83 - Vittoria's Test (Patreon)

Arielle didn’t respond fast enough, so Vittoria kept talking, swirling her finger in the air to form a portal. 

“I’ll attach the portal to you,” she said. “So that whenever you’re ready to come back, you only have to say the word' return' and it will automatically activate. It will also activate if you're wounded significantly. If you leave now, I’m sure you can be back by dinner or before anyone comes–”

“No,” Arielle said. 

Vittoria raised her eyebrow. “What do you mean by 'no'?”

“I don’t believe you that Elric is truly in danger,” she said. “I believe you are only trying to play a trick on me.” Vittoria was showing signs of amusement, and not much anxiety or panic. She wouldn’t be amused if Elric were in any true danger. 

Or was Arielle simply not reading her micro-expressions properly?

Vittoria's eyebrows lowered, and she gave Arielle an unimpressed look. “You think I would go through all this trouble, coming here just to play a trick on you? You must have a really overblown sense of your own significance in my life. Do you think I don’t have better things to do?”

“Do you?” Arielle challenged.

Vittoria’s eyes narrowed. She cleared her throat. “I already told you I’m not lying. I can take a truth potion if you want.”

“And how can I be sure that’s real?”

Vittoria manifested the truth potion in her hand with a single snap, the blue liquid resting halfway up a clear glass tube. “Have you seen one before?” 

Ari knew what truth potions looked like from the textbook Valeria had given her, but Vittoria was probably powerful enough to make something that looked like a truth potion but wasn’t. 

Ari analyzed the essences in the liquid, and it did seem like it had the right Luxa lattice, but she didn't know enough about truth potions to tell for sure that it was one, and not just something similar to one.

“You could have drunk the antidote before coming here,” Arielle said. "Or you could tell me things that sound true but have hidden meanings." There were also other limitations to truth potions.

“Oh, for the love of...” Vittoria rolled her eyes. “I’m not lying to you, Arielle. Why would I?”

Ari shrugged. "You appear remarkably calm for someone who should be worried about Elric.”

“Worried? Why should I be worried?” She lifted her shoulders, leaning back against the cave wall before closing her eyes. “I've been through a lot in my long life, so very little worries me anymore. Besides, they won’t kill him. They couldn’t, not with a gang of Phasewalkers, although I suspect they might try to weaken him first. However, it wouldn’t make sense for them to kill him. They might harm him in other ways and earn him a core suppression.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The message I intercepted might have changed but I think they might be trying to force him to commit a crime, or frame him for one. I’m not entirely sure how, as I only managed to hear half of it, and it might change at the last minute. But the plan is to attach his soul with that of a demon and accuse him of consorting with them.” Vittoria shook her head. “I’m currently monitoring for updates as we speak.”

Ari’s eyes widened. 

“Or plan B, have a demon control him and force him into taking back his words and erasing his research, and then committing heinous crimes.”

Arielle inhaled sharply, and Vittoria leaned in, eyes open now and gleaming. 

"You wouldn't want that to happen now, would you?”

Arielle shook her head frantically, her heart racing.

Yet, she still didn’t trust Vittoria. It could all be a lie, and once she teleported to wherever Vittoria wanted her to go, there could be a hybrid there waiting for her. 

On the other hand, did it make sense for Vittoria to do that? How would that benefit her?

Understand who they are and what they want. That was what Lyra had said was the key to predicting behavior.  

In Arielle's notes, Vittoria was the one with the least amount of points, because Ari truly did not understand her.

She, so far, had not tried to hurt Arielle.

In fact, she had saved her from a hybrid, and she had promised Elric that she would never kidnap her again, somewhat keeping to the promise. Elric trusted her and considered her a friend. Then again, Elric also considered the dean a friend, so Elric was perhaps not a good judge of character.

Vittoria seemed like she was Elric’s friend but in this case, she was reluctant to help Elric herself, wanting Arielle to do it. Why?

