Whispers of a Dead Empire - Chapter 149

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Finally, it was the day of the duel. I sat outside by the lake mother and I went to, humming softly as I stared at the water. Kharon poured a copious amount of knowledge into me for the last two days, and I happily took it all. Now all that was left was this. The moment I’ve been waiting for. Excitement hammered in tandem with my heart as I waited for mother to arrive.

I chose this place for a few reasons. The first is that I’m surrounded by various elements that I can use. The shadows from the trees, the water from the lake, the earth that stretched as far as I could see, and that isn’t to mention the arcane magic from my wand, nor the fire that I held within my gravity well. This place was perfect for showing off my newfound skills to my mother. On top of that, it was pretty here, so I enjoyed the scenery.

“Hello there, Nyx.” Mother’s voice radiated from behind me, and I almost jumped. But the fear that coursed through me like cold water was quickly washed away by happiness as I stood up.

I rushed over to her and threw my arms around her. “Mother, I missed you so much,” I told her as I wrapped my arms around her waist. Today, she was wearing a blood-red cloak that danced in the wind. Her hair was tied back in a low ponytail, and her emerald eyes gleamed with happiness as she looked down at me.

“I missed you too, Nyx. I see you changed into the clothes that I sent you?” She told me as I pulled away from her.

I nodded my head. “Yeah, my other ones were starting to smell a little. Thank you, mother.” I replied to her as I walked over to my backpack. It was my fault that I forgot to bring a change of clothing. I was in such a rush. But thankfully, mother had my back.

“Please don’t forget to bring extra clothes next time. It’s never a bad idea to have them on hand.” I knew she was chastising me about it. So I only nodded my head since I knew she was right.

“I understand, mother. Anyway, are you ready?” Once again, the excitement was all too prevalent.

“Of course.” She smiled softly at me, and I nodded my head.

“But first, can you take my backpack? I’d hate for it to be destroyed.” I picked it up and carried it over to her.

She took the bag, and a second later, it vanished in a blinding display of gray light. “And, there.” She replied and shifted some of her weight to her left hip.

I nodde, skippedd towards the lake, and took a deep breath to calm my beating heart. I was ecstatic about this. This was my chance to show off all my power, and I didn’t want to ruin it. I stopped as soon as I got to a good spot, took a deep breath, and gently patted my cheeks. I got this. I can win this.

The very second I finished hyping myself, I spun around and pointed my finger toward my mother. “I will give you everything I have, so be ready!” I won’t hold back. She needed to see how strong I had gotten.

A wide smile split her face, revealing a set of pristine white teeth. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. Do your best for me, okay?”

As I stood there, the anxiety was throbbing in my chest. I nodded my head and took another deep breath to steady my nerves. I really hope I didn’t disappoint her. But, I wouldn’t know until after the words. I closed my eyes for a second and began activating all the skills that would help me in the coming duel.

The air turned gray as my vision fell away, only to be replaced by trails of mana. Green became gray, the colorless air became a soft silver, and teal rose from the ground like strands of blood. Teal mana rode the air like currents, mingling with the various colors popping into existence. The only thing that was really unnerving about it was that mother was one black spot. Not a single strand of mana escaped from her body, and it sent chills down my spine. It felt wrong like she was a walking void.

I shook my head, tore my attention away from it the best I could, and brought my wand to bear. Mr. Kharon had already taught me the basics of Pheria, and while they were the basics, I have been practicing in my soul sleep. Everything that I did prepared me for this moment.

I took a step forward and took an open position with my wand, with my fingers loosely gripping the soft handle. The gravity orb around me kicked up a bit and rotated faster around me. I made some new gravity spells, but unfortunately, it wasn’t much. A Lot of my focus was on mastering Pheria, But I will make do with what I have.

“You are a wizard, Nyx.” Mother broke this silence between us, and at the end of it she giggled slightly.

“No, I’m a mage.” I was a little confused that mother would mix that up. I mean, a mage was usually an Elementalist. Wizards needed rituals to create magic. It was simple stuff, really.

“It was a joke. A quote from a book that I read once.” She replied as she straightened up and reached down towards her hand. Unfortunately, mana vision wasn’t working in this situation since she simply ceased to be, so I turned it off for now. I needed to see everything that she was doing if I wanted to counter it directly.

She pulled the cloak up and over her black metal-clad hand and then did the same for the mithril. I was always confused about what the other metal was, but my sense told me it wasn’t natural, so I avoided it the best I could. “I won’t be using a sword today. Only my fist.” She told me as she raised her hand black hand up and closed her fist outside of her pointer finger and thumb.

“I will use everything that I have. So be ready.” I cleared my throat and sent arcana mana through to my wand.

“I’m ready when you are.” Once the words left her mouth, the air grew heavy. It wasn’t gravity; no, it was something else. It pressed into me as if we were trying to rip the air from my lungs. Even the surrounding air was quivering as whatever force Mother exerted seemed to increase. It was suffocating and pressing into me relentlessly.

