Chronicles of a Mage, Book One

Chapter 43: Lion and the Gnat

Huh? Where am I? I thought as I woke up from a slumber on the ground. I looked around and in all directions I saw an infinite, black void and in front of me was Eeuna sitting on that black, marble throne with her fist resting on her face. Wait, I'm getting deja vu. "Well, I hope you enjoyed your bedtime after what you did." She seemed a little annoyed for some reason.

"What do you mean? I haven't done anything. Where are we anyway? Heaven?" I was trying to piece together where we were but heaven didn't seem right for reason.

"Sigh, no you are not in heaven. Although you are very close to going to heaven. Or hell or wherever mortals go after they die."

Suddenly, a wave of memories came flooding back to me and looked down at my chest to see wide, gaping hole. There was neither blood nor organs inside that hole. Just a void, like the one all around me. "That's right, I was fighting the count and he impaled on his spear. So did I die?" For some reason I feel awfully tranquil about the fact that I'm likely dead.

"You're not dead either, although your lungs just stopped aaaand... your heart stopped. Now you're dead" Her almost mocking voice became rather irritated when she said that. "Gods! Are you stupid? Dense? Blunt? Dull? You had one job! Stay. Alive. But you just ran into danger like a headless chicken! Now what am supposed I to do?" Her angry face became relaxed. After pausing to think, an almost smug grin formed on her face "It's a shame too. That boy will have almost no chance of winning against his father"

That was when I remembered it. The desperation before falling unconscious. Mathra... he doesn't stand a chance against his father... and there's still so much I want to do. I still have to find my uncle and aunt. I'm not ready to die. I can't- I refuse to let my life end like this. Something stirred inside me, something raw.   "Wait is Mathra ok? W-we have to help him!" And more importantly, I refuse to let his life end this way.

"What do you mean? You're dead."

"But I'm still here right? Surely there's something we can do to save him?" Forget my uncle and aunt for the moment. Those two can handle themselves. But right now, before my dead body, Mathra is probably vehemently fighting. Fighting for his people. Fighting for justice. But I didn't care about righteousness. All I want is for him to live. Something, whatever it was, stirred inside me again. Like a firefly, constantly pulsing, trying to stay alive in its last few minutes, something inside me was flashed. It felt familiar. Almost like mana.

"Sigh, alright. Something is coming back to me... I have heard your plea." Eeuna clapped her hands together and stood up "Are you ready to have some fun?"

That was the last thing I remember before waking back up in Gualmalon. Mathra was desperately avoiding the thrusts his father made, but the shear size of the spear meant that Mathra couldn't even reach his opponent to retaliate properly.

When I woke however, I did not wake up on the ground but instead I was... floating? And the hole in my chest, it was no longer there, as if nothing happened at all. A steady white glow came from my body, making my hair and eyes a similar colour. The soldiers on both side looked in awe at the floating mage who had just died. Mathra and the Count both stopped fighting to look at me and the count shouted. "Yes! Yes! Haha. So the mages weren't lying when they told me about the scion of light! Finally, a challenge to test my mettle!" He said maniacally, charging at me. But I felt no fear as he charged me. I felt more like a lion staring at a gnat in the pond. Just before he could impale me again, I raised my hand and a glowing shield stopped the blow completely. I then raised my other hand to summon a gust of wind. It was like casting a spell, but I had no need to recite an incantation. It felt more like instinct. I just waved my hand and the wind came forth, blowing the count away and knocking him on his back. As he stood back up I thought of... 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨... and electricity sparked all throughout my body. An immense amount of magical energy flowed through me, making me go temporarilly blind and deaf as my body struggled to cope with the seemingly endless mana flowing through it. I've read about these sensations before. It's what happens when a person's body takes on more mana than it should.

So how the hell am I able to perform something so advanced? But in the moment, I never thought about more than that. Whatever it was, this was the power I needed to keep Mathra- my friend safe.  I pointed hands in the count's direction, releasing all the built up energy. He stopped, still standing. His armour was charred almost completely and his burnt body was searing, as steam rose from him. But still he stood with that spear in his hand. A testament to his determination. His conviction to his ideals. He lifted the spear, aimed at me and launched it. Just before it would have impaled me, I summoned another tornado, sending it flying into the pavement near me, destroying the bricks. The count, weaponless, charged me once again. But it was futile.

...Fire...

I raised my hand and once again, my hair, vision and eyes went almost entirely white as a searing heat poured into a raging flame in front of me. The spell propelled itself at incomprehensible speeds towards the determined Count. There was an explosion as the Count and the flame collided, giving off an orange, almost blue glow. I opened my eyes, expecting the Count to be right in front of me. But my flame burned brighter than his ambition. All that lay before me was a charcoaled suit of armour and the burly, bloody skeleton of a man who fought to the end for his ambitions. His remains were a tragic reminder that this kingdom was in an era of change. The new will replace the old. For better or for worse...

I dropped to the ground. My hair and eyes went back to their normal colours. What flowed through me now was not endless amounts of magical energy, but rather a lack of energy. It was all I could do to close my eyes and...

"What the hell was that!? I hardly felt like myself just now!" I said as I woke back up in the black void.

"You know, I'm not quite sure myself. I just felt like we should've helped that Mathra boy and somehow I just... did a thing" Eeuna answered "*yawn* but such a display of power is awfully tiring. I'm surprised your  body was even able to handle that much mana all at once" Eeuna rested her head on her throne and even though I wanted to know more about what just happened,  a wave of drowsiness came over both of us, and we went into a deep slumber.