Because she wanted Arielle to break the system. 

That did not sound like it was in Ari’s best interest for now, at least according to Elric. 

However, as she stared at Vittoria, Ariele wondered if her fear of looking stupid should overpower her concern for her fake cousin. 

What if he truly was in trouble and she was wasting time being stubborn and arguing about it? She didn’t think Vittoria wanted to hurt her, even though she did want to use her. If this was a trap, then she would find out at the end and figure out how to escape from it. 

If it were a cruel trick, she would only have to be angry at herself once more and retreat to lick her wounds. Plus she would have one more data point for Vittoria so at least something good would come out of it. 

But if Elric was truly in trouble and she did nothing about it, she would never forgive herself. Nothing good would come from that. 

She sighed. “Alright. I’ll go.”

“Good." Vittoria grinned, still looking far too pleased with herself. "They plan to lure him somewhere by reporting a demon attack. Elric, of course, will be the only one who can answer to it, and he won't think twice about it. He might give an emergency alert on the system, but Yseult probably has plans to divert that.”

“How does he have that much power?” Ari asked. 

“We’ll talk about it when you come back.” She ticked her finger to the left as the swirling portal grew a limb, attaching it to Arielle's robe belt. “Right now, they are at Melendez Way but Elric isn’t there yet. They will almost likely have some way to weaken him first before they attack. You must find out how. I’ll assume your likeness and remain here, in case anyone comes by.”

“You’re going to pretend to be me?”

“Sure,” Vittoria shrugged. “I’ve watched you long enough. How hard can it be?”

Arielle thought about it and said, “Okay.” 

As she got up, Vittoria said, “Wait.”

She turned back. Vittoria reached behind her and handed over the essence reservoir.

“That should have what you need. And I suggest you go in there invisible. The portal should take you some distance away, but it’s important to be careful.”

Arielle was pleased to have the reservoir, but the last time Vittoria had offered her one, it had been for the test. 

She met Vittoria’s eyes again and read her aura. She was more than a little smug, but also maybe relieved as well. 

“Is this a test?” Ari asked. 

“Yes,” Vittoria admitted. 

“Is Elric in danger?”

“Also, yes.” 

“So you’ll be observing me.”

Vittoria’s gaze softened. “If you’re scared, don’t worry. You won’t be alone. I’ll be there, just like I was in the desert. If you’re ever in trouble, I will come to your rescue. In a different disguise, of course..”

Arielle wasn’t scared, more so confused. She’ll come to rescue me but not Elric?

"Why are you testing me?"

"I'll tell you about it when you return."

Ari pressed her lips together. 

Being tested by the Dean had left a sour taste in her mouth, but at least, Vittoria was being honest with her. 

However, testing her with Elric's safety seemed borderline treacherous. Elric was supposed to be her friend. Why would she not just save him?

A gut feeling told Arielle that Vittoria would be one of the most difficult people for her to understand, even by reading her expressions and looking at patterns of behaviour.  Something about her didn't seem quite as sane as everyone else. 

But that was beside the point now. 

She used her mirage spell as she walked towards the portal and went through it. 

In a second, she was deposited out on the other side, on a branch of a tall Mojave tree. To her surprise, the portal that brought her here didn’t disappear. Instead it compressed itself into a small white bird perched at her side, that nuzzled her a little as it blinked slowly. 

The bird had Vittoria’s golden eyes. 

Ari watched it for a second, then she took in her surroundings. 

The weather was arid and hot, ungodly hot, so much so that the air seemed to shimmer from the heat. But it was not a dessert, at least not like Vittoria’s home. Instead, it was a sparse wilderness, with dusty, rust-colored canyons and flat dry horizons, the paths filled with rocks and bordered by a mountain in the distance.

There was a singular road leading to the mountain, a road with a broken-down carriage and about a five invisible people surrounding it. 

Phasewalkers. 

