Calvin’s mind raced as he sought an exit strategy.

Of course there was always through Force, but that strategy had several inherent risks, including but not limited to death by lightning and being subject of a manhunt. Killing a ruler in private where no one could see you do it was the absolute worst way to do it.

“It means, ‘The Diocese of Trade doesn’t have the authority to create new government positions,” Calvin said, cocking his head curiously. “Why do you ask?” He could feel the tiniest doubt in Force’s gaze, and he was hoping continuing to play dumb would at the very least buy him time while he considered his escape plan.

Boxed in, limited mobility… are any of my spells effective enough to take down a monster with that much Endurance without killing him?

By the Diocese’s very job description, he was likely the most experienced fighter of the ruling class.

“You can give up the act, spy,” The diocese said, pressuring him by taking a step forward, arms flexing.

Calvin put his hands up and backed away, not really having to fake alarm and caution too hard. “Please, Diocese, forgive my slip of the tongue. If The Diocese of Edict made a new position on behalf of the Diocese of Trade, wouldn’t ignorant commoners such as I attribute it to the latter?”

The tiny spark of doubt in Force’s gaze was still there, but it was overwhelmed by suspicion and a cold-hearted pragmatism. Calvin couldn’t tell exactly what was in the old man’s mind, but it probably amounted to some light torture, background checks, and interrogation to make absolutely sure Calvin was who he said he was.

Since Calvin wasn’t who he said he was, that was an unacceptable result.

Boxed in. Calvin glanced at the steel walls that made up the cage he’d found himself in. Or maybe not.

Don’t forget to lower their mass too, or else you’ll go splat. Elliot chimed in helpfully, intuiting Calvin’s idea.

“You go ahead to the door I pointed out,” Force said, motioning. “We’ll find out if you are what you say you are.”

Nah.

Trait Doctoring.

It’s Opposite Day!

Trait Doctoring.

45/47 Bent remaining.

Calvin reached down to his belt, touching a copper stud and his Abyssal steel marble.

First order of business is countering the reflexive bolt of lightning.

Calvin could try for the man’s bracers, but if he had an ability like Karen’s that allowed him to resist changes to his gear, Calvin would get destroyed in the next second.

Seeing his movement, Force flung up his hands, lighting crackling over his fingers. Calvin felt Bent move through the man’s frame, a fraction of a second after his own.

Calvin infused the air between the two of them with opposite of the difference between the conductivity of copper and air, and the strength of Abyssal Steel.

Calvin felt the man’s Bent cross the distance between the two of them in the very next instant, and all of Calvin’s hair stood on end as the spell forcibly filled him with some indescribable Charge that made his skin prickle.

Shit, you’ve been Ionized.

A fraction of a second later, a bolt of lightning leapt across the hall between them.

It hit Calvin’s wall of air and scattered along the surface in every direction, crawling along it in a fraction of a second like an animal trying to sniff it’s way past a fence.

The lighting disappeared a fraction of a second later, absorbed into the steel walls surrounding them. At the same time, a white hot bolt of energy about the size of Calvin’s pinkie lanced out from his right elbow and made contact with the wall, burning a coin-sized patch on Calvin’s arm.

Damnit, Calvin thought, crouching down and clutching his arm. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, most of the force of the blast was lost in the wall.

Force charged forward, accelerating his body at an impossible speed to close the distance between them. A fraction of a second later, he struck the invisible wall of air and came to a sudden, brutal halt, reeling backward with a split eyebrow and broken nose.

Now was the time to prepare his escape, a concoction of several spells.

Multi gradual Split

Mass Shifting.

Mass shifting.

Trait doctoring.

41/47 Bent remaining.

Calvin touched his bottle of compressed air and used gradual split to put some under each palm and his feet.

Calvin felt the air expanding against his palms, like a stiff wind pushing his hand back.

Then he dumped as much of his own weight as he could into the floor, reducing his weight to under thirty pounds, split between his torso and extremities. He switched on Mayfly’s Body, slowing his perception of time slightly.

Low weight is better for defense and escape.

The Diocese slowed by a small fraction as he recovered from the impact with the wall of air, glaring at Calvin.

