Chapter 74 Begin On Three.

  “That was… unpleasant.” Isaac grumbled as he blinked away the mental whiplash from the one-two punch of having his shadow-perception shattered and his mana senses being thrown onto a different frequency than the world around him.

  “Such things are unavoidable.” Jala said and waved him off.

  Isaac shrouded Shamesh in shadows again and gave his retainer a nod while he sent him the feeling of appreciation for what he had done. “I take it my mana intrusion was what caused it?” Isaac asked Jala for clarification.

  “I believe so.” She agreed.

  “So, how do you want to do this?” He questioned her and then glanced at Alexander to see if he had any input.

  Jala gave him a contemplative look. “Let me check something.” She told him and then took a moment to draw another ritual circle out of light on the trapdoor.

  “I agree with Lady L’Vore, the best way would be to retrieve the Attunement Crystal and either disrupt the signal, set off every trap simultaneously, or reset it and find a way to have it attune to someone without a Master Key being present.” Alexander replied to Isaac’s previous question. “If Lady L’Vore can find a way through the teleportation disruption, then maybe we can do an exchange.”

  “You mean teleport something into the crystal’s space so it gets sent here instead.” Isaac surmised.

  “Precisely.” Alexander agreed with a nod. “For now though, I recommend waiting until Lady L’Vore’s spell is finished. It appears to be a perception and divination combination. I believe she is trying to slip through the wards against both of those kinds of spells by using the ‘Water Through a Sieve’ strategy.”

  “That works with spells?” Isaac wondered. The strategy seemed very self explanatory. She was going to send multiple copies of each part of the sensory aspects of the spell out at the same time and then use whatever she got back as her mental map of the inside of the tower. The thing was, bits of spells were more like small chunks of ice rather than water because raw mana was like water and spells only ever seemed to solidify it into reality.

  “Theoretically.” Alexander replied. “Though I have never seen it work very effectively in practice. It does work, just not very well.”

  “If you are an idiot.” Jala commented and then closed her eyes. Her spell sigil began glowing brighter for a moment and then it broke apart into thousands of tiny pieces and rained down through the sealed trapdoor like incorporeal sand.

  “She never misses a moment to humble you, does she?” Isaac asked Alexander with an amused smirk.

  Alexander sighed. “No, no she does not.” He agreed. “Though, after watching her for months now, I cannot even argue. No matter how smart others may say I am, to her, I am just a child stumbling through magic. If only she would actively pass on all of what she’s learned.”

  Isaac chuckled. “Good luck with that.” He consoled the young wizard. “Jala, aren’t you only level nineteen? How long have you been stuck there?”

  “Yes, and since Lenna was small, only about waist high, if I remember correctly.” Jala told him without breaking her focus on her spell.

  Alexander blinked in shock like he had just been slapped in the face. “I knew that, somewhere in the back of my mind, but I had long forgotten.” He said more to himself than to anyone else. “I cannot believe that you have not finished your Archmagus Project. What in all of creation could it be that you have not been able to finish it?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “A chimeric mortal.” Jala replied and then opened her eyes. “Yes, I believe I can perform a teleportation swap like the boy proposed.” She said to Isaac. “I may need more power for it than I currently possess, however. I am down half of my mana reserves from earlier. The other option would be for me to wait, or someone could give me all of the resources necessary to create nine mana potions as well as one thousand gold. If I were to receive that then I could be convinced to use nine of the potions that I have on hand and we could get started right away.”

  “We are more than willing to help you.” Isaac told her. “What do you need from us?”

  “Not you.” Jala said with a shake of her head. She then pointed at where Shamesh was standing, even though he had moved once Isaac had entirely shrouded him in shadows. “Him,” She began and then pointed at Alexander. “him,” She continued and then pointed at the comatose Yarra. “and her. Though she need not be willing. There is plenty of mana that can be extracted at need.”

  Alexander shivered as all the blood left his face. Isaac frowned as all of the hairs on his arms stood on end. Neither liked the idea of someone being able to take their mana out of their unconscious forms. “You can do that?” Isaac asked her. “I thought… what about the protection of the soul?”

