Chapter 19: Experimentations and Progress (Part 4)
[Clock - 14:12 | 02:12 PM]
[Calendar - 23/01/2003]
[Location - Slaughter Swamp - Old Gotham, Gotham City, New Jersey]
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BOOM
Echoes of an explosion. Heat from flames. A flash of orange and red light that purged the shadows behind trees- a blue shimmer of magical hard light struggled against the flames as the force of the explosion pushed the floating man away. Atlas twisted mid air as his pre-cast [Mage Armor] had taken the brute force of the explosion, but the heat and flames still licked his skin. "Ah, fuck." Hissing from the pain of having his skin burned by his flames, Atlas looked down at his slightly burnt clothes and his skin, the haird in his arms also burned: "...I might need to learn that War Magic trick." Thankfully, he wasn't in the complete blast of flames, only being partially singed by the magical fire and not taking as much damage as Solomon had taken... As the dust dissipated, Atlas was not that shocked to see Solomon on the ground, his burnt skin tightly knitting itself together and regenerating while the burnt cells fell out of his undead body as slabs of dead burnt meat. "Huh, so he can make himself new flesh." Looking around at the withering plant life (plant life that wasn't instantly killed by his [Firebal]), he got his answer as he felt the necrotic energies within Solomon Grundy wring out the life energy of the plant life around him.
That partially explains how he regenerates whenever he takes damage, but what about when his body is completely destroyed? "Ah." Atlas felt like he had been hit by a lightning bolt as he easilly understood what he was dealing with- This wasn't a regular zombie, but the zombie equivalent of a Lich. "Ah... annoying to deal with, but useful..." With various thoughts of how to better take advantage of this fact or how to better exploit it, Atlas had a few ideas. He could use Solomon not only as a training dummy for him, but for others as well, to teach them serious combat where one of their opponents wants to kill them and their flesh... He could also try and harness the Necromantic Magics that fuel Solomon Grundy, using him as a battery too. "But for that, I'll need to-" Flying 65 feet above the regenerating zombie, Atlas thought 'Why not see how he fares against acid?' as he casted [Acid Stream]: "-restrain him." How could he restrain the Avatar of the Black? Maybe seal his soul away? Or maybe- "Woah!" -he regenerates faster than Atlas thought!
Moving out of the way from a rock thrown at him at high speeds, Atlas looked down to see Solomon crawling away as his legs were completely melt off by the bright poisonous green acid that spewed out (a few inches in front) of Atlas' hands. The stream of acid lasted for about 6 seconds as he moved out of the way from various rocks being thrown at him by the very angry and regenerating Solomon Grundy. Surprisingly enough, the trees and other plants of the swamp seemed to survive having their life force absorbed by the greedy zombie lich that was regenerating faster than Atlas thought he could. These plants were used to the Necromancy of Solomon Grundy, and they seemed to have grown adapted to what he could do, as they were still alive... So either these plants have a lot more life force than normal plants, or they are resistant to Necromantic Magic, and either way that's really useful and interesting. "That's cool, I guess." Waving his hand in front of him, Atlas remembered that he was here to test his spells against a target that couldn't die easily- and even if Solomon died, what of it? He will regrow from the swamp once more. "[Chill Touch]." From the shadows, these two clawed hands made out of Necromancy reached out and grasped the arms of Solomon, immediately his regenerating halted and for a solid 6 seconds before it slowly began again.
"So that's how that cantrip works." Nodding to himself, Atlas began his "academic" research on how his spells work.
He first started experimenting with Evocation spells, as they were much easier to use and understand. Breathing out a cold ball of mist that flew towards Solomon's body, encasing him in ice and restraining his movement- the spell Atlas had just casted was called [Ice Shock], and within seconds Solomon was able to free himself from the ice. "Next one-" He opened his palms as he whispered the chant of the spell he wanted to cast, that according to the spell's description would do radiant damage by inserting this euphoric sensation into the target that seeps away at their strength, and if the target faints, they're in no risk of injury because the spell only saps and absorbs their strength and stamina until they are tired enough to pass out. "-[Kiss of the Petals]." A red flower blossomed on his open plam held out towards Solomon as he tried to run, and as he blew the flower, the hundreds of red petals floated out with an invisible wind as the flower dissipated from his hand- The petals reached out and touched Solomon's body, immediately a pale red light started to glow out of his body, each spot touched by one of the petals seemed to burn away and turn to dust. "-ah, right. Undead and radiant damage don't mix well, do they? Especially one with such a strong connection to the source..."
As he didn't want Solomon to be destroyed so soon, he decided to try out other spells instead! "*cough*- what was the word again, ah, right! [Mind Spike]." A rush of golden energy gathered right before his forehead before shooting out like a harpoon- it shot right into Solomon's head, entering his mind, and now Atlas had an anchor to his soul. The one way link between him and Solomon helped him easily locate and know his location at all times! This is a very useful Divination spell, because he could locate Solomon no matter where he goes- "Oops." He might have overestimated Solomon's endurance and underestimated his own spell's damage, because while he watched, Solomon's body turned to ashes. "...fuck." Alomgside it, he felt the link he had just created go taunt, and strain before shattering, as the spell dissipated with the death of the target.
