Ends of Magic

The first barrier Nathan found as he climbed towards the Academy was a detection net laid a hundred feet from the walls. It was clearly geared towards detecting flying mages and wasn’t particularly sophisticated. It looked like it just sent some kind of [Message] to anybody who crossed it. It didn’t pose a particular barrier to Nathan, and he easily teased apart the strands of the magic to pass through without a trace.

He moved slowly, was on the lookout for further defenses as he approached his chosen balcony. There was no way that a flimsy detection net was the only defense the Academy had. The spell was on the same level as a single sensor net laid around the Giantsrest army, and a half-dozen Adventuring teams had been able to sneak past a dozen layers like it.

When he was fifty feet out he picked up the next layer, which was both subtle and terrifying. A thin shell of intense wizardry sat about fifteen feet above the surface of the Academy, contouring to the shape of the building. It was distorting local space, but Nathan wasn’t sure quite what was going on. He paused some distance away from the spell, feeling some weird air currents and a faint heat on his face.

Is it a zone of expanded space, like Badud’s [Slow Shell]?

He was conscious of being visible from below, and his Stamina was still draining from standing in midair. But Nathan needed to understand the wizardry in front of him before his aura would be effective against it. He started spending Focus, delving into the magic before him with his magical senses. The wizardry wasn’t too similar to what he’d seen before, but he recognized a few different kinds of mana that were also involved. There was a lot of air and heat mana floating around, but the most heavily represented mana type was more esoteric. It felt familiar. Nathan had to reach back in his memory to identify it, remembering when Dalo and Kullal had helped him Develop [Magic Absorption].

Gravity. This spell has a lot of gravity mana in it. The wizardry is synergizing, boosting the effect beyond what the mana alone could accomplish.

Wizard Senses 5 achieved!

Nathan had an inkling of what was going on, and he let the smallest tendril of antimagic brush against the shell, yanking it back almost immediately when an intense jet of compressed air shot out in response, causing his robe to ripple.

It’s a gravity shear. There are two narrow bands of intense gravity pointing inwards. Between them you’ve got a band of super-compressed air, where the pressure is high enough to counteract the gravity. It’s strong. Like a few hundred gravities strong. Anything physical would get sucked in and ripped to shreds as soon as it touched that. I bet the other spell was to prevent idiots from flying into it.

Nathan examined the barrier in awe. It was an incredible piece of magic that served its purpose amazingly well. He wasn’t even sure how he would get around it. The forces involved were strong enough to rip apart a metal bar, much less his body. If he disabled the gravity magic then the air inside would explode outward under the pressure. He could try to make a small hole and do a pressure-release, but air would be rushing in from all sides to equalize pressure. The spell was basically all or nothing. Either he took down the shield around the whole academy, or he didn’t take it down at all.

Well, shit. Faline was right, the defenses on the Academy are no joke. Is it time to admit defeat and return to Halsmet?

Then Nathan’s brain caught up to the other things the spell was doing. At those pressures, the gas should be supercritical. It should be a super-dense layer of extremely compressed supercritical fluid without any surface tension. There would be so many molecules scattering light that even a thin layer should look like a opaque black curtain.

Is that what the air mana is doing? Keeping it gaseous? And the heat mana is keeping the temperature regulated? Using mana to modify the physical properties of a material is so cool, definitely going to save that Insight.

A new plan quickly formed in Nathan’s head. He wasn’t sure if it would work, but he was losing Stamina by the second out here. It was worth a try. He started by using careful tendrils of antimagic to misalign the air portions of the spell, pulling them away from the thin shell of gravity-compressed atmosphere. The surface in front of him went opalescent as it shifted phase, gulping down air as it went supercritical and became more compressible. A sudden wind blew from behind Nathan, almost throwing him into the zone of intense gravity. He backpedaled to keep his distance, watching as more and more air was sucked in and compressed down. Radiant heat started to shine on his face.

I should have seen the wind coming. Supercritical fluid compresses better than gas, and now it’s heating up because it’s compressing down farther and farther.

Nathan had been careful to leave alone the heat-mana portions of the magic that controlled temperature, and they were working overtime to cool down the suddenly overheated section of the barrier.

