Alistair's Magical Mishap

"Oh, great! After hours of intense concentration, my formidable powers have finally brought forth... a delicate little lotus flower. Fantastic! Forget about summoning fireballs or telekinetically crushing my enemies, I'll just dazzle them with my amazing lotus powers! Watch out, world, the Lotus Wizard is here to charm you to death with his floral finesse! Ugh, why couldn't I manifest something cooler? Why couldn't it be a ferocious dragon or a limitless supply of nachos? Nope, just a dainty little flower. I bet even the fairies are laughing at me now. Sigh, I guess I'll just embrace my destiny as the world's most fearsome...gardener. Green thumbs beware, for Alistair, the Lotus Lord, has arrived!" Seymour lamented inwardly, with disdain emanating from every fiber of his being. "What a sick joke!!"

"I've never seen or heard of anything quite like this before." Lenore commented. "Perhaps, we should ask our instructors when we get back to school."

"Does this mirror his personality?" Seraphina asked, pouting. "Oh brother, I expected something a bit more impressive from the great wizard-in-training!"

"Oh, I know!" Lilian called out, as though she had hunched on a brilliant idea. "Maybe instead of magic, brother should try botany or horticulture! I'm sure he'll be the finest gardener in town!"

Her snide comment sent everyone in stitches except Alistair. His lips twisted into a faint grimace as a feeling of embarrassment crept over him. The daggers of their words penetrate his confidence.

This was not what he had envisioned, not what he had hoped to manifest after hours of solitary concentration. A lotus, while a symbol of purity and beauty, seemed insignificant and frail compared to the strength he sought to harness.

"I can see I'm stuck in the middle of an opened forum, with a hot topic - Twilight Lotus." Seymour thought, drowned by their laughter. "What caring sisters I've got!"

Lenore, witnessing his disdainful face of her baby brother, dashed to the rescue. "Brother, it's not the manifestation that impresses us, it's your determination and eagerness to learn. Magic isn't about being perfect; it's about embracing who you truly are."

"Alright, alright! Let me try again! A stronger manifestation, definitely!" Alistair said, determined to prove them wrong. "Okay... I can do this. Something strong. Something impressive. Come on, power!"

Alistair closed his eyes tightly, his brow furrowing, as he channeled all his energy into manifesting something more substantial. But...

*CRACK!!*

Suddenly, a loud crack echoed through the room drawing everyone's attention to the lotus. It shuddered, cracks snaking across its delicate surface as though it was glass.

Then it shattered into a shower of glittering glass shards. Alistair opened his eyes to find the lotus in his palm crumbling into pieces like a delicate vase.

"Oh brilliant! Now you broke." Alistair scoffed.

*HAHAHA!!*

His sisters burst into raucous laughter, slapping their knees and holding onto each other for support. As they laughed, their bosoms grew chaotic, like wrecking balls doing a macabre dance of doom.

"At least I am treated to a front-row seat in this tits Olympics!" Alistair though, looking embarrassed beyond belief. He gazed at his shattered creation with a mix of disappointment and disbelief.

"Well, baby brother, it seems your power is better suited for gift shop trinkets than actual magic!" Lilian teased.

"You're absolutely right, Lilian. My magic is so impressive that the gift shops can't contain it. It's a safety hazard." Seymour scoffed inwardly, tired of her one-liner humors straight from the bargain bin. "At least it doesn't disappear in a puff of smoke like your attempt at wits. In fact, if I had a penny for every time you said something funny, I will still be broke."

"Ugh, except for lenore, they've all got a talent for starting the obvious. I guess subtlety is just too tricky for them." Seymour seriously wanted to claw the silly looks of their faces. "It's as if their brains disappear faster than my patience when I try taking them seriously."

He rumbled on and on when suddenly, the shattered lotus began to tremble as if driven by some malevolent force. Glassy tendrils with twilight hues sprouted forth from it quivering center, writhing and twisting in a violent frenzy. Some had suction cups at the edge, while others were as sharp as a needle. It was spontaneous, leaving all of them frozen in place.

