Rina Elavena

I was on my third golem when I noticed that the shiny plane destroyed on of the rusted planes. I was really tired of all the death for today, and so I decided to intervene. There was a lot of energy in the walls of the storm and I felt I could exert my will on it. With a thought, I focused like I would when using a lightning spell and sent a warning at the two planes.

The shiny one got the message quickly, but the rusted ones took another shot. Nature had a mind of its own, and my shot went wild, hitting one of the rusted planes in the wing. At least it was still flying as they turned to head back to their turtle. I watched for a few minutes to make sure they were getting along.

I dropped back onto my back and laid down. The sun was starting to dye the sky pink as it slowly shifted to night. The temperature was dropping like a stone as well. I lifted the seed I got from the goddess into the air. Sunrise would be the best time to plant it. Numara’s nose suddenly appeared in my vision sniffing the seed.

“What is this? It smells so good.”

“A seed. To what is still to be seen, but from where I came from there were a people that would lay down their lives to protect something like this.”

We watched the sun set and the stars start to pop out one by one. I wasn’t surprised, but I did find it odd as they didn’t match any of the constellations that I knew from before. A sad and silent truth of my new existence I suppose. Chuckling at the thought, I rolled over onto my side. With the sundown, I was starting to feel really tired.

Yawning, I looked at Numara. “Guess I might as well sleep. I have had a long day.”

“I would say make more golems, but I don’t think we’re in any danger for the night.”

I grinned at him. “That’s usually what is said before people meet a rather terrible end.”

He snapped at me. “Don’t jinx it.”

~~

The morning came quickly without anything happening. I felt like I had barely closed my eyes when I was suddenly more energetic than I had ever woken up before. In my last life, I had enjoyed sleeping to the point that people had been challenged to awaken me. It had even become a sort of contest among the Hero’s party to wake me up.

Numara slept curled up next to me. I carefully got up then looked around the Vortex to see if anything had changed during the night. It was still weird that I could look around without moving my body. To be honest, I wasn’t sure my body actually existed anymore. I could touch things, but when I looked at my own hand, it had a faded appearance.

There was a pool of water that had formed from the rain, so I moved over to it with my physical form. Reflected at me was my old appearance. Green hair that nearly reached my feet, long pointed ears that were almost half a meter long. Large antlers that with five points each, they were how my race had drawn in mana.

My face was the same as well. Large eyes, and sharp features. I was hailed as a beauty even among the elves, but I had never really understood it. Sadly, I was single the entirety of my previous life. A good stretch of seventy years.

Sighing, I turned away from the pool of water and took in the surroundings of the Vortex. I had been worried that the two groups would start to fight in the middle of the night, but it looked like they were getting along now. The turtles weren’t near each other, but they were much closer than yesterday and weren’t firing weapons at each other.

“Numara. Wake up.”

The little fox yawned as his eyes opened slowly. “Five more minutes.”

“Sun is out. Time to get to have some fun!” I grabbed the fox then flew us to the top of the island. Taking a look at the desert under us, I realized we’d traveled a good distance in the night. I could just barely make out the hole that my storm carved into the ground.

With a wave of my hand, I flattened the top of the mountain even more to make a large platform. I dug a groove around the edge and filled it with water. After a thought, I decided to add an eternal spring spell to the groove. It barely required any Aserite to power, but after watching it for a few seconds, I did find it was much weaker compared to the one back on my homeworld.

I also found that most of the Aserite I had used yesterday had already been recovered from the few minutes my storm had been in the sunlight. It appeared the larger size of the storm really did increase the rate I was getting the energy.

Once that was done, I moved to the center of the platform and planted the seed. The clouds above us instantly cleared as rays of sunlight lanced down striking the spot. In the span of a few heartbeats, a sapling grew before our eyes. The life energy it was putting off was breathtaking.

“What is this?”

“A plant. I guess there aren’t many or none at all on this planet?”

