Magellan [Original Fiction contest entry - The Lovers]

[H-Man]

The fire roared that night, as he twisted the large wooden spoon in the cauldron. The smoke fluttering out of the green mixture he was cooking was smelly, nastily so in a way, but the young man who was working with it ignored the smell the best he could.

“Alright, I–” he tried to say, only to cough very hard and loud, as some of the smell invaded his nostrils. He barely managed to avoid breathing it in, and turned his head around to cough, glancing at the mirror placed in his laboratory. His hair was unfortunately messed up, from how long it had been since he had last cleaned himself, and his beard was growing a bit too long, but his robes still looked respectable despite the chemicals that had been used that whole day.

“Almost done… I just have to mix this up fully and then I’ll be set…” he muttered, trying to keep his breathing as reduced as possible. Once the mixture’s surface was bubbling completely, he took out some powder from a nearby jar and sprinkled it, watching as the green shifted into a bright yellow. “There… only one step more…”

“And then we have soup?”

The young man blinked, as he heard the strange voice. Looking up from the cauldron, he saw a pair of gray eyes staring straight at him, just before the owner of those eyes smiled – something noticeable given he had laughed quietly at the same time. “I hope it’s good soup!”

“What are you–” the man let out, almost stepping back, just as he took more note of the invader of his laboratory. His hair was short, messy and unruly, as if combs had never even touched it, two large scarves were wrapped around his neck – quite old, if the holes in them meant anything – and he wore large black gloves as well, but otherwise his outfit didn’t seem very remarkable. It certainly fit the usual adventurers who normally traipsed about this land, as far as he was concerned.

But as far as he was concerned, this was an invader, because he was pretty sure he had locked the castle properly before he had started this experiment.

“So, can I have some of the soup?” the invader asked, keeping both hands on the cauldron, so close to the boiling mixture. Part of him wanted to slam his fingers with the spoon, but he refused to; the recipe stated that the spoon would have to stay in motion for the entirety of this process, and removing it for just one moment could ruin it completely.

“No, you cannot,” he simply said, as his response. “This isn’t soup, and you’re not invited to have it even if it was.”

“Aww, really?” the invader asked, smirking. There was something annoying about that smirk, enough to get on his nerves already – though of course, it didn’t help that he had just invaded and there was nothing he could do to get him out until the mixture was ready. “But I’d like some soup!”

“Why would you even think you could have some?” he asked, glaring at the invader the best he could. “I’m a busy mage, I don’t have any food to give to anyone who invades my castle without warning or concern!”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re called Magellan!” the invader said, chipper. “I’m so glad I got to know that!”

His hands tightened around the spoon. “Why would you say such a thing?!” the young man demanded, furious. “You don’t even know my name!”

“Isn’t it Magellan?”

That got him to pause. “…yes,” he admitted, after a few moments. “But nobody knows that! How would you–”

“Lucky guess!” the invader declared, almost pushing the cauldron to the point where it could topple. Magellan could barely keep it in place, before glaring at him.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” he demanded, his unpleasant visitor finally letting go of the cauldron just as the mage managed to keep it back in place. “If this gets ruined, you have no idea how much trouble I’d be in!”

“Oh, sounds like you’re doing something fun!” the invader declared, before crossing his arms. “Are you sure you’re not making soup right now?”

“Stop talking about soup, whoever you are!” As the mixture spun and twisted within the cauldron’s walls, he saw it start to shift into an orange tonality, which was growing darker by the moment. “There’s no soup here! Get lost!”

“You know, Magellan, you’re not really a good host,” the invader said, putting his elbows on the cauldron’s edge. “You need to learn how to treat people nicer if you want to be a good host. And that means giving me soup.” The stupid grin somehow doubled in annoyance. “Why don’t you do it?”

“…why would I need to do it?” the young man asked, as he heard that. “I don’t want visitors! Couldn’t you tell from how I locked my castle, and cast barriers upon it, and otherwise made sure there would be no way for others to get inside?”

“Well, true, but I thought you might be lonely.” Magellan scoffed at that. “Besides, your magic could do with some improvement.”

“Oh? As if you knew anything about magic.” Despite his front, the mage couldn’t ignore that idea; after all, it wasn’t easy to explain just why this invader would have made it through despite the magic that had been set in place, and especially the part where he hadn’t been detected at all. He would be damned before he would admit that out loud, however!

“I know a thing or two,” the young stranger said, simply, before making his way to the highest drawer and pulling it open. That was actually the literal definition, as several books that had been placed all over the room had been used as footholds for him to go to the drawer itself, and somehow he pulled only the front, rather than the entire thing. “Your magic wasn’t too hard to get past. I think any random do-gooder would be able to make it through without any problem.”

“Grr…” Magellan had to take one look at the mixture below to keep himself from letting go of the spoon, despite his boiling wrath. “What does a little kid like you know about magic, anyway?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” the invader asked him, before heading back to the ground level. “But don’t worry! Lil’ Eleazar here knows just the thing to teach you, Magellan!”

“Hardly.” The mixture was finally reaching the full, red tonality he had been looking for, and the young man looked at the gray-haired brat in front of him. “I don’t need your lessons, because I’m a skilled mage myself, and don’t need to improve beyond what I am already doing. Therefore you can just shut up and go away.” As the spoon stopped, he lifted it to his lips, tasting it carefully. “Otherwise, I shall make you do so now.”

“Oh, really?” Eleazar didn’t seem to be at all threatened by his threat, and instead his smirk became even more annoying than before, if that were even possible. “Well, isn’t that interesting, Magellan. Care to give me a lesson in magic, then?”

“I’ll do more than that…” With a flicker of his wrist and a snap of his fingers, a flame emerged from his hand, consuming more oxygen to grow larger and wider. “I’ll end you where you stand!”

The fireball blazed through the air, headed straight towards Eleazar, who made no motion to evade it. In fact, he let it impact against his body, thrown back by the impact and follow-up explosion, and hit the wall behind him noisily. However, to Magellan’s surprise, there were no yells of pain nor the smell of burning flesh or leather, or even the sight of the flames consuming his body. In fact, the blazes refused to spread out, sticking to his body nonetheless, and Eleazar sustained that annoying grin of his, despite the situation.

That was when he saw the staff on his hand, the jeweled tip glowing with a dark blue tone. A strange, arcane rune was glowing within, trapped inside a flame of some kind, and the same aura could be seen within the flames, but very faintly.

“Was that it?” the short invader asked, pressing the tip of the staff against one of the flames; Magellan’s eyes widened as it broke and fell to the ground, as if it were made of ice. “It’s a good opener, but even the slightest protection keeps it from being harmful.”

“Protec–how dare you!” he snarled, before forming another fireball. “You cannot possibly have protected yourself against my fire magic like this! No one can, after I have tasted from the Elixir of Meldraeth! It would be a fire with the power of an inferno!”

“Well, your inferno wouldn’t have burned down this place even if I hadn’t blocked it thanks to your protective spells, so why would it burn me?” That caught him off-guard, but Magellan focused on his magic again, making the fireball levitate as he created more to join this one. “All I did was cast a protective spell of my own before I came here, and–”

“How about you shut up?!” the mage demanded, almost roaring, as he sent five fireballs at Eleazar, watching as he moved to avoid them this time. Each one impacted against the walls with explosive bursts and left nasty scorch marks, along with a flame that refused to die out, but indeed the flames did not spread out as they could have, despite the larger spreads of their bursts; the books and other objects had remained unharmed, despite the blazes.