Yes, yesss. All according to plan.

The zone he was targeting stopped shimmering and became blurry before darkening to a black shroud as it became denser and denser. The effect was less profound around the edges, and it looked like a two-dimensional stormcloud with a black center and shimmering edges.

That’s gotta be obvious from below. I need to work quickly.

Nathan gritted his teeth as he waited for the heat enchantment to finish cooling down the region. Then he manipulated yet more tendrils of aura to deactivate that part of the spell. Then he sent a third set of tendrils outwards to poke tiny, equally spaced holes into the gravity gradient near the edges of the cloud. It was an incredible level of mental gymnastics, and he was spending Focus like water to hold the necessary construct in his head. Without both [Battle Meditation] and [Aura Manipulation] it would be impossible.

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 7 achieved!

The last set of antimagic tendrils bored into the shell of gravity, unleashing jets of wind strong enough to cut steel. Luckily he’d had the foresight not to put any close enough to hurt him, but his robes and hair whipped crazily in the eye of the storm. It took constant Stamina expenditure to stay in place against the crazy winds, but the surface in front of him flashed from black to blurry as gas was blown away from the wall by the crazy pressure. Vapor condensed in the air around him, and soon Nathan was immersed in a low-lying cloud of freezing fog.

The temperature inside should be dropping faster than this. The heat was bled off when the gas compressed. Now that it's expanding...

Through the fog he spotted the first signs of success creeping across the barrier in front of him. Tendrils of creeping nitrogen ice spread across the shell as the expanding gas caused the temperature to drop dramatically inside the hyper-compressed shell. Most of the air that had been sucked in escaped through his boreholes, but what remained got colder and colder. He panned the release valves around, moving them until he had a ring of atmospheric ice twenty feet wide.

Good, I’m damn freezing out here. But now I’m not fighting against the entire volume of the shell, just the local region.

Nathan started draining the pressure from the area right in front of him, allowing the outrushing pressure to blow him backwards a few dozen feet as the central region also froze. His grip on his antimagic started to slip with the distance, but he was already accelerating as quickly as possible straight towards the center of the disk of ice.

Acceleration 4 achieved!

His aura stretched ahead of him in a solid column, spearing a hole through the wizard's barrier before him. Nathan’s momentum-based skills carried him through the remnants of the shield, and he shattered his way through the millimeter-thick layer of solid atmosphere.

Cold cold cold!

He hadn’t been thinking about slowing down, and so slammed into the wall of the Academy with an oof - and the crunching of a broken nose. Nathan lay against the sheer stone wall for a second, exhausted from the efforts of the last minute and shivering with cold. He directed healing to stave off frostbite before his nose snapped back into place. His eyes opened to a level-up notification.

Magekiller has leveled to 145! Congratulations, you have bypassed the outer defenses of the Ascendant Academy!

Airwalking 5 achieved!

Outer defenses. Great. It really might have been easier to go in the front door and take my chances with whatever the identification process is.

He shook himself and got moving. He’d made a bit of a show getting in, even if most of it had been under cloud cover. It was time to move, but Nathan turned to inspect the place he’d busted through the barrier. The ice was melting back to a sludgy mix of hyper-compressed gas and supercritical fluid, and a strong wind blew on his face from the spot he’d punched through.

Fortunately, the wizardry-directed gravity spell was working to repair the weak spot, repairing the gravity gradient as Nathan watched. The surrounding air and heat magic were also being guided back into place, a process that appeared possible because Nathan had just yanked the spells out of position instead of completely destroying them. His guess was that it would take another half-hour or so before the spell was back to full functionality.

Good. I’d hoped the spell would have enough self-repairing capability so that I wouldn’t leave a trace. But it might also have set off an alarm somewhere, so it’s time to skeddaddle.

The shield sat about fifteen feet away from the Academy, so Nathan was able to run sideways if he stayed close to the wall. He put several hundred feet of distance between him and the spot he’d entered before turning to look for an entrance. He alighted on a randomly chosen balcony, glad to have a solid surface underneath his feet once more. Now he wouldn’t fall out of the sky if he ran out of Stamina.

