9 - Research Disposal
Chapter 9
Aurelius pulls himself from the rubble of a room on the second floor. The feedback from mixing his high tier spells with the artifacts those juniors carry sent him quite a distance. The first thing he notices is that one of his personal barriers have shattered, which is quite the feat. This causes him to cast another two spells to replace the protection he has lost with twice as many.
With that out of the way he scans his surroundings and begins formulating a plan. First he needed to locate the barrghest and move him to a secure location. While doing so he would need to recover or destroy any research he can come across. He could not afford to have his precious time spent here fall into the hands of the association that banned him years ago, they do not deserve the advancements that he has discovered.
Aurelius finds that he is in the spare sleeping quarters, that has been transformed into a series of storerooms. The blast knocked him through the walls of two of the rooms and into the hall, to his left lies the hole he came through the floor in and to his right are two additional sleeping quarters that instead house research material.
He lifts a hand and sends two fireballs into the ruined rooms, detonating them to erase all of the research that is currently damaged within. He then heads over to the room closest, and takes note of the bins full of notebooks. He begins chanting, gathering his power, and then casts a mid tier spell which causes a hole to open in the center of the room and suck all of the objects into it. The extra dimensional space would have to make due as a collection point for anything he has the time to collect. Shortly after he finishes with the first room, he takes a few moments to suck up all the research from the second room.
Aurelius finishes up with the two rooms and then begins heading towards the eastern section of the second floor. Currently in the southern wing comprised of sleeping quarters and recreational space, his goal is to make it to the northern wing where a good portion of his research notes were housed.
To make this goal more manageable he decided upon increasing his ranks. Aurelius kneels down in the central corridor between the rooms and begins sketching symbols on the floor with flame he conjurs into his hand. With each finished rune, the circle grows in power, until he inscribes the final symbol and fuels the circle with his own magic. Around him dozens of flames spring into being from somewhere else, as typical with summoning circles.
"Go and burn everything you find." He commands each of the elementals, which depart as swiftly as they were summoned here. The sooner their task is complete, the sooner they can return to their home plane.
Next he decides that he would like to provide some additional trouble for the mages that have invaded his home. To that extent, he begins drawing another summoning circle, although this time in blood. His own blood to be exact, and the symbols are far more intricate, as he in summoning something far greater than the small fire elementals that he has spread out over the lab to eradicate his research.
The blood used during the ritual weakens him, as all blood loss would, though that weakness will be returned tenfold with the creature that he is calling to him.
"Fiendish overlord, i beckon thee. Heed my call and vanquish my foe. Come to me, Azemir!" In conjunction with the chant, magic power flows into the circle and the blood begins to boil. Very quickly glowing brighter and brighter until the light flashes out, leaving no more than black stains on the ground.
A hulking beast now stands in front of Aurelius, at least fifteen feet tall when standing straight, and bright green horns adorning its head. Two large bat-like wings attach to the creatures back, its body covered in thick scales, sharp talons and claws in place of typical hands and feet. The creature slowly raises its head, eyes glowing gold as it breathes out grey fumes.
"I await my orders, summoner." Azemir speaks in a deep voice which would make the skin of most mortals crawl.
"Hunt down the three mages who have invaded my home and slay them." Aurelius commands, and the beast obeys. Quickly standing and moving towards the holes in the wall which lead down to the central area of the first floor.
In the meantime, Aurelius begins heading towards the eastern wing of the research lab. On his way be begins leaving invisible magic mines and traps in case he manages to catch any of the mages offguard.
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One of the mages keeps to the central room, searching for anything that might prove useful. The second heads towards the location where the Hydra was sent crashing through the wall, and the third heads towards the stairwell leading to the western wing of the lab. Each have their orders and know what must be done.
The one in the central wing of the first floor scans the area for anything that has remained intact. The initial blast has torn through the second story leaving a hole skyward, though the habitat here seems to have been advanced enough to stop it from penetrating any deeper. While this itself might be cause for investigation, the remains of the habitat are far too scarce for him to pay any mind to it. An intact door catches his eye though, and he moves to investigate.
The reinforced door opens smoothly, revealing dozens of habitats much smaller than the ruined one in the central area. The mage discovers a variety of specimens inside these habitats, many of which can prove valuable to alchemical and medical experimentation, though many of the creatures were ones that have already been documented with the association.
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The mage ascending to the second floor passes through a series of doorways until he finds himself standing in a long narrow hallway. Doors line the far wall, and it seems that the corridor curves around the entirety of this wing. Flames can be seen from some of the doorways in both directions, though an explosion draws the mage south.
He follows the hall to a room, peaking inside to find a small fire elemental torching bookcases and crates. The creature has not yet noticed him, so the mage casts a mid tier frost spell to instantly do away with the fire elemental. With the pest out of the way, he can now discover what was so important that it needed to be burned.
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The third mage follows the trail of rubble and holes to the perch overlooking the large storage warehouse. His expression turns to one of surprise as instead of the hydra, he finds a barrghest feasting on the corpse of their pet.
He finds the scene intriguing, the barrghest was clearly strong enough to take out their hydra, not to mention that it is giving off quite a magical aura. This means that the innate talents these creatures usually have pale in comparison to the one standing down below. Luck may very well be on his side, as this may very well be the specimen they are looking for.