"Well, it was fun while it lasted, and I got to see some of my spells in action... Time to go back to the boat." That was how they got to Slaughter Swamp when the bridges from Slaughter Swamp by Old Gotham were under reconstruction- apparently they were heavily damaged in the middle of the night by explosives, maybe the ploy of someone? He didn't care. "Oh, they're already rowing away, huh?" He could see the small boat he had made (with the wood they had gathered, he could make bigger boats now) row away as the brothers Andrei and Boris rowed, with the rest in a cramped space looking at the swamp. He rolled his eyes a little at his own incompetent self (he should've made better boats) before he flew towards them, ready to get the load off of the boat so it wouldn't sink: "Hey, fellas, give me the bags." There were 1200 (magical) stone bricks, 300 logs of (magical) wood, and even 500 slabs of (magical) clay bricks! "I can make some shit with this..." He lifted his hand and concentrated for a moment as he casted [Bigby's Hand] and this manifestation of his magic appeared- a big pearlescent purple hand made out of crystallized magical power. The hand easily grabbed the bags, and at the same time he used the hand (clenching it softly as to not damage the goods) to push the boat like a bro-fist, slowly and steadily.
He didn't want to capsize the boat, after all!
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[Clock - 02:00 | 02:00 AM]
[Calendar - 24/01/2003]
[Location - Underground Cavern - Old Gotham, Gotham City, New Jersey]
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"Yes!" With a smug and happy smile, Atlas lifted both hands to the sky as finally- Finally! After so fucking many attempts -he managed to create a magical item that he was proud of (we don't speak about the artificial sun that now hangs from the top of the cavern'a ceiling, illuminating a portion of the cavern... he kinda flashbanged himself with that one) and that would be extremely valuable to the Croc Kingdom, even more so considering the fact that the Joker wanted to contaminate Gotham's water with his chemicals. "I'm proud of myself." He had created the solution to that problem! Atlas started construction on the Croc Kingdom immediately after they returned from the Slaughter Swamp, he used the stone bricks they had gathered, and enchanted each and every single one of them to have the rune and word of power he wanted them to have so everything would come together. At a higher point of the cavern, right by the long stairway down, Atlas created a beautiful fountain.
On the center of the fountain stood the figure of a veiled woman holding onto a jar, the jar in her hands had these intricate detailed depictions of water flowing into a river, and at the river bank there were various scorpions. Atop the woman's head stood a pair of cow horns that held this disk, the disk glowed with a golden light and illuminated the statue for all to see: The veil of the woman fell into this beautiful dress that drapped over and fused with the stone of the fountain. The fountain was a 10 feet circle that by the north, south, east, and west sides had these holes that led into waterways that were still under construction, so the hole were sealed for now! On the back of the woman's statue, there were a pair of wings that curled against her back, making them look smaller than they actually were. On the bottom of the fountain (he made sure that the fountain was 10 feet deep, because he wanted to make swimming part of Croc Kingdom's culture) there were these runes that would, regularly, glow at a soft light casting [Purify Food and Drink], to make sure there was nothing in the water and to keep it clean. The vase the woman was holding was also enchanted, and that enchantment had made Atlas sigh in relief when the vase (he had made it with the magical clay) didn't shatter. It was enchanted with [Create or Destroy Water].
"Show time." With a flare of his magic, the enchantment on the vase (or should he call kt water jug now?) activated and water started to trickle down the statue with a constant flow before water started to shoot out of the jug in the statues' hand. "It works... Ah fuck, I'm tired." With a huff of fatigue, Atlas sat by the fountain, smiling as he dragged his fingers across it. He had spent hours using [Transmute Earth], [Mending], [Mold Earth], and other spells to change the stones and place them in the way he wanted to to make the well slash fountain into what it is now. "And the finishing touches..." He activated the last enchantment with the words of power for 'Command', 'Designed', 'Movement', 'Construction', and various others all over the statue: "Arise, Isis." With those words, the stone wings on the back of the statue unfurled and opened wide- the wingspan of the statue woman was about 25 feet across, from tip of the largest feather to the tip of the largest feather. The arms of the statue lifted the water jug up high as and the water did not slow down, instead it shot up and fell like a curtain around the edges of the fountain, covering the fountain in this veil of thin water.
The whole "water veil" was the thing that mosr consumed his time, but now that he had done it, he was happy he did. The fountain looked beautiful! Oh, and if it is completely full of water, the excess water is just destroyed by the [Create or Destroy Water] spell.
Besides providing water and being a beautiful piece of art, this statue served another purpose: It was made for Isis, one of the Egyptian Goddesses and the most powerful Egyptian Goddess... he was trying to win her favor, just a little bit, because he already has a plan for Sobek.
And with this beautiful statue, the construction of the Croc Kingdom has officially started.