  “What about it?” Jala wondered. “All I have to do is trick her subconscious into thinking that she is casting a spell and then syphon off the mana that is being moved out of her core. Generally speaking, it is impossible to do it to someone unless they are truly comatose, which it is quite obvious that she is. Normally, doing something like that would cause the creature to awaken part way through, generally quite angry I might add.”

  “What did you try this on?” Isaac wondered.

  “My brother. That was just one of the many reasons why he banned me from our family home.” Jala explained.

  Isaac just shook his head. “Anyway, how much mana do you need? Shamesh is not full and neither is Alexander, he had to teleport here as well.” He asked her.

  “Based on what I can tell, the protections can be worked around by using somewhere between seven and thirteen near simultaneous teleportation attempts. Each one will need to be spread out by one twentieth to one tenth of a second of course as to prevent them from interfering with one another, but that should be doable by any competent mage.” Jala went on.

  Alexander’s eyes widened slightly. “Ritual cast Teleportation?” He questioned.

  “Of course, who free casts a spell as fragile as Teleportation?” She retorted like he was still an idiot.

  Alexander nodded. “Of course, let me get my gold paint and brush.” He said and reached into his expanded pocket.

  “What?” Jala questioned. “No. You will be powering my spells. I cannot trust an idiot, a child, two cripples, or three illiterates to do this.” As she was going on, she pointed at Alexander, Shamesh, Lenna and Isaac, and then the other three conscious people in the greenhouse with them.

  “Ouch.” Isaac replied.

  “No offense meant, my Lord.” Jala said without missing a beat. “But you're effectively someone like me trying to describe color, when it comes to spellcraft.”

  Isaac nodded in agreement with a shrug. “Oh no, you are entirely right, it was just somehow harsher when you said it.” He told her.

  “Child, I will need to see you and be able to feel your mana directly if I am to make your rituals for you.” Jala barreled on, while looking at the invisible Shamesh, without slowing in the slightest. Isaac removed the shadows from Shamesh so she could get to work. “The Reality Walls will soon break down, when they do, Lenna will need to surround us in a Gate of Flames for no less than eleven seconds but preferably not much longer than that.” She instructed her niece offhandedly. “Now, stop distracting me so I can work.”

  Jala reached out with one hand and placed it right on Shamesh’s chest. Her fingers dug into the gaps in his plate-like ribs and she pulled him along as she took a step towards one corner of the trapdoor. She took a moment to properly feel the power that flowed through Shamesh’s core and then began drawing out one teleportation sigil after another. Each one that she made for Shamesh was set an inch above the next until there were six just for him. Once she was done, she did the same thing for Alexander. When she gripped the man’s chest he visibly winced in pain as her nails dug into his skin through three layers of clothing. The fact that she could even get a perfect read on someone’s mana signature without the aid of any instruments or spells was utterly baffling to all of those present that had any knowledge of magic at all. She had the magical equivalent of perfect pitch and absolute tone recognition in music. She was playing back a song while listening to it on repeat to ensure that each note was perfect. She never had to backtrack while making her sigils even once for either of the young wizards.

  Jala had already finished with all of Shamesh’s sigils and had been almost halfway through Alexander’s when the Reality Walls had fallen and Lenna had done as she was instructed. The reason why she had to block them off with a wall of gushing flames was so none of the residual poison from the magical poison smoke clouds could get to them. Her flames easily burned what was left of it away, leaving nothing but the plants and small critters left in the greenhouse capable of poisoning anyone.

  Once Jala was done with the ‘idiot’s’ and the ‘child’s’ spells, she moved onto her own. She made only one for herself but then tied each of their arms together with what looked like three spokes of reality magic. “This will ensure that all of the spells are activated at the proper time as I will be controlling the timing. All you have to do is power the rituals as your hand comes into contact with them, do you both understand?” She questioned her two, mostly, willing assistants.

  “Yes.” Alexander and Shamesh replied at the same time.

  “Good.” Jala stated. “Now, we begin on three. One, two, three.”