The last one did not fly as far, however, as it curved and twisted to pursue him, growing in power as the explosions reached outward and towards it. “So now you are trying to avoid them?” Magellan mocked the invader, who had darted out of range at first. “I thought you said you could take my magic!”

“Your fireball was too small,” he retorted, doing some kind of funky flip in a single leap to face him, staff pointed at the roaring blaze. “I wanted to see it bigger.”

As the staff made contact, Magellan got to see as the fireball suddenly stopped in place, no longer rushing forward as before. “W-what…”

“This is an interesting spell, you know? Not enough people can have their magic absorb elements without a problem,” Eleazar commented, moving his staff slowly; the fireball followed its movements as he did so, turning such that it would stay on its tip. “But it’s still not good enough. A proper counter-spell should be able to destroy this. Or!”

“Or?!” the young mage let out, just as the invader spun rapidly, sending the fireball back at him, and his eyes grew wide. The explosion upon impact spread through the room, several wavy rings of magical energy being launched in every direction, colliding against the books, glasses, and furniture everywhere.

“Or you could find your own magic being dominated by someone with better control.”

As the smoke dissipated into the rest of the castle, Eleazar grinned at the sight of Magellan standing before him, arms crossed in a protective stance while the wind continued to blow his cloak’s bottom. A crimson light shone before him, before a shattering noise came from it as it disappeared.

There was silence for a moment, before the gray-haired invader clapped. “Impressive! Your protective spell was very good! It completely protected you from harm!” Eleazar said, all smiles, and Magellan couldn’t keep himself from boasting as well.

“Not just myself. Take a look!” he indicated the walls, which were also glowing in that bright crimson light, if more faintly now. “My belongings are fully protected from harm, thanks to my Blaze Barrier. Even a flame spell as strong as my own cannot overpower it, see?”

“Heeeh, that’s so interesting!” the invader stated, grinning wider now. “But I wonder if your barrier can resist another elemental type?”

Magellan’s eyes widened, as Eleazar suddenly swung out with his staff, creating frozen crystals that flew towards him. He barely had time to swing his own hand down, creating a flash of blueish light, before the crystals impacted against him; as they shattered into ice shards, however, none of them truly touched him, only his barrier.

“Are you trying to get killed, you idiot?!” the mage yelled, as the barrier shattered again. “I already showed you I won’t hold back! Why aren’t you running away already?”

“Well, it’s your turn, isn’t it?” Eleazar asked, smirking at him. “Your magic is good, but can it really overcome mine?”

Those words made his blood boil. “You’re the one asking for it… so don’t regret it when I’m through with you!” Magellan yelled, just as he started to snap his fingers rapidly; frozen spears formed from the air, flying towards the invader, who again took to dodging them by running in a circle. Unlike the fireballs, these spears were better at moving through the laboratory, turning quickly without impacting against the walls or stands.

After several seconds of this, where Eleazar didn’t manage to get a single spear to hit a wall instead of himself, he finally skidded to a halt. “Well, isn’t that a good amount…” he commented, looking at the dozens of spears about to rain on himself, and made the staff he was holding spin rapidly in his hand. A gust of wind suddenly formed around him, sending the closest spears back against the others and shattering them to pieces, the ice falling slowly due to the winds still pushing it up if weakly.

“…you’re strong,” Magellan couldn’t help but admit, as Eleazar stood there, grinning safe and unharmed.

“Yep! But so are you, not even winded from using all this magic!” he replied, patting his hand with his staff. “Come on! I want to see everything you can do, Magellan!”

“Such a presumptuous brat… as if I’ll do what you want!” the young mage snapped, as he started to move the wind as well, creating sharp blades that joined the shattered ice into a single mass. “Just die already!”

“Nope!” Eleazar declared, before creating wind blades as well. “Not until I’m satisfied with your magic!”

The battle raged for several minutes more, as the two of them clashed with elemental spells of all kinds. It became clear to Magellan that his opponent was excessively mobile, darting back and forth when he wasn’t trying to take the attacks head-on, rather than use the standard protective spells of the land. His own barriers were tested thoroughly, and while Eleazar had managed to shatter every single one of them, he managed to keep the worst of the spells from injuring him, taking only glancing blows.

“Very nice,” Eleazar concluded, watching the laboratory around them, still undestroyed. “I can see where you need to train more, but you’re even better than I suspected, Magellan!”

“…what do you even care?” the young mage asked, doing his best to stand on his feet despite his exhaustion. “I’m trying to kill you, brat! Do me a favor and fall dead!”

“You’re so funny too!” Eleazar replied, just as Magellan had created a massive fireball with what remained of his power. “Can’t wait to meet you again!” The fireball impacted against him, but the mage did not get the pleasure of seeing his foe burning to death, as he disappeared on the impact.

He glared at the point where he had been for a few moments, before grunting. “Bah. If he tries to get back in here, he’s going to run into some new traps this time,” Magellan muttered, before looking back at the cauldron. The mixture had already gone cold. “…thanks to him, I didn’t worry about this…” One spoonful later, he nearly gagged from how the flavor and feelings were exactly as per the book. “H-how?! The recipe’s so sensitive, and yet–”

His eyes sharpened. “Well, isn’t this an interesting invader. Let’s see how else you can help me, then…”

 

[H-Man]

A couple of days later, Magellan was in his study, looking at one of many books that he had separated that morning. ‘The Mysteries of the Human Body’ had never been an easy read, thanks to the many realistic drawings and the unusual writing style, but he had been decided to finish reading it one of these days. After all, it would prove very useful for the future, if the current experiments meant anything.

Still, he couldn’t help but hate it sometimes. A book like this required too much studying and experimentation before it could actually be used, and he preferred things that were easier to work with, like fireballs or icicle spears. Still, it was thanks to another book of this line, ‘The Paths of Human Guidance’, that he had managed to perfect his barriers, so he could not be wholly unthankful towards these books.

Just as he had started chapter 12, however, a voice came from behind him. “Hey, what are you reading?” Eleazar asked, pressing his head on his shoulder.

On one hand, Magellan couldn’t say he had not expected this, and yet… “…the traps were supposed to have activated,” he muttered, displeased. “How did you avoid them?”

“Hm?”

“I improved my security measures. You shouldn’t have been able to step a single foot in my castle without warning. How did you avoid them?”

“Oh, that?” Eleazar waved dismissively. “I’m used to getting in places I’m not supposed to. It gets easy after a while.”

“But how did you–”

“Hey is that a woman?” the invader cut him off, looking at the book now. “Well that looks gross. Was she pregnant when they tore her apart?”

“No!” Magellan barely had time to slam the book closed when he heard that, keeping it off his reach. “I’m not letting you mess with my things again!”

“Oh, like with the soup?” The annoying grin he had at that time made the young mage tighten his grip on the book, but he managed to keep from doing something stupid. “Was it tasty, when you tried it after I left?”

“Honestly?” Magellan struggled not to smirk, and kept his anger in control. “It tasted like crap! You ruined the recipe!”

“I did?” That made the invader blink. “Weird. I didn’t even touch it!”

“It boiled for two minutes too many… now I have to start all over again!” The lie seemed to be effective, as Eleazar didn’t have a smart-ass response or anything like that. “If you won’t get lost by good will and measure, then I’m going to make sure you don’t come back again!”

