Majimonsters: Rosewood Journey - Chapter 157

The Circle of Argenti Bestia believed that only through human experimentation could they reach the peak in dragon creation and make the ultimate weapon that could defeat even the most powerful of maji. However, human experimentation was banned by declaration of the Emperor at the time after several accidents, one of which involved his favorite concubine and unborn child. This did not stop some far flung and hidden sects, like the Circle of Argenti Bestia, from proceeding with breaking this taboo…a lot.

To this end, the Circle attempted to minimize suspicion of their existence by abducting the one type of person that tends to be ignored the most… impoverished orphans. They had a pretty sweet thing going on, by evil secret society standards, kidnapping dozens of not hundreds of kids, up until they kidnapped a child that just happened to cross paths with a certain pair of young lady maji of ice and poison.

What followed after being discovered could best be described with the words, total annihilation.

Most of the maji above gold grade were rendered crippled or dead, any magic materials they had were taken or destroyed and their base of operation was reduced to a a lovely pile of smoke and rubble.

Alexander Ilexi only survived due to being a Verdant maji proficient in healing and survival magic, so he managed to survive being perforated with a bunch of new air holes causes by a rain of ice spears. However, his magic was not strong enough to counter the horribly strong poison coursing through his bloodstream.

” *Hrk*! Well…my blood is now purple and smoking…great”, Alexander complained after hacking up another mouthful of blood.

“No time left…unless…one last gambit”, he thought as he dipped his finger in the blood he had just coughed. The next moment, a silver death mask appeared in his other hand. With shaky yet quick hands, Alexander scrawled on several runes with the blood onto the death mask’s interior while muttering several words of arcane power.

After he had finished his work, he placed the mask on his face, laid upon the cold ground and died.

The mask began to glow shortly after his death, and the body began releasing a strange colored smoke that enshrouded the area in a bubble. A few minutes later, the smoke cleared away to reveal a mausoleum of intricate design and detail.

Now, the spell he had used was something he picked up from a necromancer. It was designed to enable someone to keep their spirit separate from their body in a death mask, as well as have it absorb wild aether as a means to heal it. He never thought he would ever have to use this spell, but he still learned it just in case. He had planned to lay “dead” for until his body recovered. Unfortunately, he didn’t account for two things.

The first was that due to his shaky hands, he had accidentally messed up one of the runes of the spell. This in turn made it impossible for his spirit to return to his body. Nothing says fun like being separated from your own body for a number of years.

Secondly, the Collapse. When the majimonsters went wild, the aether did as well and there were numerous and unforeseen consequences for the world due to this magical turbulence.

Alexander’s spirit was damaged quite violently by the wild aether, turning him into a wailing specter focused on the one ideology he cares most about, survival. Additionally, the ritual he had used to preserve his life mutated had, ironically enough, mutated into the type of ritual he had once perform on countless of victims.

The consequences of this unfortunate accident would not be seen until many, many centuries later.

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[What the heck is an Echo?], I asked in confusion. I get that magic is learning process, but now was not the time for strange terminology! Especially since the Bultungin was reforming itself.

[Echoes are basically weak spiritual existences. Ghosts obsessed with a desire or ideology that the original person held close to their hearts. And if it’s who I think it was, his Echo should be rather tenacious. Gale Breath!], Voxea explained as she released another blast of magic wind. The breath technique had managed to blow away quite a bit of the reforming monster’s flesh back into aether, but the Bultungin quickly regenerated from it.

[Oh joy, it’s unaetherable], I complained.

[Not necessarily, we just need to get rid of the Echo], Voxea said as she took on a fighting stance.

[Okay, but how]?

It was in that moment, a big ole chain of aether went whizzing past my head.