The Empress of Magic

Chapter 118 : The Beginning of the End

,, A-Are they all right....?..." asked Hannah, shakily stepping towards the two legacies laying out in the open, covered in grime and slowly drying blood.

She had to move away from the wreckage Aiden and Fred had been trapped underneath, otherwise, she feared the reality of the situation would register itself within her mind and she would have a mental breakdown...

How could such a seemingly normal day have gone so awfully wrong in a matter of minutes...?...

They had started this day brimming with excitement and cheer, eager to watch their friends play for the possibly last time in a very long time, only to be stripped from everything as monsters and creatures out for their blood hailed from above........

Now their friend was gone, most of the student body was either injured or dead, and Celestia and Regulus who were the only ones who could kill the bigger monsters were knocked out cold from having been claimed in the middle of a fight of life and death.

,, They'll be fine...." replied Aspen, frowning from where he kneeled on the ground and inspected Celestia's head. ,, .... Probably...."

,, What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she asked, snapping her gaze away from what he was doing when she spotted more blood flowing out of the half-Veelas mouth, eyes, ears, and nose.

,, It means I'm not entirely sure how their bodies will react from being claimed by Apollo, Morpheus, and Dionysus while they were high on adrenaline and running in survival mode..." answered the Satyr, mostly unbothered as he avoided touching the highly dangerous blood freely pouring onto the slowly melting and sizzling stone ground. ,, Being claimed by a minor god or goddess as a legacy is usually already extremely taxing on the body. You saw how Celestia acted the days before and after Phobos claimed her. Her magical core was sensitive, even more so than usual, and her entire body kept freezing up or just straight up failing her when she took more than a few steps. The only reason she managed to kill that Demon is her plain stubbornness and unwillingness to let herself rest... Anyone else would have collapsed before even making it down the stairs."

He then glanced up at the fellow Hufflepuff. ,, Now imagine what being claimed by one of the bloody Olympians does to a legacy."

Being claimed had both a mental and physical toll on the body. The muscles inside the child being claimed ripped themselves apart and fused themselves back together to better match the vision of the immortal that had accepted them, oftentimes even breaking bones or damaging internal organs because they couldn't keep up with the sudden pressure being placed upon them.

Magical Cores expanded to accommodate the sudden influx of magical particles flowing into the body, and the unluckiest of the lot who received a blessing when they were claimed had to deal with powers grasping at their minds that fought with their inner self until they had no other choice but to accept them.

,, Apollo's descendants have the bad luck of having special healing powers that not only work on others but also start healing any internal injuries they may have the moment they occur." he pointed at Celestia. ,, It's why she has survived as long as she has. Every time she received an injury while growing up her body simply began healing itself at the exact same moment it received a usually fatal injury. Bad for her general health, but it kept her alive..."

He then turned to Regulus. ,, As for Dionysus.... Well.... There is a very good reason only a handful of Blacks were claimed by him...."

Hannah shot him a look, urging him to continue with his explanation lest she punched it out of him.

,, *Sigh* All right, all right...... no need to look at me like that." he said, pushing his hair out of his face. ,, When Dionysus claims a magical individual his powers seep into your mind and show you the past events of all those that came before you, be it those who successfully mastered their powers or those who succumbed to the madness after failing to impress him. It's not a pretty thing to go through... and the majority grow mad from the toll it takes on the mind in less than a day."