Ends of Magic

With a final nod to Suse, Nathan stepped into Hibor’s room to get out of sight. He extended his aura and bored an upwards-angled hole in the wall. His goals lay high in the gigantic building, and the main exit from the suite would take him down a few hundred feet into the park at the center of the low-tier residence hall.

Also, the lowest levels are likely to have the densest patrols because that’s where I’ve killed the most people.

He reached out with his magical senses, feeling around through the material of the Academy for open spaces. He didn’t want to pop out in the middle of a hallway by accident, but he also didn’t want to climb the height of the entire Academy inside the rock. Not only would it be fairly slow, but unless he wanted to travel at a fairly shallow angle he’d need to spend Stamina on [Airwalk]. And since the tunnel was sealing up behind him, eventually he’d run out of air.

I can use my aura to carve out stairs, but that would be even slower. Come on, there’s gotta be a hallway somewhere over here.

He was also worried about running into some important piece of magic and breaking it by accident. While damaging the magic of the Academy wasn’t a problem, he didn’t want to give the Giantsrest mages who ran the Academy any clues as to what was going on. His ability to tunnel through the Academy seemed like an ace he’d like to keep up his sleeve as long as possible. He didn't want to give the mages any reason to try to manually track him burrowing through the Academy.

Nathan felt a void in the wizardry ahead of him. It was embarrassingly close, he just hadn’t felt it through the magic that surrounded him.

Wizard Senses 10 achieved!

He approached the wall and poked out a spike of condensed antimagic to bore a small hole in the stone and give him a peephole into the space beyond. It was a corridor he wasn’t familiar with. But he didn’t hear anything, so Nathan enlarged the hole to give him a broader range of vision. Sure enough, the corridor was deserted.

He broke through the wall, stepping out into the corridor and thinking over his options. His goal was pretty simple - go up. Everything he was interested in was at the top of the Academy. Badud was probably at the top of the tallest tower, but most of the other towers should also have archmages living in their peaks. He also wanted to investigate the place all of the wizardry had been pointing to, and that was also somewhere high up, though he didn't think it was at the top of a tower.

Nathan shrugged, looking around. He knew generally where he was in the Academy, but the place was huge. He wasn’t sure where the central tower was in relation to him, or the other towers for that matter. This was the problem he’d been hoping to solve with another day or two of scouting, but he hadn’t gotten that chance. He had the advantage of surprise for one night, and he intended to use it.

With a sigh, Nathan started looking for a staircase, willing to spend a few minutes trying to find a faster way to ascend the Academy. If he couldn’t find one, he would just tunnel up to a new level and look again. He spent fifteen minutes jogging towards where a staircase should be, only having to dodge a single patrol. The staircase wasn’t quite where he thought it was, and he ran around in circles for a few minutes, sweeping the area before he detected a wizardry lock on an inconspicuous wall.

With a grin he went through the wall next to the lock, pleased with how much easier it was to access the stairs now that he didn’t have to mess with the complicated locking spells. Then he started climbing the stairs rapidly, trying to hit the sweet spot between Stamina expenditure and maximum speed. He was going to climb a lot of stairs today.

It took a while to hit the top of this staircase, where he found a more complicated piece of wizardry blocking the entrance. It was once again easily bypassed, and Nathan peeked through a small hole into the upper levels of the Academy. Previously he’d only gotten a single glance at these upper floors, and he’d been astonished by the level of opulence on display. He’d also noticed a directionality to the wizardry towards some sort of central point high in the Academy.

That was still present, but what grabbed his attention was a golem standing guard right outside the staircase, posed to examine anybody who entered higher floors. Luckily enough his peephole hadn’t been spotted, so Nathan carefully backed away from the wall. Then he jumped upwards and into the ceiling.

The stone between each floor of the Academy was thick, and Nathan crouched down to fit fully between the ceiling of one level and the ceiling of the next. Then he created another small hole to inspect the space above. It appeared to be a well-lit and luxurious bedroom. After a moment he heard the sound of a page turning. Enlarging his peephole he saw a handsome middle-aged woman wearing an orange robe. She was sitting in an overstuffed armchair, reading a book.

Lecturers are a fair target. I also need to refill my Stamina.

Nathan crawled horizontally through the floor, ending up directly in front of the armchair. Then he stood up, using his aura to push through the layer of stone directly overhead. It took a second for even the thin layer of stone to disappear, giving the lecturer a second of warning as the floor at her feet evaporated.

