Weird

After hours of hunting to replenish their Blood energy, which Sevi called lifeblood, Rethys was finally allowed to head to the ritual rooms' entrance and actually get on with it.

The Blood mage did not seem to take earlier's surprise well, but Rethys judged that the added peace of mind of knowing a bit more about his sinister partner was well worth the hassle. But somewhat unexpectedly, Sevi continued to try and smooth things over between the two as much as she could, which conversely only served to heighten the young man's wariness of her.

"You said that you have left the door there open. What if some of the caster creatures within are already out and about?" Sevi inquired.

"It'd be a good thing actually. The rooms they're in are vast, and them not having the space to move around is good for me." Rethys explained.

"Ah yes, I forgot you fight in melee. You must excuse me for it is such a strange notion for a mage." Sevi added. "Extend your arm and open your hand."

Rethys hesitated a bit but then did as she said. And as he did, he saw lifeblood coalescing in his open palm until it assumed the solid form of a short sword.

It was a triangular sort of sword, with three spiraling edges that met at the tip. It also lacked a handle, or rather didn't seem to even need one, as the thin blade itself stuck to Rethys' hand and moved with it. It seemed more like a needle than a sword and felt more like an extension of his hand rather than a true weapon.

It also had what seemed to be a socket in place of a handle, and as Rethys peered at the spherical space, Sevi revealed to him its purpose.

"Place one of your Origin etherstones there." She instructed.

Doing as she asked, he grabbed a dark blue stone from his satchel and set it in the socket.

"And what's this?" He questioned.

"A weapon." She declared. "If either of our magics cannot handle an opponent from a distance, this needle will serve as a better alternative to your fists. Stab it into anything and it will deliver to it both my Blood magic and your Origin magic."

"Did you just make a magic item just like that?" Rethys asked, dumbfounded at what he had just seen.

"No. No, I did not. This is simply a temporary construct fueled by blood, the substance and not the element, and will fade away if it runs out of energy. Thankfully, however, blood is never in short supply here. This merely serves as an extension of your hand and as a way for me to interact with the physical world. It also does not need any input from either of us in the midst of battle, as it would inject our magics from the etherstone and the dagger itself upon contact. It can also extend outwards." She explained, the crimson needle elongating enough to touch the ground.

Seeing the long weapon in his hand, Rethys felt stronger already, as if nothing in the catacombs could stop him now. He felt like the mage-knights of Aldeno he occasionally caught glimpses of, donning their shiny armor and wielding their large blades.

His own weapon, however, lacked all those features of knighthood, instead feeling light, focused, and vicious. It was a cruel tool to inflict cruel fates, if what he had seen of Sevi's magic thus far was anything to go by. But that in itself had its own appeal, Rethys thought, one of efficient brutality.

However, his own fantasies aside, he recognized the unwieldiness of such a long weapon in tight spaces and had Sevi return it to a decent length. Long enough to extend his reach, and short enough to not obstruct.

"I am not the dedicated weapons manager here, so you will have to control the parameters of the needle yourself. Simply visualize lengthening and shortening it, or even vocalize it if that helps. You can also dismiss it entirely." Sevi pointed out, commanding the improvised weapon to coalesce around the blue etherstone of Origin, giving it a strange dark purple hue.

Rethys continued to manipulate the weapon in his hands, weighing it in his hands and getting a feel for it. It answered his mental commands instantly, changing to suit his needs. He could also feel how it could transmit his magic just as effectively as his own body, if not even more so.

'Huh...' He grunted approvingly, instantly growing rather fond of this brutal stake of cursed blood.

"Thanks, I guess." He said.

"You are welcome." The Blood mage responded.

It didn't take long from there for the duo to get to their destination. And descending the stairs leading to the magic door of the ritual wing, Rethys prepared himself.

He could see ahead of him the soul of the Water mage, positioned exactly where he had faced the creature the first time. He would have to fight it again it seemed. But with Sevi with him, he was hardly nervous.

Crossing through the door to the entrance hall, Rethys' gaze instantly met that of the tall, gaunt creature. It peered at him with its three blue eyes, and without its dark hood, its eyes gleamed with intelligence instead of magical glow.

"That is one of the cultists for certain." Sevi confirmed. "Now it remains to be seen how much of their cognizance remains in those rotten skulls of theirs."

As if on cue, the creature summoned its ether and channeled its magic. Waves of water seemingly materialized out of nothingness and gathered before it in a protective shell of ether-charged water.

The creature didn't stop there however and continued to channel its magic and summon water into the room until the total volume under its control could easily flood the whole room. All that water continued to revolve around it, making sure nothing could come close or get through to the caster within.

"It definitely couldn't control this much water last time." Rethys stated while keeping an eye on the movements of the ether in the room. "Do we just kill it?"

"No need to rush, we have all the time we need." Sevi simply answered.

And so, the duo waited until the creature itself stopped waiting and went on the offensive.

Raising its arm in the air, the creature called upon a spell, and three spears of ice rose from the water whirling around it. The spears then flew towards Rethys, who promptly sidestepped them. It then kept casting variations of thrown spells, from strangely swerving ice projectiles to globules of water that froze upon getting closer to impact.

