interlace patterns around both runes. What a headache! It is much faster to connect them, fold them over and use the patterns to fix the remaining open connections!” I blurt out.

  Mirgurd, looks at my sheet again
with big round eyes. “You can fold runes?!” he asks and starts mumbling to himself.

  Oh..oh... It seems nobody had this idea yet. Damn! Fucking backward civilisation! I lost money again!

  Celes tugs my elbow, “Don't worry, if you hadn't spilled it, I would have. It's such a basic idea, even I know that much.”

  Should I worry, or be happy that Celes seems to understand me better than I do her?

  21 - The end of the second schoolday!