Chapter 27

“What is death? We call it a force, an act, a moment, but in truth it is a process. It creeps in, step by step. The slowing of the heart. The asphyxiation of the brain. The cessation of chemical functions. Social death can occur long before physical death, or long after, depending on the funereal customs observed. Yet whatever death might be, it is something so potent it shapes the life of all who are living and exists as an abstract force in the form of death affinity mana. There are some who argue that for every concept, some portion of mana has its affinity, but simple observation shows us that this simply is not true. Truth and love have no affinity. Yet life and death do. They are not merely abstracts. They are tangible forces at work in the universe. As fundamental as any other element that makes up reality.”

—The Problem of Death Magic, Doctor Galben Sternin

On the floor of the arena once more, Sylvas fought to maintain concentration. 

The mage he faced this morning was human, with a shock of bright red hair that made her stand out amidst the uniformity of the rest of his species. While she was from the Greyhall, Bael’s intelligence on her was good. She was a forth circle fire affinity mage with a mixed range fighting style not so dissimilar to Hammerheart’s. Initially, Sylvas had disputed that, but it seemed that Hammerheart’s switch to a close combat focus had been for him. The dwarf had recognized the weakness in him and decided to go after it. Her name was Gert, short for something that Sylvas hadn’t bothered to learn, and she had greeted him as he emerged with a cocky smirk.

Oh you should definitely go and talk to her when this is over. Your love life since I expired has been positively dire. A dead devil, a lizard, and a healer that has patched you together so many times, she thinks you belong to her. If I’d known you’d have such trouble afterwards I probably would have taken the time to steal your virginity before I was turned to dust. Though on second thought, perhaps it is complimentary, I’m such a tough act to follow that you’ve—

“Shut up and let me concentrate.” Sylvas growled.

Oh how much concentration will it really take. She throws around some fire, you use your little orbs to steer it away, you mangle her innards with a spell, then hope she’ll still let you mangle her innards with your—

“You are a figment of my imagination. A manifestation of a guilty conscience. You are not real.” He finished rather lamely, “So shut up.” 

She was laughing at that last part in his mind, but at least she was mostly quiet as the first fireball flew his way. He should have been tired, exhausted after a whole night recovering from the last bout’s injuries and trying to fight off this personal demon that just would not shut up, but instead he moved without a hint of lethargy. One of the few benefits of being infused with so much life affinity mana from the healing spells, he supposed. That or the enhancements he’d been making had paid off enough that he no longer became tired. Probably the former, he wasn’t nearly so lucky. 

Regardless, he flung himself aside as the first exploding ball of flames hit the ground beside him, and just a little tug of will and a little reduction of weight let him skim across the surface of the sand out of the fires reach.

He returned fire with an Inversion as she tried to launch her next spell, and it fouled her aim as gravity reversed beneath her feet. She launched the next fireball and it burst harmlessly over the dome above.

Casting as he went, Sylvas levitated up and sprang into rapid motion, darting across the sky so she couldn’t get another clean shot at him. She tried all the same, launching darts of flame up that seemed to flutter like hummingbirds as they buzzed harmlessly by. He deployed his orbitals, getting ready to do exactly as Mira said, and use them to redirect any spells that did happen to get near enough to be a problem. It irked him to obey that voice in his head, but he supposed that it was technically his own thought, just given a different voice.

No, it is because you’ve always been a good and obedient little follower. Especially when I asked you for something. Especially, especially when I pouted just a little bit after asking you.

Ignoring the voice and the blush spreading across his cheeks, Sylvas launched a Focused Gravity Spike back. The fire mage was quick enough on the uptake that she managed to fling herself aside, even though the tiny speck of darkness approaching her probably looked entirely ineffectual, she’d watched enough of his previous bouts to understand its significance. 

When it detonated, there was still enough of a pull to stop her attempts to escape it entirely, dragging her back across the sand towards it. Sylvas maintained it just a little longer than usual, on the off chance that she didn’t have some solution and might get pulled into the tiny black hole, but it was to no avail. Flames burst from beneath her feet, blasting up the sand and turning it into jagged spikes of glass that gave her enough traction to resist.

That was fine, he didn’t want an easy bout anyway. They felt cheap. Yesterday’s fight had hurt, it had left him damaged and weak. But even so it had been satisfying to push himself to his limits and see what he was actually capable of for a change. So much of fighting with magic was about restraint, and letting that restraint go and throwing everything he had into a fight was a relief after so long holding back.