Nathan checked his resources. He’d used most of his Focus breaking through the barrier, but it was replenishing quickly. His Stamina was sitting around 2700, lower than it had been in a while. It’d replenish quickly if he drained a bunch of magic, but he didn’t want to leave any more traces of his passage. A full meal and rest would also work, but that would be slower.

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Then he turned towards the door that led from the balcony into the building and stopped dead. There wasn’t a door. There was an arch where a door should be, but it was filled with a solid wall of stone the same golden color as the rest of the academy.

Nathan walked over and rapped his knuckles on the surface, checking to be sure there wasn’t a hidden entry or a magical trigger. There was certainly wizardry buried inside the wall, but from this close he could feel it running through the entire academy. There was some kind of wizardry lock inside the wall, but it didn't have an obvious doorbell he could ring to get inside. From the feel of the wizardry the stone was at least ten feet thick.

Not busting through that. Ok, check more balconies for one with a door?

He ran around for a bit, glancing at every balcony he could as he put more distance between him and his original entry point. He found a few places that he’d assumed were entry points from farther away, as they all had stone railings and benches to sit on. But while each had a similar arch, none of them had a door.

Well shit. Are all of these balconies just cosmetic? Am I going to have to break a window? They seem heavily reinforced with wizardry.

With a sigh Nathan got back up and took to the air once more, still headed away from his entry point. In the distance he could see the specks of mages flying around and examining the spot he’d busted through. They were focused on that spot, not spreading out to search the exterior of the giant building.

He returned his focus to the Academy, searching for an alternate entry point. A few of the windows seemed like potential targets, but he didn't like the feeling of the wizardry inside them. Then a particular balcony some distance below caught his attention. Unlike all of the other balconies it was strewn with trash, mostly dirty plates.

Alertness 6 achieved!

Dropping down, Nathan surveyed the spot that had caught his eye. It was identical to all of the others, including the lack of a door. Except this balcony had stacks of dirty dishes and few stained napkins, mostly centered around the wide bench where somebody could sit and look out across the city of Giantsrest and the surrounding farmland.

Nathan stepped down and examined the plates, poking a dab of a brown sauce on one of the topmost plates. It was a bit tacky.

Probably just a few hours old. It seems like somebody’s made a habit of coming out here for their meals. Judging from the number of plates they’ll be coming back. That’ll give me a way in.

With a nod Nathan sat on the bench, avoiding the clutter and looking out over the city. From here he could look down on the city, seeing people as little moving specks far below. The gravity shield was invisible, but Nathan knew the tremendously strong barrier was there, ready to rend anything that touched it into mush.

He shivered, turning his mind to disguise. He was still wearing the gray robes of a low-tier student of the Ascendant Academy, though there were some small rips around the sleeves from smashing through the shield.

The problem was that he was too old. Faline had mentioned that students usually entered the Academy when they were thirteen or fourteen, then graduated to mid-tier around eighteen or nineteen. Then most tested into various careers or became high-tier students between twenty-one and twenty-five. There were exceptions, but they weren’t common.

My skills can cover for some of that, but I don’t want to attract attention in the first place.

He sighed, and eyed his already-depleted Stamina. He’d explored a lot of aspects of [Perfected Body], but so far stayed away from modifying his body cosmetically. He liked his body. He’d grown it himself.

But now there were some simple and obvious changes Nathan could make to look younger, and he couldn’t justify not doing them. They’d cost some Stamina, but it was probably worth it to have a better disguise. He grabbed a mostly-clean knife off a nearby plate and scrubbed one side clean on a napkin before using it as a tiny mirror.

He started by adding fat to his cheeks and jaw. Which did a lot, actually. His cheekbones became less distinct and his jaw less angular. The overall effect rounded out his face and was surprisingly effective in making him look younger. There was one more simple change he could make, but Nathan hesitated.

Oh come on, you pansy. You’re being vain. Just do it already.

With a sigh he made his skin a bit greasy and encouraged a few pimples around his lips and along his jawline. He had to concentrate on getting the pimples to form since [Perfected Body] wanted to wipe them away immediately. He had to focus on their presence as part of his body to get them to stay.

