PATRIARCH FOWL
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Casual Heroing, Magical Interlude
🕑 Added 2023-12-11 20:47:05 +0000 UTCThe editor said the chapter is confusing.
The chapter was meant to be confusing.
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DARK PLOTS! 🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️
Next chapter comes out December 13th!
1/3 chapters this week!
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Magister Mulligan, the name Joey Luciani knew him by, perused some books inside the restricted library and treasure hoard he kept inside the temple—it was the same temple Joey had seen when the [Archmage] had brought him to train there, trying to stress all the limits of the young man and, perhaps, break him.
And break him, sadly, he almost did.
Magister Mulligan pondered what he was to do next – whether the current course of action, the same one he had elaborated so many centuries ago, was still viable.
I could try and pierce that veil of darkness, he thought to himself.
What was happening in Kome was mostly unprecedented. He had theories on what exactly it was related to, but he didn't even dare to think about them for too long for fear that he might be smitten out of existence.
One thing, however, he knew. Well, more than one. But one that was related to what was happening on the continent he was born on: the Dungeon Joey Luciani had visited and, possibly, awakened, was related to it.
Not only that but whatever process had been set in motion might not be attached to what was happening on the continent. Magister Mulligan wasn't just an [Archmage], he had one of those classes that wasn’t only strong but that defined how strong he was relative to other people.
[Supreme Archmagus]
He didn't have a real, physical body anymore, but that was just a temporary setback that had come from delving too deeply into the magic he had used to create the Omnium Compendium. That he had survived the ordeal, in fact, was a miracle in itself.
Now, what really mattered was that a unique class like his meant he wasn't stupid—no, he wasn't even a genius. Magister Mulligan was a prodigy like never before… allegedly.
The two events are not connected by causality, but they are intrinsically related by their nature. Whatever those wretched beasts are planning, they might not have expected the Dungeon and the entire continent to create trouble at the same time.
He still had some artifacts back home that relayed to him certain information… and one of the most disconcerting findings was that Kome seemed to be… frozen. Not temperature-wise, but time-wise.
Not even Sziezais's magic would hold against whatever they are doing there. It's a self-perpetuating spell. But this time element…
He had analyzed all the ripples of magic that he could find, trying to explain the phenomenon and, perhaps, take it apart. He had been far from successful, and that was starting to weigh on him.
What I'm doing here might be as important as what I might have been doing on Kome… but if the Dungeon turns out to be a minimal problem in the scope of things, I will need to bring Joey Luciani back to Kome… maybe even back to that damn Dragon. Us leaving could have…
He shook his head; even thinking of such a possibility had implications he wasn't ready to ponder. Instead, he thought back to the young man he had taken under his wings.
Magister Mulligan had followed up on his plan, never changing the course, but… it was starting to wear him down.
Joey Luciani might not…
He shook his head, trying to regain his composure. All these years he spent as a prisoner of that Dragon, only to find the briefest opening when the foreign magic had altered the wards that disgusting creature had placed around her cave had made him weak.
No, he has not yet…
The old man sighed, stroking his beard as he thought of the next steps.
Joey Luciani had so far passed all his tests but one. He was this close to making the right move for himself—Magister Mulligan had almost screamed when he had heard one of his new acquaintances essentially provide him with the answer to his woes. But the stupid boy had not listened at all. How could he be provided with the right answer and not go through with it?
Because he's listening to me…
Having to rescue him from a move from the Canti had almost broken Magister Mulligan's own rules if not for the fact that filthy divine trickery had not been included as a fair condition.
You are so close, the old man thought, now turning his eyes to the external world and seeing Joey Luciani walk through the streets of Amorium in the morning light toward the house of the redhead he was so fond of.
Almost a thousand years ago, the man had created a fail-safe, something that he believed would have saved his people from the inevitable destruction that eventually reached everyone. Well, he wasn't sure that the destruction was actually inevitable, not a hundred percent sure, at least. But he had observed irregularities in the rise and fall of every race, something that had greatly bothered him. And something about his own life had hinted that the Vanedeni had about peaked right with his generation or perhaps that they had been about to peak with the next.
The solution Magister Mulligan had engineered wasn't… fair. It wasn't fair at all. At least to all those who had died under the tremendous burden he had placed on them. And now, Joey Luciani had gotten so damnclose to it. However, bound by his own devices, the old man could tell him nothing; he could do nothing, in fact.
Magister Mulligan, a victim of his own genius, could only watch as Joey Luciani arrived in front of the girl's house. Deep down, he felt a weird paternal instinct he had never had before, not even for his own children when they were alive. For a moment, he wished he had not been thatgood at weaving spells. He wished that he had not created such a monstrous challenge and that he had not bound himself to it either.
But as things stood, he could only keep watching as Joey Luciani's story unfolded.
Comments
T'Ericka
I loved the chapter! Vindication that even the em characters are confused nuance irritated with Joeys behavior
Nyroe
Damn, even Magic Master Mulligan is frustrated by Joey. Here's hopin' for some major Catharsis relatively soon.