The young invader sighed. “Damn, and I wanted to have some of that soup. Too bad if it went bad, though.”

“Are you even listening to me?!” When Eleazar didn’t give a valid answer, Magellan snapped his fingers, creating a fireball and catching his gaze. “I told you, go away before I destroy you!”

“Wow, nice fireball!” Eleazar let out, taking a few steps back. “Feels like it’s more powerful… let me guess, you spent more magic in it?”

“How about you figure it out?!” With a single motion, Magellan threw it at his opponent, who jumped back in response. “Just let it burn you and you’ll find out easily!”

“Aww, but that’s not fun!” The fireball bounced off the ground, leaving a slight scorch mark, while Eleazar summoned his staff. “Come on, Magellan! Let’s play, shall we?”

“I already told you, I’m not going to play with you, brat!” Both fingers snapped together, and new flames emerged, only to disperse themselves as they heated up the air, the smoke taking on a new shape. “Gods, you’re such a pain in the–”

“Fun, right?” The young invader raised his own staff high, drawing upon the power of the earth to create a living statue of some kind. “Come on, let’s enjoy ourselves some more before the end of the day!”

“How about you shut up and take it like a man already?!” was the response, as the smoke curled around the living statue, paralyzing it briefly. “I’ve had enough of you coming inside my castle without warning and bothering me like that!”

“But wasn’t it fun?” Eleazar asked, the statue suddenly forming large pores within its body that let the smoke pass through without leaving. Once it had absorbed enough of the smoke, it went on, one of its fists headed straight towards Magellan. “Come on, you gotta admit that!”

“Like a toothache!” the young mage snapped, creating a barrier that was barely enough to stop the attack from hitting him, and instead sent its kinetic force backwards, like a slingshot; like the other barriers Eleazar had attacked thus far, it shattered and fell to the ground as soon as it had taken the blow. “Your familiar may be capable of dealing with other creatures of any kind, but will it be able to surpass my own barrier?”

“That’s the best question, Magellan… one I’m just waiting to find out the answer for!” With a grin, Eleazar pointed his staff at the living statue, making one of its fists grow even bigger. Magellan’s eyes widened as he saw the change, the statue rearing back to attack, and immediately began conjuring several barriers in a row, thinking the spell words as fast as he could.

The first blow shattered three barriers in one go, before the living statue was sent flying back by the strength of its own attack, one of its other limbs shattered by it. The statue landed by Eleazar, managing to stand up without a problem, and moved forward for another attack.

“S-so sturdy…” Magellan gasped, as he stopped his conjurations for a couple of seconds; the backlash had taken the breath out of him, and the familiar was preparing to attack again. The next punch destroyed three more barriers, with the living statue’s arm cracking somewhat.

“What’s wrong, Magellan?” Eleazar asked him, with a smirk. “Why don’t you try dodging? Or maybe attacking back?”

“It’s not my style, you fool!” the young mage snapped back, just as the living statue punched past more of his barriers. “Defensive barriers are the highest form of magic! They are the one thing I am most skilled at! My other spells can only do so much in comparison!”

“I see… so that’s why you needed your soup to do such great magic, huh?” he replied, watching as his statue was destroyed. Magellan took a deep breath, before snapping his fingers; the suits of armors around him began to move, stepping in tandem as they stood by his side. “Very interesting… I still find it weird you say it went badly, then.”

“Find it whatever you want. It’s pointless.” The armors suddenly ran forward, trying to ram Eleazar or something, leaving him little space to move through. The short invader kicked back, trying to keep his distance, but the armors suddenly split apart to surround him. “You won’t make it out so easily, Eleazar!”

“Oh really?” he replied, creating a wind blade of his own to throw at the suits around him. Magellan immediately snapped his fingers, and the colors on the walls shifted to red. “Huh?!”

“If with this I will be rid of you… then so be it! EXPLODIA!”

That entire area of the castle suddenly reacted, walls of light forming around Eleazar’s general area, trapping him inside, before a raging storm of flames erupted from the normal ones, destroying the outer wall and spreading out in both directions. The light walls barely held them in, and this time Magellan thought he saw the annoying brat get sent flying out from the impact, burning painfully as well.

Once the wall had been destroyed, a secondary spell layer activated, creating a wind blast that would force everything outwards, ensuring the rubble and smoke would fly in the same direction as Eleazar, most likely enough to kill him after all.

Magellan smirked to himself, before turning around and walking away. Of course he would have to repair the castle wall, not to mention spend all that magic to restore his defenses, but it was a price worth paying if it meant getting rid of such an annoyance.

He had barely made it to the fifth step when he stopped. An annoying laugh was coming from the outside, loud enough to draw his attention no matter what, and the young mage turned around to see what was laughing like that.

A faint aura, not quite so blue as the one he had used before, was just as visible as the many runes floating around Eleazar, who was looking at him with some disdain while walking up the castle walls. Or, at least, that’s what Magellan thought at first; within the next few seconds, he saw that his feet were standing right over nothing at all, the tips of his boots as loose as they could be.

“So, that was a nice trick,” the soot-covered invader teased, smirking even while his face looked like a mess. “You nearly got me this time, Magellan!”

“…what in the tenth Malevoros–” Magellan let out, jaw hanging at the sight, “how did you survive that?! That’s impossible!”

“My, Magellan, you seem to be prone to believing in the common sense,” Eleazar replied, shaking his head. “Terrible quality for a mage like you!”

“Not having common sense is what has ruined magic users throughout generations!” Magellan retorted, snapping his fingers rapidly, creating a series of fireballs around him. “Being so foolish as to think that you can do anything with magic… there is a reason why magic is such a dying art in our world! So many spellcasters have made errors in their judgement, ones that would never have happened if they would be sensible and think about what they are doing!”

“Thus your barriers,” the soot-covered invader reasoned, before smiling. “The more protections placed upon your things, the less likely they are to go astray and wrong. But if you keep on piling them up, won’t it be hard to move through them?”

“You’re one to talk… how have you made it past all my defenses so far?!” Magellan demanded, making Eleazar smile. “Even this last one! It’s not normal for anyone to–”

“Normalcy is overrated.” With those words, he darted forward, twin daggers in hand. While Magellan threw the fireballs at him, Eleazar spun rapidly in his flight, one of his blades catching one of the fireballs easily and slicing it apart, the blazing heat ending almost at once.

“You cannot be serious!” Watching Eleazar destroy those flames so easily disturbed the young mage, who barely had time to conjure another barrier for himself. “Why would a magic user devote time to weapon combat like that?!”

“Why not?” Eleazar mocked him, his blades clashing against the barrier; to its merit, it did not shatter on the first blow, resisting until the second one. “Why would magic users not do anything they choose to, in order to truly master their magic?”

“D-damn you-!” Magellan grunted, watching as his enemy was sent flying back from the backlash, but recovered still on the air. “Why the hell do you keep saying these stupid things?! Why won’t you just shut up already?”

“Is this really what you want me to do, Magellan?” the invader replied, discarding his daggers to draw his staff again; the daggers didn’t manage to hit the ground before they disappeared, while he started to create a new blast of light magic, the brightness forcing Magellan to close his eyes in response. “Don’t you think it would be better to listen to other people, try to learn from what they can give you, and–”

“You’re the last person I want to hear that from!” The magic blast collided against a barrier, dispelling itself and letting the mage open his eyes. “I don’t care what it takes… I’m going to shut you up today, and that’s final!”

