Here's Saturday's release!

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Chapter 12: Ancient Sigils of Protection

Walking through the crumbling opening, Kaz was greeted by an ancient door. An abundant amount of magical power was being emitted from the door. The previously unopened space had accumulated a large amount of magical energy that was prevented from escaping due to the magical sigil. Finally offered a release since the sealed wall now lay in a pile of rocks, magical energy poured out.

Kaz stood in front of the door, marvelling at the sheer amount of magical energy leaking into the atmosphere.

{Ahh….this is much better. There’s so much mana in the surrounding air that I don’t have to worry about my own energy leaking. Mana is like water, you know. It will try to escape whenever it can.} Ahriman gave a deep sigh of content as he spoke, breaking his previously uncharacteristic silence.

“So do you know what this place is? And why anybody would choose to build such a large structure this deep inside the forest?” Kaz had many questions that he wanted to ask, but he knew that the grouchy necromancer would only answer a few of them.

{I suspect that this place used to be either a magus stronghold or an academy used to train magi. Being this deep into the Southern Forests would serve to effectively hide the location from prying eyes. Privacy is one of the most valued things among magi. Besides, there would probably be at least one Spatial Magic user among all of these magi who would be able to create a wayportal to get in and out easily.}

Spatial Magic and wayportals? I’ve never even heard of these terms. But they sound especially interesting.

“What’s Spatial Magic? And for that matter, whats a wayportal?” Eagerly, Kaz prodded Ahriman for more information.

Freed from the constraints of trying to preserve his leaking mana, Ahriman had no qualms about lecturing about magic.

{Spatial Magic is another form of Magic, another rival school to our Death Magic. Its incantations usually deal with the manipulation of space. The wayportal is the poster child for Spatial Magic. By carving a two sigils onto the ground and imbuing both with the caster’s magic, any other magi need only provide sufficient energy to instantly travel between the two.}

Silently shocked, Kaz thought about what he had just been told. Spatial Magic is so powerful. Instantaneous transportation is something that would revolutionize the world as we know it today.

“Since Spatial Magic is so powerful and useful, why don’t more magi practice it? I’ve never even heard of Spatial Magic before now.”

{Look, the way that I described it makes Spatial Magic seem much simpler than it actually is. So, so many things can go wrong with practicing Spatial Magic. Even if a tiny part of a wayportal is not carved right, the person using it could be ripped in half after the portal activates.}

Grimacing as he imagined a person being ripped in half. Kaz looked towards the door. Like many of the structures within the stronghold, faintly glowing magical sigils were carved deep into the door. Kaz realized that these magical runes were extremely old, and had probably lost a large amount of their protective power over the centuries.

That’s not to say that these weakened defenses aren’t strong enough to kill me. If I did not have the brute strength of that stone bear there would probably be no way for me to even break open the passageway towards this door.

Staring intently at the magical sigils on the door, Kaz sat on the floor as he studied the protective magical network. Kaz recognized some of the ancient sigils from his previous studies in history. However, the interactions between these and other sigils that Kaz did not recognize baffled the young necromancer.

{What’s taking so long to open this door? Why don’t you just break that Tian sigil in the upper left? That’s the centerpiece of this particular magical door.} Ahriman’s grating voice once again rang out in Kaz’s head, only this time Kaz did not find it annoying.

“You can read these? I can only recognize a few of these sigils. The previous sigils that I’ve broken or targeted were only broken after I had analyzed the magical connections between the centerpiece and the outer sigils.”

Flabbergasted at Kaz’s response, Ahriman was silent for several moments before groaning.

{You little brat! Your way of learning is entirely abnormal. Who would even think of analyzing connections between magical sigils if you don’t even know what they mean? These things aren’t a child’s puzzle. The interactions between sigils is extremely complex, and it’s sheer luck that you’ve not died from accidentally triggering magical backlash. Here, I have enough mana to send you the ancient language. Brace yourself}

With a silent word, Ahriman burned his knowledge of the ancient language onto Kaz’s mind. The amount of information being branded onto his memory this time exceeded previous searings by a large amount.

{Oh stop writhing on the ground with your head in your hands. It shouldn’t even be that painful. I never feel anything when this happens.} Sadistically enjoying watching Kaz suffer, Ahriman took several quick jabs at Kaz’s inability to handle the mental pain well.

Having twitched on the ground for an indeterminate amount of time, Kaz slowly got off the floor as his headache faded.

“Having a language seared into my mind is not the same as getting a short spell branded. You could really show some more empathy, didn’t your own master brand spells painfully to teach too?” Grumpily, Kaz dusted his clothes off as he turned to look again at the door.

{No, not really. I had a more traditional apprenticeship. You know, the books and studying kind.}

“That sounds so much better. If we could find some books on necromancy, could we do that?”

{I have to force nearly all of my knowledge into you so you can perform the necessary steps to revive me. Traditional learning just takes too long. Just shut up and unlock the door already.}

Looking back at the magical sigils carved onto the door, Kaz realized that he was able to identify and analyze the patterns now as clear as day.

“Hmm...alright. So there seems to be a total of six independent sigil patterns, and they link to form two greater sigils. The weak point of this sigil is indeed in the upper left as Ahriman said.”

Carefully forming a mental spike, Kaz prepared to break the centerpiece sigil. However, before he launched his attack, Kaz’s eyes caught something else of interest.