She reacted by lurching backwards in the chair, causing it to topple over and sending her sprawling. The woman tried to cast [Message], but Nathan had already wrapped her in his aura.

He hopped out of the hole in the floor, moving around the overturned chair and dropping to the ground to clamp a hand over the mage’s mouth. “Shush.” He spun his aura into her mana pool, overfilling his Stamina as the woman struggled in vain.

Now what? I could also break her magic instead of killing her. I know that knocks people out for a while, and she’ll be trapped in her room since the Academy won’t open doors for her anymore.

He considered it for a moment, but eventually decided the risk wasn't worth it. She’d seen that he could burrow through the Academy, and somebody would probably come looking for her eventually. It could cut down his grace period unacceptably far. Nathan drained her magic to replenish his Stamina, then snapped her neck. He paused to make sure the wound was fatal before he moved on.

Magekiller has leveled to 209! You have assassinated Mieve dha Takunza, a senior lecturer of Giantsrest

He righted the chair, scooting it back so it wouldn’t fall into the slowly-healing hole in the floor. Then he glanced around the room for a second, looking for a place to hide the body. With a shrug he carried the corpse over to the bathroom, leaving it on the floor and closing the door.

I don't know what will happen if I leave her body inside the stone of the Academy. It might stay entombed, or it might get squished out a random wall, or throw up some kind of alarm since her body's not shielded from detection magic like I am.

Then he turned back to the ceiling, going up yet another level. This time he ended up in what looked like a more advanced version of the practical magic classroom, with several powerful enchantments to isolate dangerous spellcasting. It was deserted, and Nathan kept climbing, burning off his excess Stamina with repeated use of [Airwalk] to ascend nearly straight upwards.

He’d decided against trying to find another staircase, both because he didn’t know where any were this high up in the Academy, and because he suspected that the staircases were being guarded by golems.

He climbed through dozens more floors, checking each time that the next space was unoccupied by boring a small hole first. On two occasions he had to divert, once finding a half-dozen mid-tier students studying [Fly] under the supervision of a high-tier student in a huge room seemingly built for the purpose. The second time was an orgy, which made Nathan blink for a moment. He departed quickly, grinding his teeth in frustration. Nobody in there had been wearing robes, but he was pretty sure both professors and students had been present, and some of the attendees had definitely been slaves.

You’ve got more important priorities.

There were other rooms Nathan wished he could linger in - ranging from a library thick enough with dust he thought it might have been totally forgotten, to an enchanting workshop filled with half-completed gizmos. In both cases he had to restrain himself from stopping to examine the rooms and their magic, and continue going upwards. He kept an eye on the directionality of the wizardry, noticing the angle change as he moved. The source seemed to be high up in the Academy, and he’d place bets it was in the center.

Arcane Nullfield 2 achieved!

Finally, he broke through the floor of a viewing gallery. One wall was covered with broad windows that showed a dozen towers rising into the sky. They were dominated by one spire that was taller and thicker than the rest. It was nighttime, but the magical illumination from the Academy’s decorations illuminated the top of the giant building in a shifting, mystical light. Nathan paused to get his bearings, using the view out the window to place himself inside one of the medium-height towers that stood above the bulk of the Academy. If his guesses were correct, then there’d be an archmage living in a luxury suite at the top, with Badud at the top of the central tower.

Great, let’s check the top and see what we find.

He veered towards the center of the tower, looking for the stairs. He found that the center of the tower was a huge open shaft with a staircase made from opalescent stone spiraling around it. The open space was occupied by a grand artwork made of visible flows of magic.

Nathan looked around carefully, not trusting the beautiful display to be completely benign. He spotted a pair of golems standing guard at the very bottom of the shaft, completely blocking the start of the stairs. He’d successfully avoided them by going up through the rooms off the staircase. He couldn’t detect anybody else.

He climbed carefully and quickly, stopping only to bypass a few subtly laid alarm enchantments on the stairs by slipping through the adjoining walls. At the top of the shaft he found a broad door, engraved in glowing letters with a name and series of titles.

Archmage Kon dho Granon

Fourth Finger of Ascendent Academy

Master of Skargess

The door was a masterwork of mana-based enchantment that looked to Nathan’s magical senses like the internals on a swiss watch, all built with interlocking constructs and masterful interweavings. Beneath that was a fourteen-layer wizardry lock that was among the more complex he’d ever seen.