“Heh… let’s see how much you can live up to that, Magellan!” Eleazar replied, watching him conjure his own spell this time. “Come on, man! Let’s give it our best!”

Once more, the two of them clashed, magic spells flying back and forth, for the next few hours. This went on until Magellan had exhausted himself and Eleazar seemed to have played enough. “Alright, today’s game was pretty fun!” the latter said then, smirking at Magellan. “You’re getting better, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not,” the mage grunted, and Eleazar laughed.

“Well, if you don’t think that then I can’t change your mind, right?” he asked, mid-laughter. “But hey! Next time we meet, I’ll give you a better showing, I imagine!”

“…will you?” Magellan asked him, coldly, and Eleazar just smirked. “Shouldn’t that be me who says that?”

“Oh, so you’re getting into it!” With a laugh, Eleazar left the castle through the nearest opening, disappearing shortly after. “Until the next time, Magellan!”

The young mage glared at the opening, somewhat huffing a bit due to his breathing being so weak, before punching the ground. “…damn him…” he grunted, trying not to bite his tongue. “Why the hell does he have to be so… such an annoying brat?! I can’t stand his attitude!”

He pressed his hand further against the ground. “He’ll keep on returning, for whatever reason… it can’t be just to have a magical duel against me. There must be something else…”

Things seemed to be like that during the next few weeks. Every couple of days Eleazar would appear out of nowhere, right when Magellan was busy studying or preparing a new potion, and force him to drop everything so that they could have another battle. Every time, Magellan would be forced to fix what little damages had been caused to his castle, setting up new magical traps and defenses for his own security, and sacrifice crucial hours of work and sleep to get through to it. And every time, Eleazar kept talking about how fun this whole thing was.

Things didn’t change until the end of the month.

That morning, explosions rocked the castle’s east wing, much earlier than usual. As the cloud of smoke spread out, Eleazar stood in the center of the room, panting a bit.

“…huh?” he let out, taking a good look at his surroundings. “Why did the defenses trip this time…? Last week, when I came through here, I managed to get through…”

A living armor appeared from one of the northern gates, running at him with loud clangs, and the invader stared at it in surprise. Not from it existing – after all, Magellan had used these against him before, and that had been part of his style apparently – but from how it was faster than the other ones.

Its sword met his own, clanging loudly with that impact, and while Eleazar didn’t have to struggle to keep up with its swordplay, it soon became annoying; not only did it not go down upon being struck apart, but as he went deeper into the castle to track down Magellan, he found himself pursued by it at all times, along with other armors that had been enchanted as well to both protect the area and attack him.

“So this is what these traps would do… heh, did he figure out my trick or something?” the invader wondered, as he led a group of them down a hall. An electric storm suddenly flared within, starting to spread from the opposite exit, burning through the hall and seemingly destroying everything in its path – in truth, the barriers and protections Magellan had cast upon every room of this castle would protect them from being destroyed, but even then it would not seem as such to a normal invader. “Well, I don’t want to die here… so I’m going to skip ahead a bit!”

Then, Eleazar disappeared within the storm, which subsided once all the invading objects were destroyed.

Magellan opened his eyes as he felt the trap’s effect end. “Seems like I got it right this time,” he muttered to himself, before looking at the room before him. “He had better not have made it through my castle. I’ve spent too much cleaning after his messes to want another one in my hands.”

The doors behind him closed, and Magellan headed towards the boiling cauldron, taking a taste of the mixture that had been prepared more recently. “Strong… and smells good, too. I’m sure this can be used for my plans.”

He headed on, ignoring the wet floor and approaching the table he had laid out. Strewn over it was his latest object of work, one he had barely managed to keep hidden from that annoyance during this month, and almost ready for use. He took the scalpel in hand, ready to get back to work on it.

 

[H-Man]

The stench of the room was enticing.

Magellan had become used to it, although not without struggle. The more he had worked in this room, the harder it had been at first, his own breathing requiring some… no, plenty of assistance. Until he had figured out how to summon breathable air directly into his lungs for extended periods of time, he had been forced to take significant breaks from time to time… breaks in which, recently, Eleazar could have reappeared and bothered him. And this was one project he refused to let the invader mess with, no matter what.

So, admittedly, he had had to stop the project until now. Once he had heard the traps, finally working the way he had wanted them to, it was a sign that he could work once again on this project, and thankfully the breakthrough had been so close that he didn’t need to waste much time on preparations.

One hour… no, two had passed already, since he had entered this room. He took a single break to change the air in his lungs again, the magic doing its job even better than usual. ‘…another thing he has helped me with?’ he wondered to himself, just as he was about to return to the scalpel work. The blade had just started to cut the flesh when the doors were suddenly thrown open, bringing light once more into that room despite the locks he had placed on them.

“Magellan! What are you doing here?!” Eleazar was standing in the doorway, and as Magellan turned to face him, he saw that the ever-present smirk on his face wasn’t there for once.

“You don’t look injured,” he pointed out, not that the short invader seemed to care. “So not even these traps got to you?”

“They did, actually. You somehow managed to seal my passage through this castle… I had to make it by foot for a while,” Eleazar answered him. “But even that wasn’t too troublesome for me.”

“…so be it. I think this means I have to work on even better traps… but at least now I have some guidance on it.” Magellan glared at him. “Time and space magic… hardly things I can manipulate, much less proper forms of magic. How could you do it?”

“A long story. Not relevant right now,” Eleazar shot back. “What are you doing here? What is it with all this blood?”

“…so you can tell, can’t you?” Magellan took a couple of steps to the side, just as he created an orb of light to fully illuminate the room. Several bodies were placed on the ground and the table, many of them already bled out while others were still full of their vital fluids. “I’ve been working on this for a while now… trying to get these to not die out on me. Can’t say it’s worked as I’ve expected.”

“You’re creating monsters, aren’t you?” Eleazar asked him. “Why? And how?”

“I would suggest against calling them ‘monsters’, Eleazar. After all, that implies they are worthy of names.” With a sharp swing, he sliced the neck of the one he was currently working on, letting it – him – bleed out onto the ground as well. “They’re just the supplies for my ritual.”

“So you’re going that far. Going to kill as many as you need, for the sake of this ritual of yours…” the invader asked, hand tightening into a fist. “Why would you do that? Why is it so important for you to–”

“Don’t you know the answer to that?” The coldness in Magellan’s tone silenced him. “You seem to have a lot of answers for someone who I never met. And you’ve been teasing them all this while, too.”

Despite himself, Eleazar smiled a bit. “So, you figured it out, huh?” he asked, before nodding. “Yeah, I’ll admit it. I know stuff. And it has to do with you and your plans to the world.”

Magellan sneered at him. “If the Astraol wanted to try and stop me, they should have sent a better agent. You’re terrible at being a holy creature, Eleazar.”

“Yeah, I know. Can’t really play the part no matter what I do.”

Those words surprised the young mage significantly. “…what did you just say?”

“You thought you had ‘gotten’ me, right, Magellan?” Eleazar asked, before shrugging. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Seems like I’ve got a job to do, no matter how bad it is.”

“A job, you say…” Magellan grasped the scalpel tightly, feeling the blood drip down into his hand. “And what is your job meant to be?”

“Funny you put it that way…” The invader sighed, eyes closed. “Simply put, Magellan, I can’t let you do this ritual, since it’s going to kill off so many people and cause massive destruction in the long run.”