Calvin used Shifting to pull the mass out of the ceiling and deposit it in the walls, rendering the patch of steel forming the floor between him and the next floor extremely lightweight.

Thanks for the tip.

No problem.

With the last spell, Trait Doctoring, Calvin made the steel patch above him have the same viscosity as the air in the room. He could raise the viscosity, but if it were still the same weight as normal steel, he’d smack into it and come to a halt instantly, no matter how fluid it was.

In the slowed view of the world, the suddenly gaseous metal began to flow down from above him, functionally a liquid because of its mass.

Eighteen percent is still plenty.

Calvin jumped upward, opening up the flow of Gradual Split to produce a burst of compressed air underneath his hands and feet.

A fraction of a second before he hit the ceiling, Calvin pulled all the mass from the floor back into himiself, to carry his momentum through the dissolving floor.

He glanced down an instant before he went through the ceiling, spotting a gaping astonishment on Force’s face.

Take that, punk.

The ceiling yielded to him as he punched through the metal easier than a man diving through water.

Calvin cut his mass back down when he burst through the other side, reducing his momentum in midair. He flicked his hand downward to stay still in midair as he moved, loaded the floor’s mass into it, then used his suddenly massive hand to change his direction, hurtling through the steel halls. He was currently in one of the circle hallways. He needed to get to a spoke and fly out and disappear.

Didn’t even manage to find the guy I was looking for, Calvin thought sourly.

Calvin was flying down the curved hall, looking for a spoke hall when his clothes began to be tugged sideways, toward the wall.

What the -

Your Stability has resisted a -

Invisible force grabbed Calvin by the belt and slammed him up against the steel wall, sending a flash of pain through his side. Damit, what’s going on? Calvin thought, struggling to push himself off the wall, his fingernails scratching against the pitiless steel.

He magnetized your belt! Reset it with the air!

Trait Doctoring.

40/47 Bent remaining.

For the first time since he’d discovered the spell, Calvin felt Trait Doctoring come into conflict with Foreign Bent clinging to the belt and clothes around his shoulders. It was the strangest sensation of pushing through some kind of stiff resistance that inhabited the material and components adorning his clothes.

The two effects waged war with each other for a moment. Gnawing away at each other like hungry Kerator, before Calvin’s spell won, eliminating the other effect and flooding through his clothes, evidence that perhaps either Calvin’s Skill was more powerful, or his Will was higher.

His clothes rendered nonmagnetic, Calvin was dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

Need to extend Stability’s protection to my clothes, Calvin thought with a gasp, rolling to his feet as the steel floor beneath him began to bulge upward like a bubble of scum on a swamp lake.

Calvin dialed the Gradual Split on his palms way up, creating a burst of air that shoved him away, flitting down the hall.

A second later, the bubble popped as polished steel bent out of the way of the levitating Diocese, revealing the lighting-covered man.

Force braced his body and accelerated at ridiculous speeds, tackling Calvin in midair.

The two tumbled through the steel hall in a tangle of limbs without touching the floor, floor and ceiling swapping places above them at a sickening pace.

In a desperate bid to separate himself from the man, Calvin flung his arm forward and slammed thousands of pounds of mass into it for an instant.

Calvin was wrenched out of the Diocese’s grip in a fraction of a second, slammed into the unforgiving steel of the hall.

There was an explosion of stars in Calvin’s vision as he collapsed to the ground, his forehead crying out in pain.

Lucky your Endurance is so high. That would have brained you a year ago. Only weighing thirty pounds helped a lot too.

Calvin forced his hands underneath him and tried to push himself to his feet, but his right arm was tingling and numb as his body began to register the amount of damage that had been done in the first lightning strike.

Through the flashing lights of Calvin’s impending concussion, he saw Force gracefully stop tumbling through the air some thirty feet away, coming to a perfectly smooth and controlled stop in midair.

No fair. Although I suppose I should have known he’d be able to fly. The bolt of lighting that ‘Killed’ Carem Sageva had come from directly above, after all.

If all Diocese could Fly, Calvin could see why the peasants might worship them like gods. Flight was something that captured the imagination, a deep seated primal urge to be powerful and free.

Focus. He’s trying to kill you.

Right.