He poked one and groaned with disgust. Then he thought about other changes he could make. He wasn’t about to mess with his height. That would be a huge Stamina investment that would likely mess up his balance and movements. He was also a bit muscular for a teenager, but that was mostly hidden underneath the mage robes. Between the baby fat and the skin he looked like a tall eighteen-year old who knew how to shave and had about the average amount of acne.

Mid-tier Disguise 4 achieved!

It finally seemed to click that the pimples were part of his face, and [Perfected Body] stopped trying to wipe away the offensive growths. It was a bit of relief, but not a lot.

Perfected Body 10 Achieved! Congratulations, you have maxed out this Talent! It cannot be improved any further. You must achieve Insight to develop it to the next level. As it is already unique, the kind of Insight will greatly affect how it develops.

Nathan froze, mouth agape slightly. He gave a muffled scream.

Seriously? That’s what it took to rank the Talent up?

He stayed rigid with indignation for a second before flopping back against the back of the bench and groaning.

Well. At least I can probably use that Insight I came up with a while back to not instantly die if my head gets crushed. Probably not now? I think I’ll need to be in some amount of genuine danger to do it.

Nathan eyed the gravity shield for a moment, then shook his head. That was a terrible idea. Instead he relaxed back against the bench and closed his eyes, waiting for lunchtime. His stomach rumbled.

Some time later there was a quiet shuffling behind him, like smoothly polished stone sliding against itself. The noise was accompanied by a small surge of wizardry, and Nathan just caught the sight of the stone retracting into the archway and providing a comfortable corridor that reached into the Academy.

He almost bolted down the newly formed hallway, but then he sensed two mana pools coming towards him. The first walked without any attempt at stealth, but the second was protected by [Mage Armor] and shielded behind a crude [Muffle] spell.

The first figure emerged from the corridor. It was a somewhat fat boy in a gray robe, about fifteen years old with dark hair. He was focused on carrying a tureen of soup in both hands, and moved to sit on the bench. Then he noticed Nathan and jumped backwards with a squeak, nearly dropping the soup.

The second person gave a sharp chuckle as he stepped onto the balcony and shoved the younger student. This was an older teenager, maybe seventeen or eighteen. He was in the white robe of a mid-tier student and his face bore a cruel sneer.

The first boy gasped and stumbled forward, catching himself against the railing and once more managing to barely hold onto his soup. He turned around and the blood drained from his face as he looked between Nathan and the new arrival.

The older kid hadn’t noticed Nathan, seemingly intent on his victim. “Hibor dho Pacva.” The words were threatening. “I’ve found where you flee to during our meals.” His voice became saccharine. “Won’t you weave the same mana as your classmates? Dine with me and my friends.”

Then he noticed Nathan, and his brows furrowed in confusion. “Who are you?” His gaze took in the gray robes and he shook his head in dismissal. “Old and low-tier. Worthless. I want to see your heels.” He gestured back into the Academy in clear dismissal.

Nathan stood from the bench, thinking quickly. On one hand, he’d been offered a clear path into the Academy. But then he’d be alone and directionless. He’d been scanning for some kind of identifying badge that would let him get through doors, but neither student carried anything like that. The wizardry of the Ascendant Academy was watching them, waiting to open the paths they were allowed. Like it had opened the corridor to the balcony.

I need a guide, and a key. I think they’re one and the same. I can start killing mages when my cover is blown, after learning as much as I can about the inside of the Academy. And this looks like a perfect opportunity to make friends.

Instead of scurrying away Nathan stood up and yawned in the bully’s face. “What if I don’t?”

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 9

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 10

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 5

Class: Void of Magic level309

Deepened Stamina: 924/9570

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Magekiller level 145

Regenerative Focus: 649/1550

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 10

Inspiration 1

Acceleration 4

Wizard Senses 5

Alertness 6

Wizard’s Intuition 5

Effortless Dodge 2

Mental Fortress 9

Tutoring 2

High-tier Tumbling 10

High-tier Noticeability 4

Mid-tier Disguise 4

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 7

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