“Yes, exactly,” the young mage admitted. “It’s part of my plans to dominate this world. By opening gates to the Malevoros within strategic locations, I should be able to cripple our military forces just enough for me to take over. It will take me years to conclude this, but with the contract I am preparing, I should be granted sufficient immortality to do so.”

“And that’s another reason, Magellan. You’re going to consort with demons and monsters for this, and you don’t even have a drop of noble blood within you. Just your dark feelings towards the rest of the world aren’t enough to earn the support of these creatures against the rest of the world.”

“I’m not ignorant of that!” Magellan declared, still holding the scalpel as he swung the air defiantly. “But I have figured out ways to handle this. With the incoming sacrifice I plan on performing, it should be enough to draw their support for now.”

“It seems to be so typical for people like you to go for plans like this, doesn’t it?” Eleazar stated, before shaking his head. “It’s just… such a pity. Things could have gone differently.”

“As if. There’s nothing you could have done that would have changed any of this.” To Magellan’s surprise, the invader nodded, instead of shaking his head.

“…yeah, I guess it’s true. I can’t deny that myself.” He closed his eyes. “You’re right. There’s nothing I could have done, Magellan. You were already planning this long before I came here and you were so sure of your path that even what I’m doing now isn’t enough to change your mind.”

“…what are you talking about?” Now it was Magellan’s turn to be surprised. “Weren’t you sent here to try and end my plans, and ‘save my soul’ as you souls from Astraol believe in?” Eleazar shook his head. “Then why would you bother doing this?!”

“Why not?”

Those two words managed to rattle him even more than the annoying, pointless smirks. “‘Why not’? Why not?! There are many reasons why you would bother interacting with someone like me, if you have an interest in my plans! Stop me! Join me! Convince me to be your minion! What kind of reason is ‘why not’?!”

“It’s my reason, Magellan. After all, that’s the kind of person I am.” He took a short pause, just as he smirked. “An annoying, irritating pain in the neck with ridiculous magical power and a lack of sense who does nothing but bother people who have better things to do and just deserves to die.”

Magellan stared at him. Somehow, Eleazar had just said the exact same thing he was saying, with the exact same timing and tracking his reactions exactly.

“…how did you–”

“–know that you would say that?” Eleazar’s smirk grew, somewhat bitterly. “I already knew this would happen.”

“You… you knew?” Now he was sure the invader was insane. “You knew I would think and say these words, and even that I would hate you so much, and you bothered with this nonsense anyway? Are you telling me that it was my destiny to be helped by you or some trolldung like that?!”

“Nah… nothing that pleasant.” Eleazar took one look at him. “I just knew that if I simply tried to do my job, then you wouldn’t have gone this far, and most likely we would have settled things already. But if I tried to become your friend, then you would definitely want to surpass and overcome me, which would lead to something like this happening. And after that point… there is no way things would not culminate in greater destruction.”

“Then why–”

“There was always a chance that would not happen. I didn’t know what would cause it, so I could always try for the one time where the possibility of friendship was possible.” Magellan’s cold stare was enough of an answer to that. “Of course, now that I went and did it, there’s no turning back. You’re going to do something much worse than I should have allowed, and there is no way I can let you do that.”

“Then how will you stop me?” Magellan asked, even as he snapped his fingers. A fireball formed in the air, before flying towards Eleazar. “You kept holding back, or something?”

Eleazar simply held one hand forward, the fireball striking it dead on but dissolving instead of exploding as usual. “Yeah, I was. Playing with you just needed me to use the magic of this world. To be serious… means I have to do more than just that.”

“So that’s what your strange power was.” Magellan frowned. “You didn’t just counterspell me, you just destroyed that fireball. Quite strange, really.”

“I didn’t destroy it. I simply stopped it.” Eleazar’s eyes closed. “A fireball that is completely stopped doesn’t exist.”

“What?”

“While if you heat up the entire area…” His own fingers snapped, and suddenly Magellan felt the heat around him increase, even more than usual. “Then you get a much better combustion type!”

Magellan didn’t panic, although his surprise was quite great; instead of simply casting a common ice spell, he instead summoned a longer, more extensive blizzard, even as flames had started to erupt on the ground. “…where is the magic in this?!”

“There isn’t. Not your normal type, anyway.” The blizzard was so strong it neutralized the rising heat, although not without melting to the point of leaving the air dry. “I simply manipulated the heat in this room so that it would accelerate and heat up so fast that things would burn. A barrier like yours wouldn’t be able to stop that, given it’s not a fireball.”

“Don’t act like you know everything…” Magellan snarled, before he created a lightning cloud, letting it hover for a bit. “You aren’t as smart as you think you are, Eleazar!”

“Maybe not, but I’m good enough to survive, and that’s better.” As the first bolt flew towards him, Eleazar pointed at the incoming blast, watching as it dispersed like the fireball. “Electricity is just another form of heat, so this isn’t hard to deal with either.”

“…‘another form’?” Magellan wondered, too loudly for his own good. “What are you talking about?”

“Electricity, heat… these things happen because of motion. Things that move too much are hot, and attract each other, while things that don’t move are cold. That’s the secret of these abilities.” Eleazar darted forward, daggers in hand, even as more electric bolts flew towards him; as he ran, he showed no signs of concern, simply letting them approach and disappear near him. “And thus, why you can’t block them!”

Just as he slammed them against the barriers he knew Magellan had set up, however, Eleazar felt something strange; the reaction was not the same as the ones from before. That barriers could be layered was something he knew; however, for the barriers to actually hold off over the half a dozen attacks he had launched in those seconds, even if he knew that they could take two attacks before…

“I’m impressed, Magellan!” he declared, as he was thrown back by his own attack’s power. “You managed to learn how to block this power from the only time I used it on you, already?”

“I had to study a lot, no thanks to your interference… but I thought I figured it out,” the mage explained, glaring at the invader; the impacts had been enough to push him back even with his barriers up. “You swing your arms so fast that even as you strike me, you already have another attack ready to strike me before you can be repelled. And with something like this… your attacks are even faster, so you can hit me more times before you can block it.” He grimaced. “Were it not for the magic booster I’ve been drinking this whole month, fighting you like this would exhaust me too fast…”

“Heh… you’re right, Magellan. That soup of yours really wasn’t bad at all.” Eleazar discarded the daggers, bringing out a normal broadsword. “But do you think you can keep up after all?”

Magellan’s face twisted in rage. “Are you saying you drank from my magic booster?!” he snapped, creating a sphere of darkness that flew through the air, sending Eleazar back out of the room. “How dare you!”

“Nope. No need for stuff like that.” Despite the impact, Eleazar was still smirking, as he landed on both feet. “Why don’t you come over here to stop me from destroying it, though?”

The taunt was effective enough, as Magellan walked out of the room, glaring at him. “What’s your big idea now, Eleazar?” he asked, even as the doors slammed closed behind him. “What?!”

“Good, now you’re out of that place. Can’t let you go in anymore.” Eleazar smirked. “Gonna have to defeat me first, Magellan.”

“I already know what will be effective on you, brat.” More spheres of darkness formed around him, spinning rapidly and threateningly. “Between my traps and these spheres, you are dead!”

“Oh, am I really?” Eleazar asked, even as they flew towards him in unison. “But can you hit what isn’t standing here anymore?”