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By skipping these barriers I’m probably denying myself a few skill levels. But it would take hours that I don’t have to figure out that lock.

Nathan moved sideways to a section of blank wall. In addition to the standard wizardry of the Academy was a complex layer of earth, force and spatial magic that had been woven into the walls. The spell seemed built to make the wall much tougher and prevent any kind of teleportation into the space beyond.

He shrugged and peeled apart the reinforcement net, poking a small hole and finding himself looking at mundane woodgrain that was probably the back of a piece of furniture. Sighing, he moved farther over and repeated the same procedure a couple of times until he found himself looking into a bathroom.

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 10 achieved!

Good enough. This enchantment is a pain to tease apart, and it seems to cover the apartment from all sides. So I won’t be able to tunnel through the floor. It's definitely surmountable, but I hope it isn’t standard issue for the archmage suites.

The bathroom door opened into a small room that looked like a discussion space, set with comfortable chairs and bookshelves on the wall that had stymied Nathan earlier. The chairs faced a central seat that was elevated above the others, clearly a place for the archmage to hold court over any guests who had gathered to hear them lecture. His senses were on alert as he crept through the room, listening for any noise, ready for any magic that might give his presence away. There was a lot of magic but none of it seemed tuned for security. It seemed like this was the inner sanctum, past all of the defenses. There was no signs that anybody was at home.

Maybe the archmage isn't in the Academy? I thought Badud commanded them all to return?

The next room led into a larger library, and Nathan inhaled the comforting scent of well-preserved books. He passed through quickly, careful not to disturb any of the delicate enchantments that maintained the densely packed space. He poked a hole in the wall next to the next door. Looking through it revealed a huge bedroom with broad windows that allowed the shifting color of the Academy to shine in and illuminate the space. There was a single rugged-looking older man in the bed, with a bald head and a salt-and pepper beard. His mana pool was huge, and he was sound asleep.

Bingo.

Nathan tunneled through the wall, walking an inch above the ground as he entered the room to avoid making any noise. It looked like the bedroom of a rich bachelor, with piles of clothing scattered around sumptuous furniture. When he hit the halfway point of the room Nathan snapped his aura forward like a snake-strike, engulfing the man in antimagic powerful enough to deny any spell. The archmage didn't react at all.

Nathan moved the last few feet cautiously, not letting his guard down. Every other archmage he’d fought had been a monster, capable of powerful spells that had challenged his antimagic. The goal had always been to assassinate them in their sleep, but Nathan hadn’t really expected to succeed. Nonetheless, he successfully closed his hands around the man’s neck and squeezed tightly, cutting off both blood flow and air. The man’s eyes fluttered and he bucked once, but then he settled back into unconsciousness, at which point Nathan drained the man’s mana pool to refill his Stamina. A couple of minutes of strangulation later, Nathan got a notification.

Magekiller has leveled to 225! You have assassinated Archmage Kon dho Granon, the Master of Skargess, in his own quarters inside the Ascendent Academy!

Alright. One down. Now time to do it again.

Nathan sighed and stood up from the bed, retracting his aura and retracing his steps to leave the suite. Then he started back down the tower, plotting his path to the next one. The Academy had only grown more deserted with the late hour, and Nathan was easily able to circle around the upper levels to reach his next target. The setup in the next tower over was similar, though not quite identical. The tower itself was shorter and a bit thinner. There were another set of golems guarding the base of the staircase, but a trickle of people were leaving, many looking disheveled but pleasantly sated.

Another orgy? At least it looks like it’s wrapping up.

Nathan bypassed the golems just as he had previously, ready for surprises but finding none. This time he avoided the staircases the entire way up to avoid the departing guests. He aimed for where the bedroom should be, finding no extra magic to reinforce the wizardry of the Academy.

He poked an exploratory peephole up into the room, and was splashed in the face with soapy water. Nathan recoiled, wiping his eyes and getting out of the way of the stream. There wasn’t a ton of water, but it was like he’d drilled into a puddle. The room beyond was a bathroom that looked like it had been heavily used recently, but was currently deserted.

At least it was clean water.

Grimacing, Nathan moved over twenty feet, probing upwards once again to see the bottom of a dining table. After ascertaining that the room was empty he entered the room before starting to scout what was nearby. It looked like the center of the tower had been converted to a giant area strewn with couches and pillows, and while some people were prying themselves up and heading out, a few dozen remained behind, intent on sleeping off their recent exertions. None of them were wearing much, and Nathan reached out with his senses to see if he could find the archmage amongst the sprawled bodies. A few of them had larger mana pools, but it was more reminiscent of a war mage than an archmage.