Arielle could see clearly the Calor orbs arranged around them, in orientations she had never seen before. She couldn't even exactly explain what the spell form did, but it had made them unseeable, not with a mirage spell like Arielle. It was some kind of body modification, like what Selena had done during their game, but more intense. The pure calor orbs were interspersed and weaved in with their body and seemed to vibrate so much that the body itself became heat.

Arielle was instantly fascinated, wondering how they had achieved such an incredible thing. How could they temporarily turn their bodies into a heated atmosphere? 

Did it hurt? 

How were their cores affected?

She got a little more excited when she considered that she would be observing more of their powers in action, but she tempered her excitement after recalling that Elric was in danger.

She was here to save him, not to have fun with Phasewalkers. 

Even though she could probably do two things at once. 

Arielle shook her head. 

Elric was not here yet.

Arielle waited for a minute and and wondered if she’d been tricked again. She used [Sensate] to give her hearing a boost, but she had to fine tune it to get through the noise-cancelling barrier of their spell. 

Then she finally heard the whispers of conversation. 

“...archmage,” one man was saying. “I told you this is a stupid idea from the beginning.”

“You forget yourself, Junior Brother," the one closest to him said. “This is a sacrifice we must make, for an esteemed seat at the council.”

"And you trust him? A man who shows up without a face, and we just do his bidding? He tells us to wait here and attack the Archmage, binding him, and we agree."

"We do not have to trust him. He knows the Master very well. And this benefits us. Elric Earthbinder is the lowest-ranked Archmage. If he falls, then our Master is next in line."

"You truly think this will work. That it will be that easy to take him down with just the five of us. The lowest ranked Archmage is still an Archmage. He has lived far longer than us, outranks us by hundreds of levels.”

“Yes. He's a support-build Archmage. I've heard he is young and is not very good with anything outside of wide-scale defense. His cores are quite unbalanced as well. Not to mention, he will be brought after he has been weakened. They should be on it right now.”

"And if he defeats us anyway? Or if we’re caught?”

“It does not matter. We must sacrifice for the good of the clan, and we will get the reward in the afterlife."

The one who spoke first seemed to bristle for a few seconds before he turned away in a huff, muttering, “This feels like a bad idea.”

"You always think that before major missions. But once the Archmage is gone, it will become a good idea."

“Hmmm.” That was the end of the whispered conversation. 

So Vittoria was right. They did plan on hurting Elric and they were weakening him as they spoke.  

Arielle’s blood pressure rose, her heart beating faster as her fingers clenched.

It didn't matter why they were doing this, that it wasn’t of their own volition. 

They were villains and they would pay. 

And once they were done, and she saved Elric, she would also get them to confess who had put them up to it, too. She would find the masked figure involved and follow the trail until it led her to Yseult. 

And if the masked figure was Yseult, then she would execute her revenge then. 

All of them would pay for what they tried to do to Elric and they would never think of doing it again. 

Maybe then the clenching feeling in her gut would ease. 

She thought about how to go about this. 

How to Charm Kings said that a direct, unexpected offensive was better than a strong defense. The enemy wouldn't predict it, so the element of surprise would throw a wrench in their plans. 

If Elric was in danger, she could not afford to wait. She had to save him. 

Even if he got mad at her for it. 

***

Elias' irritation and apprehension were rising with each second that the darned archmage didn’t appear. 

Just how long did it take them to make him weak enough for them to bind him. And why couldn’t they bind him themselves?This whole thing just left a bad taste in his mouth. It didn’t make sense. Why were they here? What was the point of it?

He wondered if he was the only one who disapproved of this mission they were on. When the sect master had called some of his elite soldiers to tell them of a mission that would bring great honor to their sect, he'd been excited. 

For years, they had fought for recognition, fought to recover the goodwill that had been ruined by the many defectors from their clan and the old Elders who had led them astray. 

The clan worked hard to repair their reputation, so he had thought that this was a sign that their hard work was paying off.  

However, this had been a mission to capture an Archmage.  