That single line of nonsense was enough to break Magellan’s concentration, just enough for him to realize that Eleazar was indeed not standing there anymore. Instead, in that blink of an eye, Eleazar had somehow moved in front of him, were it not for the fact that his stance was that of someone standing as opposed to someone running. And then, there was the swing of his sword, completely ridiculous and absurd as Eleazar’s motions seemed to be the opposite of his intended swing, as if he had just finished one and was going through the backward motion.

Which did not diminish his surprise in the least when Magellan suddenly found himself flying back against the doors, a cry of pain coming out of him. “M-my barrier…!” he let out, hand in his chest.

“Protective enchantments laid upon your very clothes, to ensure that you would take a hit like this. How long have you had them?” Eleazar asked, the sword glowing faintly even then.

“S-since… the day I realized I would have to deal with knights…” Magellan explained, flinching as he felt the pain spread out. The magic had protected him from taking a lethal blow, but it was painful nonetheless. “How can you… manipulate this blade so easily? I thought–b”

“It took me time to learn. Too much time in fact.” Eleazar didn’t let him stand up as he started to swing in that bizarre way, the mage’s barriers unable to contain his blows. “But time is a friend of mine, so it’s worth the time.”

“Do you, ever… make sense?!” the mage snapped, just as he conjured a wall of flames between both of them; the heat was painful, but at least it drove him off just enough to get up and start conjuring again.

“I make sense when I want. And when I don’t, I laugh anyway,” Eleazar answered, from behind him. “It’s hardly my fault when the universe does not want to accept my sense, anyway.”

Magellan only had time to turn around and face him when he was slashed again, the blade clashing against his side. However, Eleazar’s eyes widened at this point, staring at the point where his blade had struck his foe.

“What did you–” he barely managed to say, just as the entire kinetic force of his swing was redirected back at him. “ARGH!”

“…I don’t know how you’re doing it… but your swings are moving weirdly. Backwards.” Magellan took this chance to create a large pillar of wind, sending it flying like a miniature tornado towards Eleazar. “My barriers normally work like a mirror, but you’re making it so that the actual damage happens after the cut is blocked, meaning you don’t take it. So I had to change it myself.”

He closed his eyes. “Wind currents move faster than pure magical energy. It didn’t matter that your strange swing went through if it was dragged out of its path, and thus your strategy failed.”

“…a smart guy, aren’t you…” Eleazar laughed, as he got up again. “Fancy trick with the wind, there. And of course, now I can’t hit you with any of my weapons, much less spells.”

“Don’t play the fool, Eleazar. You could counterspell me easily every time we have crossed paths. Why wouldn’t you do so now?”

“Because I’m not trying to impress you or befriend you anymore, Magellan.” That was enough to make him blink in surprise. “Maybe I’m gauging your danger level right now… but the fact is, if I can’t get past those barriers of yours, then there’s no way you’ll be stopped. So I had better find a way to get past those pesky protections of yours!”

“Try as you might, you won’t be able to stop me, brat.” The wind pillar was spinning even faster now, practically turning into a mass of sharp blades. “Not even that trick of yours can do it.”

“You’re right. A solid mass like this cannot be passed, not in this state.” Eleazar grinned. “So it’s time for a different approach.”

The sword was dropped to the ground, as the invader’s left hand took hold of a strange device Magellan had never seen before, although it was hard to tell what exactly it was from how strong the wind had become. “So foolish. I already told you that there is no way you can–”

A loud banging noise erupted in the air as something flew at him, so fast Magellan didn’t have time to react. While his protective enchantments had been enough to protect him from serious damage, the mage had not managed to heal from his previous injuries yet, and was sent flying to the ground as well.

“That’s a good marker… now I know I can hit you good, Magellan.” Eleazar had taken on a stance as he held what Magellan could only compare to a crossbow, but it looked completely off, thanks to the tube-like end and the strange disk placed over it. “Even if your armor blocks it, the shots should still make it through the barrier and hurt like crap, right?”

“What are you–” the mage managed to say, just as more banging noises came out, the objects coming faster and faster, each one being drawn into the barrier only to break through instead of being flung away.

“The annoying thing with dealing with magic users is that magic, by its nature, disrupts one’s aim. I mean, just look at arcane archers, who need to enchant their own arrows so that they can make full use of them in combat,” Eleazar commented, watching as Magellan’s barrier was destroyed as well. “So I have to hit you from a distance, but as long as my bullets fly past this wall, then I should be fine.”

“B-bullets…?” Magellan asked, pain wreaking havoc on his body as Eleazar stopped his own attack, for some reason. He could hear some kind of noise as he fiddled with the weird crossbow, taking out something from the bottom.

“Yeah. I know, this world doesn’t have them, but that’s why I was hoping I wouldn’t need to use this.” The invader shrugged. “But I have to stop you, so…”

Again, he started to shoot those bullets at him, each one hitting Magellan so hard that his protective enchantments could do little to stop the pain or even keep the injuries from growing severe. However, the mage wasn’t wasting his time as he took the pain, conjuring with his mind the best he could.

A golem emerged from the floor, rising as tall as the ceiling and as wide as the corridor they had been fighting in. His body was merged with the floor, ceiling and walls, leaving very few openings past it.

“Maybe you can reach me past that barrier, but…!” Magellan yelped, in pain. “Your ‘bullets’ simply get past it, but you can’t create them past this!”

“Heh, so smart…” Eleazar commented with a smirk, while the mage stood up. “You’re right. They can’t fly if there’s something in the way. But why didn’t you simply create a barrier around you like usual?”

“Those ‘bullets’ can fly from any direction… and so fast that my magic would be drained too fast for me to be protected properly,” he revealed, even as the wind pillar flew forward in a last-ditch expansion. “But magic disrupts the trajectory, just like you said… so my magical wall should stop it!”

Eleazar was sent flying back again as the wind tore against his body, destroying much of his clothing and injuring him significantly, from what the ‘eyes’ in the summoned golem could share with him. “I’ve had enough, Eleazar,” he said, preparing his next spells already. “None of your powers can reach me. Even if some of them can get close… in the end, you’ll never get to me!”

“…and you just don’t know what that sounds like, do you?” Eleazar said, in a teasing tone, even as his device was dismissed. “So be it. I guess this means you’re stronger than I knew… so strong that just these tricks won’t do. You’re outsmarting me quite handily, Magellan, even if I know I’m doing the same to you.”

“What of it?” Magellan asked, even as he glared at his opponent past his ‘screen’. “My protections, my traps… my magic can surpass all your tricks, brat!”

“So I’ll destroy them, and your plans along with them.”

 

[H-Man]

Magellan didn’t know what to say, as Eleazar created a magical aura of some sort around his body. “Destroy my protections? And my plans?” he repeated, dismissive. “You’re certainly foolish, Eleazar. I stopped your spells with my own. Your tricks, as you put it yourself, are not enough to defeat me. And you say you’ll destroy them?”

“Yeah, I did.” From his hand emerged what looked like a white fireball. “It’s not a joke, either, but the real deal.”

