Angel's Ascendance

Chapter 3: A Lot of Testing (Aiden Mills)

A third explosion sent Aiden flying as he heard Daniel give another one of his colorful curses.

"For the third time Aiden, I told you that you can't use god damn candle wax in the place of beeswax" Daniel said frustrated. Aiden got up and brushed off the dust from his shirt. He remained silent then thinking out loud he said, "I may have put too little butter on the candles this time, I'll take note of that out the whole stick this time."

"Oh for the love of........."

"Daniel, I simply don't know where to get beeswax save for actually going into a hive and scraping it off myself. So unless you've got any better ideas I'm all ears."

"Magic does not deal with substitutes Aiden. It uses the energy within the objects and each thing has its own unique energy. What we need to do is find the necessary materials and no more butter or candles."

"Beeswax, incense, several types of berries, a crow feather, a dove feather, and chalk are all necessary, but I can add my blood to increase its power, I've used chicken feathers, candles and butter instead of the feathers and the beeswax. But now I've also just run out of berries............... Is there any way to summon the material?"

"The effort is exhaustive but there are words you can string together to fit your purpose."

"I don't have the will to go find a flea market and see if they have what I need, what's the spell?"

Daniel taught Aiden the correct pronunciation of the divine words, "And be careful with the names, one vowel changed or even the wrong tone can give you a different result." He concluded. Aiden cleared his mind as Daniel had taught him then let the celestial language flow from him, each syllable taking a bit of his soul with him. After a few seconds the items flew their way over from across the city to the rooftop he was on. "I assumed they would teleport here." Aiden said confused. "That spell would've killed you." Daniel replied. Aiden nodded and just as the materials landed, a wave of nausea hit him as he buckled over and began to groan.

The world was spinning and Aiden almost lost his balance several times. In the end, he decided the best action he could take was to sit down and wait until his senses returned to normal. "I see what you mean now Daniel, this feeling sucks." He uttered between a gag and a dry heave.

It took Aiden thirty minutes to get over the effects of his own spell and even then he was still a bit dizzy, but he got himself up and looked over to his supplies gave a nod and started trying again.

Aiden took the chalk and drew first a circle then he decorated its interior with several cursive runes that are the letters of the divine. After he was done he took the dove and crow feathers and crossed them over the center of the circle. Next the berries were crushed and smeared around the feathers in a smaller circle. Finally the beeswax was broken and mixed into the incense then Aiden lit the incense and place it at the top of the circle. He took a deep breath, got himself up into a kneeling position and began muttering a divine chant.

Time seemed to slow down around him as his breath seemed to relax more and more into the sentences he was saying. After he said the final sentence, he summoned his sword and pricked his finger to let a single drop of blood fall into the incense. It hit with a satisfying sizzling sound, then Aiden got up and went to the edge of the rooftop and sat back down. "Now we wait?" Aiden asked. Daniel nodded, "Now we wait."

"Well then tell me a story Daniel."

"What would you like to hear about?"

"How this whole thing started."

Daniel gave a sigh then he sat next to Aiden, "In the beginning, there was nothing. Then at some point, time seemed to start, and when time started the planes were created. The first two to be created were the Celestial and Infernal planes, each representing respectively order and chaos, two sides of the same coin. Then came the two planes Alfheim, home of the elvish, dwarvish and orcish races as well as  vast number of magical animals. And Material, in which resides the known universe that houses the humans. At first, both sides didn't have the power to fight each other, this was known as the Age of Silence, it was a time of simple maturation of all the planes, letting time flow. Then came the first battle, due to how the planes have been created the original two couldn't immediately invade each other, Celestial had to cross into first Material then Alfheim, and Infernal needed to get to Alfheim then Material. The first clash happened at the crossing between the two mortal planes and it was evenly matched. For millennia, angels and demons kept fighting each other with none giving any ground. This was known as the Age of Slaughter.