That worried him. The Order of the Shifting Phases was filled with powerful warriors, but power was not everything. They didn't have true power where it mattered: in the council.

They were feared, not respected, and though some of his soul brothers thought that was the same thing, he knew it wasn't.

Respect was a different, more effective type of power than fear. It would make life so much easier for him and everyone else in the sect, but this was not how he'd expected to gain it. 

Archmages did not go down easily, not even support-based archmages. Even with a dozen phasewalkers against him, talk less of five. 

It was a bad idea. He had a bad feeling. 

Yet, Elias was here anyway, because he wanted that power. 

He wanted the recognition that Elder Castro would bring once he joined the council as an Archmage.

Elias himself was a Level 150 Adept, but Phasewalkers didn't often go by their system ranking. The system did not know how to properly categorize their power, so it often regarded them as weaker than they actually were. 

But no one else in the world could do what they did, what they had trained their bodies and their cores to do. 

No one had their sheer destructive ability, adaptability, and fortification. So they had a different internal system of ranking, and Elias was a White Flame, near the top of the disciple hierarchy. 

Everyone else on this mission was a White Flame, too.   

And then there was one Blue Flame. 

He sighed and glanced over at the shimmering darkness where he stood. He was the Grandmaster’s nephew. A golden prodigy, they called the boy. A once in a millenium talent.He was several years younger than Elias, yet he was at the top of the discipleship, though his system read as a 120 Adept.  

Through his adjusted vision, he saw that the boy turned his cold blue eyes to him and raised an eyebrow.

He looked away. It was humiliating that he was afraid of a little boy. No, he was not afraid, simply cautious. . 

A White Flame was no match for a Blue Flame. The sheer strength of spells the boy could handle was mind-blowing. He could shift phases without a word, could make a loud sound into a roaring sea of lava with the blink of an eye. 

He was a soul close to godhood. 

The boy had never known defeat. He was their strongest weapon today against the Archmage and the only hope Elias really had for this plan to work. . 

“Hello.”

Elias jerked as the voice seemed to come from right above him. 

He immediately held his hand up, using his heat vision to scan the air ahead of him. 

It was a person... a woman in a mask.

Her voice sounded like that of a teenage girl. Her system screen showed that she was a Level 51 Apprentice?

What on Earth was she doing here? Was she lost?

How on Earth had she snuck up on them? Wait, how could she see them?

"You are waiting for the Archmage, correct?" she said. "Where is he? What are you doing to him. Tell me now and I may spare you some pain"

For a moment, Elias couldn’t speak. He was astounded on several fronts. 

First, that a mere apprentice had seen them when even trained Masters would struggle to.

Their method of concealment did not give anything away. Not sound, not touch. They blended in perfectly with the environment and managed to bypass illusion sensors. 

So what was this?

How had she seen them? And why did she have the gall to threaten them?

Then again, she might not be from around here. She might not know what a Phasewalker is. 

"Leave this place, girl," he said. "If you know what's good for you."

She did not make a move to leave. There was something about her, something that made him uncomfortable. 

Although now that he thought about it, taking a hostage might work in their favor. The Archmage would be much less likely to attack them full force if they had someone, an innocent little girl, with them. 

Brother Alvaro seemed to have the same idea because he said, "[Air Chain]" and invisible ropes began to wrap around the girl. 

She stopped it without a word, generating an [Air Shield] that kept the chains away. However, the beauty of phase shifting was adaptability. Brother Alvaro dismantled his spell into heat and transferred it within her airshield, wrapping it around her tightly.

He yanked her close and materialized so he could stare down at her. 

She didn't seem intimidated in the slightest by his tall form. 

“Tell me where he is.” she said again. “And what are you doing to weaken him?”

Brother Alvaro smirked. “You should be more worried about yourself, young one. You are about to be very unlucky today.”

“Is that so?"

"Yes." 

She stared at him for a few seconds and blinked. 

A thunderclap hit the air.