“You sure don’t know when you should quit. Never did.” Magellan sent the golem forward, to trample over Eleazar. “There’s nothing you can do to–”

A loud, cracking noise came from the golem just then, a hole having formed on his core as it was being destroyed from the inside. Magellan’s eyes widened, seeing frozen cracks form all over the golem’s body, even as it shrank and tore some of the walls and ceiling’s contents. “…what in the Malevoros–”

“What makes a fireball be a fireball?” Eleazar asked, watching as smoke of some kind came from the golem’s destroyed body. “It’s a sphere of flames, with all the qualities of both. It’s hot, it burns, it spreads, it flies, it consumes oxygen, it grows bigger, it explodes, it’s red…”

Another white fireball was in his hand. “So, if I make an opposite of a fireball… it won’t be spherical.” Magellan noticed the shape of the hole; it was square-like, instead. “It won’t be hot. It won’t burn like fire. It will be compressed. It won’t fly. It’ll consume nitrogen. It’ll grow smaller. It won’t explode. And it won’t be red.”

“Oxygen? Nitrogen?” Magellan let out, surprised, even as Eleazar threw that one as well. It somehow swam through the air, like a floating brick immersed in water, in his general direction. Magellan thought about stepping away, only to find that the not-fireball was somehow pulling at him, ensuring that he would be touched by it.

The impact completely destroyed his elemental protection barriers, cold as ice and creating a nasty, burning sensation on the right side of his chest. “W-what… what was that?!” he demanded, even as the strong pull finally dismissed itself, sending him flying back as well.

“You would call it magic, even though it’s manipulation of something else.” Eleazar’s voice was not as cold as his attack, but it was certainly unpleasant enough. “This is the manipulation of matter. I simply inverted all the qualities of a fireball that don’t stop me from calling it a fireball if I wanted to.”

“But… it’s a brick!”

Eleazar stared at him. “And?”

Magellan flinched, but snapped his fingers quickly, creating a blazing wall. “You… cannot be serious…!” he snarled, even as he snapped his fingers again. The flames spread up and through the corridor, burning fiercely and ferociously as well.

Within seconds, another non-fireball struck the flames, freezing them at once and devouring them. Eleazar stared past it, seeing the ground shift where Magellan had just been. “…whether I’m serious or not, I can’t let you escape, Magellan. Not when we’re both so injured.”

One floor below, Magellan tried to run the best he could, although the pain on his chest made things quite difficult for that. “D-damn… I really made the right choice, when it came to magic, but… it doesn’t change the fact that pain hurts so much, fiendish horrors!” he cursed, to himself. “My barriers can’t take a power like this, and he’s not going to stop until he actually kills me… that brat!”

He had just made it past the second turn when an impact struck the castle, causing some of the masonry and the ceiling above to fall. “D-damn!” the young mage snapped, as he barely managed to avoid the falling stonework, looking up only to see Eleazar stare at his direction, with a series of orbs spinning rapidly with a dark light within.

“Gravitron Orbs,” Eleazar answered the unspoken question, as he prepared to jump down. “They can do a lot of useful things, wouldn’t you say?”

“…even destroy traps?” Magellan retorted, and the invader hesitated to answer his question. That was enough for a sudden electric storm to spread, forcing him back just as he threw one of those orbs at the core of the storm. The electricity was absorbed by the orb, even as it started to draw in more matter of other kinds, although Eleazar still had to take steps back due to his own mistiming. “How did you do that, Eleazar?”

“You’d want to know, wouldn’t you?” the invader replied, even as the Gravitron Orb suddenly inverted itself, unleashing waves of pure energy even as it disappeared into nothing. The waves struck the walls, ceiling and floor, weakening it further, and Magellan pushed himself away even as he knew the pain was becoming overwhelming with each passing moment.

“Destroying my castle… destroying my plans…” he muttered to himself, before activating another trap; the snarl of a starving beast came from one of the corridors above, even as it would rush towards Eleazar. “It will never happen!”

On the above floor, Eleazar stared at the corridor in the distance, before smirking. “Heh. I guess he’s going down swinging,” he said to himself, even as he could tell that Magellan was getting away. “More time for me to make sure he fails, anyway.”

He pointed a Gravitron Orb at the door behind him, watching as it flew towards the closed doors; just as there would be an impact, however, the snarling beast leapt at him, slamming his body so hard they fell through two floors down the castle.

“Quite the beast he got…” he muttered, although it was hard to hear his own voice with two pounds of masonry keeping his mouth shut. Teeth grasped his arms and pulled hard, intending on tearing them off his body, but he refused to give; instead, by pointing downwards with his fingers, the last Gravitron Orb slammed into the beast, creating a nasty injury that forced it to yelp in pain, throwing him away into the air.

Eleazar had to force a landing, and even then quite roughly at that, but he didn’t show any of his concern regarding the bite marks. “Man, oh, man, oh man!” he let out, as he looked at the multi-headed beast standing before him, quite like a Cerberus in body if not for the variant amount of heads, difficult to make out in the bad light or the fact that it had a zebra’s body. “Quite a mean pet Magellan’s got tamed here…”

The zebra monster growled, bloody spit landing on the ground even as it huffed threateningly. There was a noticeable injury spot on its body, but the Gravitron Orb hadn’t torn off as much of its flesh as he had hoped, and it was still absorbing its matter. “He’s running to his soup right now. And I imagine he’s gonna boost himself to the max with it…” Eleazar reasoned, even as he was rushed by the beast; his own flip was barely missed by its teeth as he jumped above it, and he called upon a weapon to help protect himself as well.

Hard wood met one of the heads as he swung hard, both taking the impact well enough. “What’s with the helmet, now?” he wondered, just as the others tried to bite on him; each head, however, found itself with a mouthful of wood, his attempts to parry it successful enough to keep it from reaching him. “Good thing I got the right weapon for the wrong job!”

Spinning the weapon quickly, he grasped a handle right by its sharp end and struck the head again with the previous handleguard, leaving a nasty mark on another zebra head. Two others tried to bite at him, but he managed to block using the wooden body of the weapon, not without being pushed back.

The next swing was more vertical, the sharp ends of the handleguard slashing through the space between two necks. Those heads yelled out in pain, and Eleazar pulled back only to enter another swinging stance. Rather than bite, the zebra heads slammed against his body like a battering ram, pushing him back against the nearest wall.

“Almost… good enough…” Eleazar groaned, as the zebras reared back, preparing to slam their hooves on him. However, he hadn’t let go of his weapon at all, and swung it as hard as he could against it. The letters on the handleguard glowed faintly, upon impact, leaving a nasty mark on the beast.

The beast was also paralyzed by its effect, as well, standing perfectly still even as Eleazar pushed it as far as he could, breathing with more difficulty now. “Damn… natural recovery hasn’t been kind. Trying to be friends with Magellan definitely required more effort than just killing him,” he muttered, even as he dashed forward. An annoying buzz in his ears was starting to get to him, too. “It’s not two years yet. Time can’t be up… I just have to finish it. Or, at least…” His scarves flapped in the air as he headed on, past the next corridor.

He had just entered it when a gas cloud emerged from the floor, taking up most of the space. “Hah, poison clouds?” Eleazar wondered, even as he stopped for one moment. “Stupid things are always two things: flammable and smelly!” A snap of fingers later, the temperature in that room started to heat up, just as quickly as before, and the gas clouds began to burn up. However, to Eleazar’s surprise, they weren’t stopping. “Huh… so his gas trap is a permanent one. I wonder how it’s being fueled up.”

A series of Gravitron Orbs formed around him. “Not that I have any time to find out, though!” he declared, sending one forward. The sound of the room’s destruction reached Magellan, who had just arrived in his personal laboratory.

“He’s definitely not holding back, from the noises… he’s trying to destroy my traps even if it brings the castle down!” he realized, before running to the large cauldron. There was still enough of the mixture he had worked on when he met Eleazar, a magic-boosting potion that had been part of why he had survived so far.