"It is gauging us." Sevi noted.

Rethys for his own part remained silent and kept avoiding the creature's spells. He could spot the flow of ether before the spells were even cast, allowing him to either know exactly what was going to happen, or at the very least tell the direction the spells were cast towards. This made it so that he could keep avoiding attacks pretty much indefinitely as long as he didn't need to advance.

Eventually the complexity of the spells cast by the ice wielder grew exponentially, going from projectiles to delayed spells and traps set in the environment. Some spells created magically-charged water vapor that would suddenly freeze into small, sharp interlocking ice crystals, requiring Rethys to sense the ether in the air and clear away quickly.

Other times the Water mage had all the water under its control begin bubbling chaotically so as to mask the movement of its spells, a technique useless against Rethys' element but nonetheless showing the depth of the creature's ability to strategize.

"This remains nothing compared to what a Great Mage should be capable of but remains beyond the scope of the regular catacomb dwellers. They are indeed different." Sevi commented.

"Yeah, but are we done or not? I'm getting tired here." Rethys complained, tired at this point from frantically avoiding spells and attacks.

And by the looks of it, his partner in this strange dance of sidestepping and dodging attacks remained completely tireless. Sevi said that unbound mages overusing their ability to regenerate energy would eventually suffer from diminishing returns, fatigue, and eventually soul damage. Yet from what Rethys could tell, the creature remained as energetic as ever.

Eventually, however, Sevi finished her observations and put an end to the magic spectacle.

As the Water wielder was about to cast yet another spell, it suddenly paused, and Rethys could see a cloud of the red ether of Blood coalescing around its head.

'How does she do that?' He wondered about Sevi's unique ability to cast magic.

Whereas every single creature Rethys had seen, himself included, emitted magic from their bodies, or more specifically their souls, that then traveled to the target, Sevi's magic could seemingly outright materialize around the target. This meant that in a theoretical clash between the two, he wouldn't be able to read the flow of her spells like he could do to any other caster.

The spell eventually ran its course, and the creature threw one last confused glare at Rethys before a spike of solid blood burst outwards from its skull, skewering its brain. The creature's corpse then doubled over and fell into an awkward position.

From there, Rethys approached the creature's dead body and Sevi cast her iconic blood extraction ability.

The spell ran through the creature's body like a wildfire through a stack of hay, obliterating its innards and any magic installed in its body.

Its soul, however, remained stubbornly hanging on.

"No, still nothing." Rethys noted, seeing the creature's soul still refusing to leave and the enchantments dotting it slowly restoring themselves. "But it should take longer to get back up though, so there's that."

"Leave it, any more damage to its body and the enchantments may retaliate. I am surprised they have not done so already, if what you say is true." Sevi pointed out.

"Can't you see it like I do?" Rethys wondered.

"No, I cannot. It is a feature of your element I presume. Everyone else would need physical contact with the target and either a Creation or Mind spell to reveal souls and enchantments." The Blood mage revealed.

Backing away from the corpse and retrieving his satchel, Rethys remembered a crucial detail he had forgotten about until now.

"That reminds me." He began. "Those enchantments are of the Purity element, right? I've seen that single element heal, imprison and now you tell me it can hurt. What gives?"

"Ah, yes. Purity is an unusual and somewhat extreme element. It is capable of many things. Actually, you may even say that it is capable of everything really, but that depends on the user." Sevi revealed.

"Capable of everything? How does that even make sense?" Rethys asked in confusion.

"It does, in a sense. Purity, you see, is the strangest of all elements. It refers to one's own vision and the will to impose it upon reality. It is much like the process of magic itself is used, except coalesced into a concrete element. If we suppose magic to be the process of using ether to realize our imaginations, then your element of Origin would symbolize the will of ether itself, while Purity would symbolize the will of the user's imagination." The Blood mage explained.

"Dumb it down for me please..." Rethys sighed, somewhat understanding her words but wanting a more practical explanation.

"Purity is quite simply the will to impose your own vision on reality, to keep it pure according to your very own standards. It acts differently for its every user, for some it heals, for others it hurts, for a few it does both. It is powerful and unpredictable, and its efficacy depends almost entirely on the proficiency of the user." Sevi elaborated.

"I see." Rethys nodded.

"It was often derogatorily referred to as the 'Madman's element', here in Yvtar, due to the fact that most of its powerful users were eccentrics bordering on either blind and fanatic conviction, or utter insanity. It takes that much I suppose to try and force your own will upon reality that directly and... stubbornly. And therein lies its greatest strength, that it is uncompromising. Unlike us mages who work around the rules, it does not care for them and tries to break them.

"I suppose that is the element's essence after all, refusing the impurity of the world or some such nonsense, I would not know. And from this you can tell that I cannot use that element, even if I were to attune to it. I doubt you will ever be able to use it either, if your temperament is anything to go by. But what do I know... that element is truly weird." Sevi mused.

Rethys paused for a moment, pondering the implications of such a power. But then shrugged away his contemplation, deciding to make a verdict once he had properly seen the element in action.

"Okay, I see. Let's move on now." He shrugged.

"'Let's' indeed..."