Numara shook his head but couldn’t take his eyes off the sapling that had already reached the height of my knee. The sunlight weakened as the clouds returned above us. With a last burst of light, there was a surge of life energy in response, as well as Aserite. The bare soil around the sapling rippled as grass came to life around it.

Sucking in a deep breath that there was even more hope for my life on this dreadful planet, I grabbed two of the three golems I finished the night before and moved them to guard the platform. I would be beefing that up as soon as I could. I swore I would protect this whatever the cost.

Grabbing Numara, I moved us down to the bottom of the mountain. The Vortex had created an almost generic foothill to the mountain, but there was a decent plane around the mountain already. There was still sand being pulled into the storm, so it was continuing to grow. Just not at the speed that a person could see.

Waving my hand, I created a large craves for a lake then made a path for the water to follow once the groove was full at the top of the mountain. It would take a few days or even months, but there would be a beautiful body of water here in the future. I couldn’t wait to see the astounded faces of the locals.

“Are you going to make more golems?” Numara asked.

“Yes, but I don’t think they will all be man shaped.”

I moved to the edge of the island where I could watch the turtles and grabbed some stone. I started working it like clay to shape a bird from my world. I knew I would never see my old home again, but I could bring parts of it to life here.

A four-winged bird quickly took shape in front of me. It was about half the size of a man, with a wingspan twice that. It possessed talons that could tear a person to ribbons if they allowed it too close. Of course, being made from stone reduced its strength quite a bit.

I would like to have some of my creatures here to help me. I was a powerful mage back on my homeworld and had made contracts with many beings throughout my life. While not all of them had done soul contracts, a decent number had. If I could bring them here, it would make my life a lot easier.

“Do you think summoning magic works as well?” I asked as I infused the bird golem with some Aserite to bring it to life.

“Are you sure you want to play with more forces from your old world?” Numara asked from where he was curled up next to me.

“I don’t know. Its not like this world is going to help me out. Soon enough, people are going to come in here for Aserite, right? It would be better to have some powerful assistants on our side.”

“You make a good point.” His eyes went dark for a moment. “The system doesn’t have any rules in place about it either.”

I checked my Aserite much in the way I would my energy back on my world and found I had more than enough for one of the first level summons I could do. While the initial summoning would take a lot of energy, the energy to maintain them afterward should be negligible. It would require a test to be sure though.

A simple nature spirit would be best right now. It would be able to help the sapling grow as well as bring some more life to the island. I really wouldn’t mind seeing more green either way. It would be first level so nothing too powerful.

I moved to a wider clear spot and began drawing the spell circle for it to work. I could use straight Aserite, but it would cost significantly more and I had little else to do at the moment. Besides, I could use the circle for other summoning with some slight adjustments.

A few minutes later, I stood up and dusted my hands off. A good size spell circle sat in front of me. A couple dozen people could easily stand inside it without bumping shoulders.

“Are you sure about this?” Numara asked with some trepidation.

“Nope! But everything else I’ve done with my magic has worked so it will be fine.”

Nicking my thumb on my horns, I dripped some blood onto the center of the circle. Moving back to the edge, I started chanting the spell that would bring a forest Sprite. The magic began much like it was supposed to, there was a surge of green light. I felt a connection to the realm of nature.

While the spell was working as it should, I felt it was taking longer than it should. I wrote it off as being in another universe, but after a few more moments, I realized that wasn’t the case. A strong mental wavelength latched onto the summoning and before I could stop the spell, a figure formed in front of me.

A man wearing cloths fit for a noble appeared. Calling him a man might be pushing it. Technically, he was a demon that had been reformed and sought to bring balance to nature. He was as tall as me at close to two and some change meters. The only thing off about him was the jester mask he wore on his face. I had only seen it once, and it would never leave my memories.

“Olvoran,” I said as the Aserite dissipated around us. I covered my face with my hands as I sighed.