“Oh, it’s so good that I double checked the sigils before I launched my attacks. There is another centerpiece sigil down near the center. Both are centerpieces for their respective greater sigils.”

Stepping back, Kaz carefully studied the dual greater Sigils carved onto the door.

{What are you waiting for? I just gave you the method to read the sigils and disable the door’s protection. Why are you not busy destroying that door?}

“Because there are actually two centerpieces, and the magical backlash from breaking only one would be enough to at least greatly injure me.”

{Well, yeah. But you won’t die. You’ll just get blasted back a bit and maybe you’ll break a bone or two. Or five.}

“Yes. Well, I would really rather not have to go through that if it’s all the same to you. I’ll figure out a way around this. Just let me do my thing.”

With a loud grunt. Ahriman once again grew silent.

Looking at the sigils, Kaz realized with a start that the protections carved onto this door were stronger than both the hallway sigils as well as the protective sigils carved onto the stone bear. There was a specific pattern that the two greater sigils made which captured most of Kaz’s attention.

“Six unite to make Two, and the Two are Eternal Companions. When one exists, so will the other. When one is destroyed, only if the other is destroyed as well will both die.” Muttering under his breath, Kaz assembled a rough translation of the carved sigils.

“If I do not want to suffer the magical backlash, I would have to destroy both centerpiece sigils at the same time. However, they are too far apart to be hit with any of my single target spells.”

Looking back, Kaz walked over towards the hallway where the obedient stone bear was. Noticing that the opening towards the door was nowhere big enough for the stone bear, Kaz commanded the bear to remove more portions of the stone wall.

This stone bear has been greatly damaged by the previous magical explosion. However, if I use it to hit the second centerpiece while I send a mental spike towards the first, both might be destroyed at the same time.

Positioning himself very carefully behind the bear, Kaz conjured a mental spike. With a confident motion, Kaz sent the mental command for the bear to attack the lower sigil as he shot his mental spike at a upper sigil. Not daring to look back at the results of his attack, Kaz sprinted back to the hallway.

Either Kaz’s mental spike or the stone bear’s physical attack was not sufficient, and one of the centerpieces survived the dual attack. It didn’t particularly matter which one, as the magical backlash resulted in a huge fiery explosion with the door as its origin.

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

For once in his life, Kaz was far enough from the explosion to not be sent flying. Ears ringing, Kaz waited for the dust to settle before he headed back in.

The once intimidating stone bear was destroyed. What once was a giant stone bear now consisted of various stones. The bear’s eyes were no longer glowing, instead it lay upside down, and they seemed to glare at Kaz when he entered.

Looking towards the magical door, Kaz could see that both centerpiece sigils were now glowing brightly. Frowning, Kaz sat on what remained of the bear’s torso as he thought about his sigil problem.

My main problem is twofold at this point. First, I don’t actually know which attack failed to break the centerpiece sigils. Both of the runes carved are identical, and their patterns strengthen each other. Since they are both the same rune, it would make sense that their magical or physical resistances would be the same. Even if one broke, the patterns carved would focus magical energy and regenerate the other rune.

Lost in thought, Kaz almost missed the top rune as it flickered once.

The top rune flickered! That means that its magical protection is slightly weaker than the other. This probably means that it was regenerated recently. Since it had to have been regenerated, this means that my magical attack was successful in breaking the sigil while the bear’s physical strike failed.

Gnashing his teeth in frustration, Kaz brought out some berries that he had picked up from the forest and started to eat them as he thought.

Even if the first problem has been taken care of, the second problem remains. I don’t have any magical spells that could hit a large enough area as to destroy both sigils at once.

After some time, Kaz’s chewing stopped abruptly.

That’s it! Previously, I have casted spells from both my right and left hands. Mana can be focused on both hands, and can spells can be casted from both. Never have I used both hands to cast spells at the same time, but at this point it’s my only choice if I want to get through this door.

Finishing off the rest of his berries, Kaz drank some water from a flask taken from one of the dead hunters. Going back into the hallway, Kaz started to practice forming spells in both hands at once.

Rather than practicing in the crowded space in front of the door, I’d rather practice in the hallway outside in case something goes wrong.

Holding his hands in front of him, Kaz started to gather his magical energy. Slowly channeling it through both arms, Kaz only managed to get the magical energy up to his elbows before it rushed backwards into his body.

There must be something wrong with how I’m gathering my mana. Perhaps if I did it one at a time…

Focusing mana into his right arm, Kaz managed to prepare a Mental Spike a few inches above his outstretched hand. Struggling with holding back his spell, Kaz managed to conjure up an identical Mental Spike in his left. Blowing his breath out, Kaz unleashed his dual spells off into the side of the hallway.

“The combined magical impact of two spells together seem to be stronger than if I had just unleashed two separate spells one in quick succession. Does the dual cast empower the spells in some way?” Kaz grinned as he revelled in his small success.

Noticing that his magical power was depleted, Kaz went back towards the magic-saturated space in front of the door to replenish his magical power.

Soul power is exceptionally useful, but regenerates at about the same rate as my innate magical power. Since that’s the case, I should just absorb the magical power present in the air instead of using Soul power to facilitate the dual cast necessary to destroy both centerpiece sigils.

After about an hour and with his magical power replenished, Kaz looked up at the door with an eager glint in his eyes.

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