Every moment that he was in the arena, Sylvas was casting and breaking off fragments of his psyche to support each spell. A half dozen of them already prepared as he used his new embodiment’s connection to his gravity mana to move instead of a spell.

It doesn’t matter how many parts you break your mind into, I’m still going to be here. I’m right in the heart of you, like I always have been. Where I belong.

Flying closer, he unleashed his orbitals, ignoring the defensive position that they were meant to take and firing them off like missiles. One struck home, knocking the leg out from under the mage. If he’d combined the Gravity Spike and that, he’d have had her, but the spike was already dispersed, and the tactic wasn’t liable to work again. She launched a blast of flame at the closest of the orbitals, disrupting the mana inside and making it drop dead from the sky. Gert would be ready for that attack next time around, so he quickly pulled the rest of the orbitals back into a defensive position around him. 

It was well timed, more fireballs were flung his way as he closed the distance, and only spiking the gravity in his orbitals twisted the fire’s course enough that he wasn’t licked by the flames. There was a momentary delay in the ongoing flurry of fire then another fireball came his way.

He let weight return to his body and cut his grip on his internal gravity, allowing him to drop from the sky. Maybe he was wrong, and his instincts were lying to him, but he didn’t think so.

As the fireball reached the point overhead where his orbitals would have intercepted it, it detonated into an storm of flames. The delayed shot had been a more complex spell, disguised as a normal fireball so well that even his second sight hadn’t been able to pick out the difference.

Oh she’s full of surprises, I like her, perhaps you should ask her out. You might have a wild night of passion, you might wake up as ashes in a chamber pot, who knows? Either sounds thrilling.

“Will you shut up!” Sylvas snapped.

Another fireball was lobbed his way, and with the distraction of Mira blabbing, he hadn’t noticed how long it had taken to cast, so he was once again forced to flee. Dropping his weight to nothing before he hit the ground and rebounding back to the sky where he seized control once more and flew clear.

Completing one of his spells, he formed a Gravity Shear around himself and flung his body at Gert with all the force he could muster by will alone. Her follow up shots came rapidly, but they curved around the shield before they could get anywhere near him, and he closed the distance with ease. It was a strange aspect of the gravity shear that it actually seemed to accelerate him when he moved behind it, some sort of slipstream effect, by the time he was close enough to see Gert’s furious expression he didn’t even need to push himself forward.

As a last ditch attempt to stop him, she flung up a wall of flame, her own shield spell, but it couldn’t hold against a Gravity Shear. The flames licked around the curvature of it and dispersed harmlessly.

Sylvas hit her with the Shear before his body. Dead center. Instead of being flung in one direction or another, the pull of gravity along the curvature in every direction pinned her in place against its impermanent surface, and she was driven back, all the way across what was left of the arena before they hit the wall. Pinned between gravity and stone, there was nothing she could do but squirm and glare.

Sylvas decided to do the right thing. “Do you yield?”

“No.” She snapped back.

He pressed her back just a little further. One embodiment or another had made her more resilient than the average human, otherwise she’d be crushed unconscious already.

“I really don’t want to hurt you if I don’t have to.” He told her as calmly as he could between verses of his Gravity Shear spell.

Oh so honorable, she’ll surely swoon at that.

“I don’t yield. If you want to beat me, you’ll have to—”

He cut her off with one final shove forward. Her arms and legs were splayed out around the epicenter of the shield, being dragged in every direction, and that last shove had been enough to dislocate them all with sickening popping sounds.

Sylvas let the spell end, let himself settle back down on the sand and let Gert collapse in a writhing heap on the ground. Glancing around, he waited for the medics to come rushing out and tend to her, but the horn still hadn’t sounded indicating the end of the match. She couldn’t stand, couldn’t cast, all she seemed capable of at this point was screaming, but they still wouldn’t let it end.

With disgust, Sylvas crossed the distance to where she lay, crouched down and delivered a clumsy punch to knock her out. The horn finally sounded.

So noble, putting her out of her misery like that. I’m sure she’ll forgive all the grievous bodily harm in no time at all.

Sylvas ignored her and headed out as soon as the medics arrived. The end of the fight had left a sour taste in his mouth and that last place he wanted to be was here.