I stared at my mother with awe as I struggled to not fall to my knees. She took a step towards me, and the sound echoed in my ears like a clap of thunder, and she seemed to grow with each passing second. Color drained from the environment in tandem with my heartbeat. Larger and larger, she grew, and the air behind her quivered as something took shape. A set of eyes appeared from the air. They raged like an emerald fire and mirrored the gaze that mother lay on me. It was a monster staring down at me. No, not a monster. It was a dragon. It was what I aspired to be, but standing in front of it made my legs weak. This was the power that I wanted, but standing before it reminded me just how weak I was.

A primal urge to run filled me, but I fought it. No, I wouldn’t run. I needed to show my mother how strong I was. I gritted my teeth and raised my wandagaine, ignoring the tears streaming down my face. To say that I wasn’t petrified by what stood before me would be a lie. But I promised myself that I wouldn’t be scared anymore.

A ball of white energy appeared in my mother’s hand. One that grew in size before it fractured into several balls that traveled up her arm. I knew this skill. I watched her practice, so I knew what was about to come. Her thumb twitched, and the first ball shot towards me faster than I could blink. But my legs wouldn’t move. They were still stuck to the ground.

I stared hopelessly at the orb as it shot towards me, begging my legs to move. Finally, they shifted, and I ki hopped out of the way. The act of movement did wonders to chase away a lot of the fear in my chest. Now it was time to play. Quickly, I shot an arcane bolt at her and gestured for the water behind me.

The second my mana touched it, I picked it up and threw it at my mother. A stream of water shot overhead while I directed it with my hand and used my wand to guide it better. The stream of water became like a current as it rushed towards mother, who stepped out of the way. She was so fast that I didn’t even have time to blink before she shifted away.

Her thumb twitched again, and the next ball of energy shot towards me. I retracted the current with my wand and brought it around me like Mr. Kharon did in his duel with ms. Alessia. The water shielded me from the blow, and I quickly snapped it outwards in a minor explosion to knock her off her feet.

I reached up towards the gravity well and quickly summoned fire while using my hand to control another water flow. Now that I didn’t have to summon any extra elements, I had a lot of mana to spare in this fight. More than I needed, at least I hoped.

My wand hummed as I used the arcana within it to boost the power of the elements at my disposal as I tried to lock down my mother. The currents of water and fire rushed around, but she was too fast. Each time the spells were about to hit her, she stepped out of the way. Her body twisted and contorted to slide past each wave. The worst part was that she would still fire off another one of her orbs, forcing me to step away to dodge.

The dance kept up, with her using minimum effort to dodge my spells and forcing me out of position with her long-range attacks. At least until my control slipped slightly, and the water and fire crashed into each other. Much to my surprise, once they touched each other, they exploded into a gas that burnt everything around it.

The second I saw it, I realized I could start mixing and matching elements. If mother wants to play hard to hit, I would increase the pressure. I summoned another strand of fire from the gravity orb and took control of the surrounding air. She was stepping out of the way of all my attacks, so I would mix fire and air to cover the area.

Using my wand, I struck out with a wind slash, used my wand to apply fire to it, and watched as it quickly expanded in size. Mother’s eyes widened as she froze in place for a second, and I couldn’t help but grin. Good, shock is a powerful ally. Quickly I shifted to a single element once more, so I could go back to using Pheria.

The earth around me started to quake as arcane mana pulsed through my wand, as I shifted its internal energies to a disarming skill and focused my attention on her hand. I knew it wouldn’t be enough to do anything, but I was trying to take her ranged skill out of play, if even for a second.

The earth roared as it trembled, and mother stumbled. It was the only chance I needed as a faint grey energy shot from the tip of my wand towards her hand. It slammed into the metal, her hand jerked back, and the orbs quickly condensed down and shot from her hand, just as the air and fire mixture slammed into her, knocking her off her feet.

I grinned as I saw my chance to actually win and tried a new mixture of elements. I summoned fire, pumped it full of gravity, and watched as it pulsed and a blast of heat rushed across my flesh. But just as I was about to let it loose, mother appeared in front of me. Her eyes were alight with humor, and her skin looked like glimmering dragon scales.

I gasped as I quickly dropped the spell, stepped back, and pumped the gravity well inside me with all the mana that I could. The earth trembled, and mother stumbled again as her feet sank into the dirt. She was too close for my wand to mean anything, so I reached behind, slid it into its sheath, and drew my battle axes.

Mother eyes me warily for a moment, as her body glowed a brilliant orange, and time felt like it slowed down. My hands reached for my axes out of desperation, and I jumped backward, trying to make some space.

She struggled to stand, and my mana reserves rapidly depleted as the well inside me guzzled it. This fight was about to be over, and I didn’t want to lose. So, I gripped both axes and pumped ki through my veins, just like my mother taught me. I jumped into the air and pumped every last drop of mana I could into my final attack.