“I’ll need a strong dose if I want to keep him away… and understand this new magic of his,” he muttered, taking a large vial and filling it up the best he could. “My body won’t take enough hits from this kind of power… I still haven’t healed from our previous encounter either.”

A single, full dose felt like it burned through his throat, but it was enough to restore his already drained magical abilities and power them up further; the barrier he placed upon the cauldron felt at least three times stronger than the one he had first placed upon it, and he laid several more over it to ensure maximum safety. A second dose was enough to bring him back to full again, as he started to work on protecting the room as well, sealing the doors and other artifacts.

“Even his Gravity… Graviton… Gravy Orbs cannot overcome these barriers,” he acknowledged, right at the third dose. “He’ll waste all his energy trying to get through. Even my own Explodia cannot break through this many barriers on their own!”

With that, he turned to a separate cauldron, filled with water. Some magic spent on it allowed him to see the active and destroyed traps, the latter by far outnumbering the former. “He’s advancing fast… too fast. Is it just that strange ability of his?”

An explosion rocked the room from the outside, forcing him to focus his attention outside. Eleazar was standing there, smirking as he had still two of those damned orbs flying near him, juggling several objects – including one of those non-fireballs of his – while he considered his next action. “Heh… it seems like I found the enemy base, doesn’t it?”

“Damn you, Eleazar…” Magellan growled, as he focused on reforming the outer layers of these barriers from the inside, an already taxing duty without his involvement. “What is your plan this time?”

The half-naked invader adjusted his wrist, throwing one object after another at the door. It wasn’t easy to tell what struck, although he could at least have an idea of the reaction involved – some kind of flaming burst, some kind of electric flash, even the utter coldness of his non-fireball. Magellan could feel each hit overcoming most of the barriers, even if the door remained safe, but he did not relent in creating more of them.

“Heh… there is nothing you can do, Eleazar…” he couldn’t help but mock, with a smile of his own. “You waste your energy, while I’m able to restock at will… go ahead! Destroy my barriers! I’ll only create more!”

And then, it suddenly stopped. “Huh?”

“Hey, Magellan!” Eleazar’s voice came from the outside, louder this time; having moved to the doorway to reinforce the door, the young mage wasn’t too sure of anything else. “Seems like you’ve done a great job keeping these doors safe! There’s enough barriers for you to deal with all of my elements and counter-elements!”

“…what is he getting at?” Magellan wondered, taking another dose to refuel and boost his powers further.

“Thing is! I just want to know one thing!” Eleazar went on, his voice distorted for some reason. “Can your barriers deal with all of them?”

Magellan looked at the cauldron, seeing that Eleazar had formed a large thing with all his elemental and counter-elemental objects, which was still growing in size and, yet, held up by him without a problem.

“…oh for the love of–”

The next impact completely rocked the room, as the barriers on the door were simultaneously shattered by all the elements and counter-elements striking them together, creating a nasty explosion that destroyed the doors beyond the point of recovery – along with the walls on that side. There was a hole formed on both ceiling and floor of the castle corridors, with Eleazar still stuck on the other side.

Magellan cursed, as he stood on a crater of his own on the opposite wall. “How much of my castle are you going to have to destroy before you will call it quits?!” he grunted, before struggling to pull himself out. Sharp pain ran through his body, increasing the difficulty of this action, but he didn’t stop even then.

“Well, let’s see. I’m pretty sure I destroyed your sacrifice room, and I’ve been blowing things up as often as possible to maximize the damages,” Eleazar commented, not caring much about his own injuries. “I could do with just destroying the cauldron, but that’ll just leave you to make it again when you’re done. So, either I kill you along with the cauldron, or I destroy your castle and leave you unable to go through with your plans.”

“You talk a lot, ‘hero’,” Magellan snarled, noticing Eleazar didn’t seem too happy about that comment. “But you’re not doing too good yourself, are you? Isn’t it the normal thing to try and solve these things with the least amount of destruction possible?”

“Your case isn’t normal.” Eleazar glared at him, despite the smirk. “And besides, I didn’t say I’m a hero.”

“Then why are you opposing me?!” Magellan managed to get himself out of the crater, at that point. “Haven’t you seen the rest of this world? It’s bad! Wrong! Rotten! The kingdoms fight each other in bloody wars that serve nothing but their own coffers, the common people suffer… who the hell would want to live in a world like this one?!”

“And to create your better, you want to kill everyone.”

“It’s the only way to make things work, brat!” The young mage pointed at a book on one of the shelves. “Our history… it’s not just bloody, it’s worthless! Every single ‘peace’ attempt has resulted in nothing but blood spilled on the ground, leading to a new war and violence! Even now, there are armies preparing for the next war! This world will never learn, and it doesn’t deserve to exist!”

“Which is why you won’t stop.” Eleazar shook his head. “But it’s what I said. The sacrifice room is probably destroyed by now. Your remaining treasures won’t survive the destruction of this castle, even if you do. It will take you forever to rebuild, if you even survive this! Are you willing to sacrifice your own life for the sake of this stupid plan?”

“I’ve been able to survive with nothing before… I don’t need this castle to succeed!” Magellan snapped his bloody fingers, letting the magical force flow into an orb of his own. “I just need to end you while surviving… and I am sure I know how!”

“Just try it, Magellan!” Eleazar replied, sending a Gravitron Orb towards him. “Your life ends here!”

“Move.”

To his surprise, the barriers around the cauldron containing the potion suddenly moved, dragging it forward faster than he had expected. Eleazar saw it fly past the pit on the hole, even as Magellan had already decided on the target of his next spell. The barriers were dismissed.

“EXPLODIA!”

The orb of raw, destructive power flew towards the cauldron as fast as it could, like a comet; the leftover ‘tail’ contacted the Gravitron Orb, starting to be pulled back, but it couldn’t take all of its inertia from Magellan’s focus.

Eleazar’s eyes widened as the cauldron’s contents caught on fire and exploded even more strongly than the burst he had used, which was immediately absorbed by his remaining Gravitron Orb – which, as before, absorbed the energy only to expel it with even more power than before. The invader’s body disappeared in the explosion, although Magellan had other priorities.

“Altima… Barrier!” Magellan let out, spending all the magic he could to reinforce the barrier he had just formed. Even as it shattered it reformed with stronger thickness, every time, pushing him back and bringing him closer to the other wall. A nasty cracking sound came from the ground, as the massive destruction consumed more of the ground in front of him, creating a nastier pit and bringing more of the castle down upon him.

He didn’t know how much time he stood there, spending his magic in an attempt to stave off his own death, but eventually the heat died down and he saw the flames disappear, having headed into every other direction but that one. A few seconds passed, his panting slowing down until it stopped.

“…it’s over,” he muttered, looking at the scene ahead of him. Too much of the castle had been destroyed, just as Eleazar had declared; even if he was still safe, he could tell there was no structural balance to it any longer, and it was only a matter of time before some of the ceiling did, in fact, fall on his head. The treasure vault below was probably destroyed by the Explodia, and he felt so drained he would have to walk to the ‘sacrifice room’ on his own.

“…is this the taste of victory?” he wondered, as he looked at the pit ahead of him. It sure was deep… and while the walls were destroyed, it didn’t make it any easier to get out either. “It tastes… bitter and salty. Like the sea.”

End.​