A Dance With a Scion

Tiaria’s entourage and myself exited the North gate of the city, waved off by the guards as our large group passed.

“It will only take a few hours to reach the Time temple.” Tiaria stated.

“What kind of fight should we expect?” I asked, trying to imagine what kind of beings would be trying to steal a dead god’s power.

“If the Scion hasn’t succeeded in taking the power of the temple yet he will boast the power to slip in and out of dimensions.” Tiaira looked towards me and could clearly see that I wasn’t fully following. “You can simply think of it as teleportation.”

“I see, how do we beat that?” I asked, looking towards Tiaria.

“That’s where you come in, you have the ability to sense magic.”

“I do?” I asked, not aware of this apparent ability.

“Yes, you have already demonstrated it multiple times.” Tiaria responded.

I remembered the times that I had commingled magical power with Tiaria. I guess I could always feel her power fairly accurately.

“I see, but I have never tried to sense magic that was being used before.” I expressed my worry to Tiaria about this expectation that she was placing on me.

“It is actually easier. You haven’t experienced it yet because most people don’t fight using their limited magic. Teleportation magic works by projecting a differently dimensioned shadow on the area that the person will teleport to. This creates a stream of magic to that area, it should be simple for you to sense. When you do sense it I need you to call out where he is going. If we do this right we should be able to remove the main advantage that the Scion will have.”

“And if he has stolen the power of the temple?” I asked meekly.

Tiaria looked at me before taking a deep breath.

“We will just hope he hasn’t.” She finally said, exhaling.

That answer seemed to indicate my worst fear, we were on a clock and time was running out. We continued to walk for nearly an hour when the group came to a halt. One of the soldiers, who I assume was some sort of captain, walked up to Tiaria.

“Lord Apprentice, we are within distance.” He said.

“Good.” Tiaria looked towards me, “I am going to do a magical scan of the temple to get a fix on the location of the Scion, this will reveal our position so be ready in case of a counter attack.”

I gave Tiaria a thumbs up and drew the dagger that she had given me before. I recently came to the obvious realization that I can just have my dagger out when I cast magic, it didn’t hamper me in any way, and it was safer. Tiaria held her hands out and began to recite a prayer. I had learned from her that prayer, or holy magic, was fundamentally different from elemental magic. A god (in the world’s current state that would only be Ariet) would decide whether or not to provide magic and allow the spell to activate, this means it didn’t use the person’s innate magic. In the old days this meant that prayer magic wasn’t used often, as it was unreliable, however, in the current age it is practically the only magic used.

After a few seconds a white, magical, shock wave flung out from Tiaria’s raised hands and raced towards the temple which was yet hidden in the forest.

“One entity, based on negative reaction likely the Scion. No response to my scan.” Tiaria said matter-of-factly.

“We proceed forward.” Said the soldier-captain. We began our forward march once again.

We didn’t walk for too much longer when the forest started to recede, and a building came into view. The building appeared to be entirely made of crystal, reflecting light in purple, and refracting rainbows onto the ground. We came to a halt again. Tiaria grabbed a hold of my robe sleeve and looked up at me.

“I am relying on you, completely.” Tiaria said with a sincerity that was almost alarming.

“I know.” I replied. I realized that Tiaria must have been nervous about the upcoming fight, so I reached out and held her hand that she was holding my robe with. Tiaria gave me a smile. I smiled back.

“Let’s do it Yu.” Tiaria said with confidence.

I nodded my head in agreement and we approached the temple. We reached the entrance. I was still captivated with how uniquely strange the temple was. The crystalline structure was like nothing I had ever seen before. I touched the side of the temple as we walked through the threshold. The area I touched rippled out blue and purple rings that slowly faded as they spread out.

“This place is made of a special magical ore which makes it immune to time magic. That means things like freezing time or distortion fields are typically not possible in here.” Tiaria said, noticing my fascination.

“Interesting, wouldn’t that be a hindrance to the god of space and time?” I asked.

“No, he was a god after all. Also, it wont have much of an effect on the Scion either. Anyway, we should focus, you need to be looking for the magical shadow we talked about earlier.” Tiaria said emphatically.

“Right.” I said as I began to concentrate.

We continued to walk through the dark corridors of the crystalline temple. The crystal let off strange magical energy, it made it very cluttered when trying to sense where magical energy that could be from the Scion was. Suddenly, as I had that thought, I saw it, a holographic shadow raced from the wall to the ground, moving right in front of Tiaria.

“2 O’clock!” I yelled out.

Tiaria immediately re-positioned and began to swing her sword in a quick horizontal motion. As she reached the apex of her swing a rainbow flash momentarily blinded me before a black clad figure appeared. With a brilliant ringing noise the figure’s halberd and Tiaria’s sword met in combat. The crystals on Tiaria’s sword glowed all different colors, and the mysterious being’s halberd started to glow red. The clash of the two weapons sent out a magical shock wave which momentarily disrupted my ability to read magical energy. Tiaria and, what was likely, the Scion immediately began quickly swinging their weapons at each other, they continued to speed up faster and faster. Sparks and magical energy flew in all directions, myself and the ivory guards simply watched, unable to keep up with the fight. It was amazing how quickly this fight had gone beyond any level I had seen before. I could see the shadow creep behind Tiaria.

“7 O’clock!” I yelled. Tiaria immediately swung in a crescent just as the Scion disappeared and reappeared where I had called out. Tiaria’s sword caught his stomach and slammed him back several feet. Surprisingly, the Scion seemed relatively unscathed. Tiaria immediately sprang straight at the Scion, simultaneously chanting a prayer. Right as another of the swings connected Tiaria let out a burst of holy energy which seemed to momentarily stun the Scion. Tiaria seized the opportunity and swung down hard towards the head of the being.

I once again saw the shadow move, this time appearing next to me. I was ready though and had already finished a rot spell which was waiting at the tip of my dagger. I stabbed at the position of the shadow. The figure materialized into my dagger and an explosion of black gore sprayed out as the Scion staggered back. Tiaria quickly squatted back and flung herself to my position.

“As I thought.” A raspy voice carried into the echoing halls of the temple. A voice which came from the Scion.

I looked back towards Tiaria and noticed she seemed frozen in the air, mid-jump. I heard a snap and then everything changed. It was now only me and the Scion, looking right at each other.

“Two things are quite surprising about this encounter.” It said, “First, that you are here. Second, that you are actively hampering me.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“How did you come back to this world so quickly, Archon, and why are you trying to stop me from bringing another Archon back?” The Scion’s worlds seemed to echo around the empty space that he had created.

“What?” I asked once again.

The Scion suddenly appeared right next to me.

“I see, your memories are jumbled, let me fix that for you.” The Scion said as it placed its hand on my head.

Suddenly a flash of red.