"Oh! Tendrils... swift tendrils! So these are my so called brilliant weapons." Seymour snorted lukewarmly at the little drama. But they were lashing out too wildly for this to be a mere facade. Alistair instinctively tried to let go the fragments of the lotus, but its tendrils whipped around his arms with a forceful grip.

Pain shot through his veins as they dug into his tender flesh, embedding themselves in his skin like demonic vines.

"What...What's happening to me?!" He yelled in agonizing pain. His sisters dashed forward, trying to intervene, but the vines fitted with suction cups shot large outbursts of acoustic energy at them. Their knees to buckled as they clutched their ears, feeling their insides wobble.

The sharp ones slithered insidiously under his skin, weaving their way along his arms like dark veins. The pain escalated and the panic caused him to frantically claw at them. But they continued their relentless march, snaking their way onto his neck and crawling up towards his face.

"F*ck! Get off me, stupid vine!" Alistair yelled in a strained and barely audible voice. As if in response to his plea, the tendrils emerged from his mouth, extending and growing exponentially in size till they formed another lotus. Alistair gripped his throat, a futile attempt to stop the lotus from suffocating him.

Now a massive entity, the Lotus engulfed Alistair's entire head, shrouding his features in cold translucent glass that held the hues of twilight. Alistair's muffled voice could be heard from beneath the glass, while it spawled further, coating his body inch by inch, edging towards his feet.

He withered and convulsed as the lotus consumed entirely. In the heat of the moment, Seraphina manifested a great sword with an unusual red blade. Mustering enought strength as battle-mage, she drove the sword into the ground with so much force, instantly negating the acoustic energy, and destroying everything in its way.

However, they were too late. In one final surge, Alistair have been engulfed entirely, leaving behind a statue-like figure encased in glass. Suddenly, as though it's defensive mechanism had gone off, countless suction cups began to emerge all around the glass statue.

Seeing as the worst was about to happen, Lilian exploited the opening created by Seraphina's great sword. She pressed both of her palms against the floor. A pale green glow emanated, and shortly after, a giant beanstalk burst out of the ground in front of them.

It's grew large quickly, blocking the way in time, before a tremendous burst of acoustic wave hit it. But, the beanstalk had always been a resilient shrub. It bent toward their direction for awhile, but snapped back, repositioning itself and shielding them from the constant outburst.

"What are we meant to do now?!" Charlotte panicked, as she constantly supplied the shrub with fortification magic. "With every second that goes by, sometimes very bad might be happening to him in that thing."

Amelia, Izabella and Violet felt very useless in this situation. They had purely offensive mage abilities, which weren't best suited for this instance when they needed to protect their brother, not harm him.

"Am on it!" Lenore whispered, as her eyes glowed a pale blue. Suddenly, her spiritual half began to split from her physical body, appearing faint with a mild aura surrounding her.

Lenore's mage abilities allowed her to project her spirit out of her body, becoming two separate entities, each operating with their own unique perspective and abilities as a result of their particular states of being.

Without hesitation, the spirit body phased through the gigantic beanstalk and floated towards the crystallized statue.

Lenore's ghostly apparition tried to phase through the glassy substance like it did the beanstalk, but for some reason unbeknownst to her, she couldn't advance through it. However, one thing was apparent, the acoustic waves just passed through her, without impeding her movement.

She tried ghosting out further by dissipating her essence outward to appear a bit thinner, but try as she might, she couldn't phase through the crystal. She squinted, trying to see Alistair through the crystals but it seemed to have grown thicker and darker after engulfing him.

She placed both palm on its surface, producing a slight blue glow. "Please work, please!!" She panicked, trying to absorb and dissipate its solidity, while imbuing her ghostly essence into it. Hopefully, by doing this, she couldn't finally phase through.

The crystal statue looked like it was fainting out, and becoming clearer, but that was her worst mistake. Now that it's state was as ghostly as hers,  sharp tendrils lashed out at her, binding and impaling her simultaneously. The real Lenore on the other side of the beanstalk, fell to her knees, feeling the sudden impact on her spirit.

*BANG!!*

A loud blow knocked the door to the basement cleanly off its hinges, leaving two white fiercely glowing eyes on display. All seven sisters instinctively turned to the direction of the loud noise, only for them to exclaim in unison.

"MOMM!!!"

***