Nathan moved onto the other rooms, finding that the next room over was a library, though it didn’t seem to get much use. Half of the shelves stood bare. On a hunch, Nathan moved through the wall into the library and then across it, peeking into the next room with another small hole. The room beyond was the bedroom, with a bed three times as large as the one in the last archmage’s tower. There were almost a dozen people sprawled across the expansive mattress, all asleep in post-coital exhaustion.

Ok, so it’s a similar layout, just rotated so the bedroom of every tower looks out over the Academy instead of the city. Got it.

Nathan focused on the bed, trying to discern which of the figures was the archmage. It wasn’t hard. There were eight women and three men. All were young and nubile, except for one middle-aged man. He looked like he’d once been well-muscled but had started drifting to flabby in recent years. He also had more mana than everybody put together, reinforcing Nathan’s hypothesis.

Ok, cool. But how to kill him without waking everybody up? Ideally I’d just like him to vanish. I'd also prefer to kill him now, instead of having to retrace my steps later.

Nathan looked up at the ceiling above his head and shrugged. This suite didn't have the magical reinforcement of the previous one, so he had more options. He used his aura to tunnel up into the stone of the ceiling, then navigated himself over the bed through the rock of the Academy. It was easy to position himself properly using the archmage’s enormous mana pool as a marker. Then he dropped down through the ceiling, leaving a hole in the smooth stone and standing on the air inches above the archmage’s sleeping body.

He carefully moved an arm that was draped across his target’s chest, then seized the man underneath the armpits and drew him upwards smoothly. He stuffed the archmage through the hole in the ceiling, clamping a hand across his face and dousing him in antimagic. The man woke up slowly, groaning into Nathan's hand and taking a moment to comprehend his situation. Nathan kept half his attention on the room below, watching to see if anybody had noticed the abduction. If so, he was worried he’d have to kill all of the mages as quietly as possible and hope none of the people in the central area heard anything. He was hoping that the archmages' bedmates would think he’d gotten up to go sleep somewhere else.

The two women who’d been sleeping on either side of the man had woken up, and they looked around blearily. They were both mages, and the hole Nathan had used to enter and exit the bedroom was directly overhead. It was closing, but it would be another few minutes before the Academy sealed up his entry point.

Don’t look up, don’t look up.

He flexed [Noticeability] to divert their attention, and it seemed to work as one of the two women pulled up the disturbed blanket, then snuggled closer to the other mage and pressed a sleepy kiss to her brow.

High-tier Noticeability 8 achieved!

At this point the archmage had already tried casting a few spells, and he started to struggle and squirm. He yelled into Nathan’s hand, the sound coming out as a muffled grunt.

Nathan tightened his grip and popped the man in the nose with his other hand, stunning him for a second. His Rage came easily, and he kept one hand over the man’s face and reached his other back to grab the back of his neck. Then he wrenched the archmage’s head around, snapping his neck. An amulet around the man’s neck tried to activate to heal the injury, but Nathan crushed the magic absentmindedly as he started to tunnel upwards.

I’ve gotten a lot stronger since I tried to do that to that kid back in Halsmet. The one who’d enslaved Egall.

Magekiller has leveled to 241! You have assassinated Archmage Glor dho Chuvis in his own quarters, evading notice by even those in his bed!

Damn. Gonna need to get another one before I Develop Magekiller. Maybe I should go back to the orgy? Nah, might as well go for another Archmage.

Nathan dumped the body on the roof of the tower, ensuring that it wouldn’t slide off the steeply tilted spire. Then he looked across at the next tower, noticing that the protective gravitational barrier didn’t cling to each tower, but instead stretched overhead like a huge dome of high-pressure death.

I can just fly between the towers.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 2

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 1

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 5

Class: Void of Magic level338

Deepened Stamina: 9820/10440

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 241

Regenerative Focus: 2101/2510

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Wizard’s Meditation 3

Inspiration 3

Acceleration 4

Wizard Senses 10

Alertness 7

Wizard’s Intuition 10

Effortless Dodge 3

Mental Fortress 10

Tutoring 3

Parkour 2

High-tier Noticeability 8

High-tier Disguise 1

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 10

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