Force raised a hand with a grim expression, and Calvin felt the Bent inside the man wind itself up tightly, ready to burst forward, aiming to direct another bolt of lightning toward him. The lighting that had been the size of Calvin’s wrist before grew as it swirled around the Diocese, growing brighter and thicker, white-hot bolts of electricity coalesced around Force, reaching the size of his thigh.

Waitaminute, Calvin thought through the fog of his concussion.

I’ve got something specifically for this.

The Iroh Special

39/47 Bent Remaining.

Calvin held up a hand and triggered the Ability.

A cloud of sensitive Bent exploded in front of Calvin just as Force unleashed the most powerful bolt of lightning Calvin had ever seen a Juntai conjure, aimed right at his chest.

***Ella***

A bolt of lightning burned through the side of the palace, melting it’s way through the steel before branching up into the sky, momentarily lighting the entire city of Allast from above.

A fraction of a second later, thunder assaulted the ears of every single onlooker. Many people clapped hands over their ears, wincing in pain as the wave of sound rolled over them.

Ella could only imagine how bad it was for someone trapped in the center of it.

She turned to Kala.

“That can’t be good,” she said. She didn’t think Calvin was going to die, surely. The young man was far too resilient for his age or species, but it might prove troublesome down the line given the damage he was causing to the Juntai city.

“I really hoped he’d find Carem,” Kala said with a frown, then sighed. “Come on, we should start packing. Allast isn’t going to be safe much longer.”

***

The world turned white. All Calvin could hear was a high pitched ringing in his ears.

If used on a lightning based Ability redirect it for free and instead Bent is used to amplify the redirected Ability. Elliot read off the final details of The Iroh Special, his voice just a bit too smug. Not even getting his eardrums damaged could stop the spirit from talking if he wanted to.

Which way is the Diocese? Calvin thought, teary eyes trying to blink out the sheet of black afterimage dominating the center of his vision. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the glowing hole in the ceiling, and a flicker of movement traveling away from it.

That doesn’t make sense, lighting shouldn’t actually shove him away, but it seems like that’s what it did here. I wonder if that has something to do with his flight Ability?

Calvin didn’t have time to listen to Elliot pontificate. There was an exit, and he meant to take it.

Calvin opened up the Gradual Split on his hands, shoving himself up towards the glowing hole in the ceiling.

He plunged into the orange-hot hole in the ceiling, feeling the hair on his head and arms stand up from the latent energy and then get burnt off by the latent heat.

A fraction of a second later, Calvin shot up into the sky. The hot jungle air seemed like a cool balm by comparison.

“Good news,” Force’s voice carried through the air, and Calvin was able to focus on him, floating in the distance. He couldn’t see the man’s expression because of the black streak running through the center of his vision, but he could definitely see the smoke rising from the man’s scorched clothes.

“I no longer think you’re a spy,” Force said, tearing the smoldering wrap off his shoulders. “I haven’t seen spells like that in…ever. Now let’s see, what other powerful wizards with novel magic do I know visiting our city?”

Force tapped his chin, still hovering in midair.

“If you think you know who I am, then you might think you know who I’m after.” Calvin said, balancing on the compressed air pushing against his palms and feet as it was released.

“Carem Sageva, mutant and vicious murderer, is dead and gone. His body was burned two days ago. That is the end of it.” Force said, his tone unbending.

“I think we both know that’s not true,” Calvin said. “He needs to be erased or he’s just going to rear his head again. It’s far wiser to end his threat right now.”

“He’s dead,” Force repeated. “Any further action against a nonexistent enemy will result in the deaths of innocent men and women. For no reason.”

“This is, of course,” Force continued. “In a hypothetical fantasy land where I don’t shove you into a cell and tear your mask off before rounding up every single one of you foreigner scum and send their remains back in jars. You’ve already done more than enough to warrant your death, Calvin. Did you think there would be no repercussions for stealing divine providence with your train?”

Are they upset about a motor? Who kills people over a motor?

“I’ve never met this Calvin fellow, but he sounds like a cool guy,” Calvin said with a grin. “You know what I think Calvin would say, where he here? Which he definitely isn’t.”

The diocese raised a brow.

“What happens when the gods bleed?” Calvin asked.

Trait Doctoring.