168 - Mutually-Assured Destruction (Patreon)

The pile of work on Elric’s desk seemed to only grow longer with time. In his absence, there was so much to catch up on at the ministry, including another wand recall, a slight dimensional rift, and the merchant guild's renegotiation of the essence quota split and leyline distribution.

And then today, he had to deal with a conflict regarding the Hunis and the Tans, the former claiming the latter had trespassed on their land and fished in their lake.

They demanded retribution or some kind of payment of equal worth to the stolen fish, while the Tans claimed they took nothing. That was what Elric spent his afternoon mediating.

Unlike other continents, which had large-scale rulers, the continent that held Stonehold, Elric’s domain, was made up largely of smaller tribes, city-states, and villages, which made the ministry’s job more important because they were often looked to as a de facto judge whose word superseded the law of the land.

The fact that he was an Archmage only made his authority more absolute, but it also gave Elric a lot more responsibility. What that meant was that he had to be educated on the political terrain of different clans, including their history, laws, and temperaments.

The Hunis took fishing very seriously and, like a few other places, they had faced shortages in the past years thanks to dimensional rifts and instability. Due to frequent accusations of theft, there had been a line drawn demarcating them from other territories. The Hunis claimed to have found footsteps and several other pieces of evidence indicated the Tans crossed this line. The Tans had initially stated that they hadn't crossed the line, but after some interrogation, they admitted some of their men may have used the path as a shortcut to another village, but they had not stolen any fish.

Elric had run diagnostics, casting [Cathedral of the Living Light] to visualize the recent history around the lake. There was no evidence yet of any fishing by the Tans. He was now listening to first-hand accounts–which were mostly angry ranting from the chieftains of both tribes–while wondering the easiest and fastest way to resolve this so he could get to the ball on time.

He was anxious about leaving Arielle with those people. His only comfort was that he was keeping an eye on Gio as well, and knew the other man was currently interrogating Yseult.

Mahmoud had told him when Gio arrived and was supposed to inform him when he left, so Elric had some time at least. Still, he didn't want to take any chances.

“Enough,” he said, holding his hand up, finally getting attention from the pair, whose ranting was giving him a headache.

"How about we do this," he said. "I'll erect some temporary magical boundaries around the lake, and return to continue the rest of the investigation later. The magical boundaries will be invisible, and it will be able to detect whenever anyone has crossed them."

"Doesn't take some time?" Chief of the Hunis asked.

“No." Permanent magical boundaries required them to dig and place essence pipes and runes to keep the magic running without his attention. That would take some time, as it would require him to finish submitting a report and pass it on to the assembly, and also have geomancers in the area calculating how that would affect the leydrift.

But for him to simply leave behind a magical demarcation...it would only cost him essences and some concentration.

"I'll return tomorrow and continue the questioning," he said.

"Can we run our own investigations in the meantime?" Chief Tan said. "Perhaps question the other tribes if they were somehow involved?"

Elric raised an eyebrow. "You haven't already done that?"

"No. We were set to do that today, but then you arrived."

"I..." Elric trailed off and shook his head. "You’re telling me that you haven't had time to do your own investigations yet?"

"No, Your Eminence. This is a recent problem."

"A recent..." That was atypical. Given how busy the Department of Mundane Affairs was, they usually only received referred cases that could not be resolved any other way, especially with problems that were not magical emergencies.  That meant that, usually, the clans were given time to conduct their own mediation and also to decide on remuneration between themselves, and only if they couldn't would the ministry get involved.

So the fact that they hadn't had time to....

Suddenly, his senses started tingling.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

He stepped away from the chiefs, ignoring them calling out to him, and instantly teleported to Yseult's domain, with Mahmoud sitting outside, playing with a small wolf.

"Where is Gio right now?” he demanded, without greeting.

Mahmoud gestured with his head. "He's still in there for the interrogation."

"Has he said anything to you?"

"No. Thankfully he was quiet today."

Elric stormed past Mahmoud into the drafty tower, taking the stairs two at a time until they got into Yseult's room.

Gio was indeed there. He had his eyes closed and was sitting cross-legged on a hardback seat front of Yseult. However, he wasn't saying anything, and something about his posture was just a bit unnatural.  

A gaunt Yseult glanced at Elric.

"He says he's meditating," he said quietly.

The alarm that was simply a tingle at the back of his mind suddenly exploded into a cacophonous melody.

“Arielle…”

He immediately vanished and appeared in the Wesley's estate. He used his [Arcane Sense] to search for Gio's magical signature, but he didn't find it. Neither did he find Arielle.

However, he did find a place where there was some change, and deduced that Arielle was stuck in a portal dimension with Gio.

"[Arcane Unbalancing]," he whispered as he reversed his best-known spell, making that environment unconducive for magic, consistently shifting the Massa essences in the air to prevent a stable base from forming.

That would inherently make Gio’s portal dimension unstable and make it harder for him to hold the spell. 

It would eventually come apart as a result.

Elric just hoped by then it wasn't too late.

***

The younger version of Gio stood there, without attacking.

Ari wondered if there was a problem with the clone, but then the real Gio spoke up.

“Well?” he said. “I don’t want him to go first. I don’t want to accidentally hurt you.”

"You don't?"

"Of course not. Where would the fun be in that?"

Arielle shook her head.

“I don’t understand the point of this,” Arielle said. “You’ll obviously win.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Yes. You’re better trained than I am, know more spells, have actual combat training.”

"Yes, but you're not fighting me."

"I am. Whatever you think I'm capable of, I don't think I can beat even the younger version of you."

“Perhaps what you said is true, but you do have an advantage. I’m less able to seriously injure you than you are me.”

She cocked her head. “Meaning?”

“Well, obviously, if there are any injuries, Elric would be quite upset with me, wouldn’t he? Upset enough to report me. And since you have captured Lord Wesley’s heart already and he has significant sway in the council, that might be very...disadvantageous for me.”

“Oh.” Arielle hadn't even thought of using Lord Wesley to combat Gio. She should have thought about it, but she didn't.

“But I suppose in combat to that, I could simply tell them what I know about you and your faked system evaluation results, and that might get me out of trouble, or it might trigger mutually assured destruction.” 

Arielle drew in a sharp breath. Gio's face remained contemplative as he casually considered ruining her life. Her anger rose sharply and she thoroughly disliked him at this moment.

But she also had to somehow outsmart him.

Was he being honest that he couldn't hurt her? Probably.  She doubted that he could go around seriously hurting people, or he would have likely done it already. 

Right? 

It was hard to predict him though. Hurting innocents was against the rules of Ascendant society, but Elric had told her that Gio liked to break rules, in regard to the criminals he caught.

However, he hadn't said anything about Gio hurting civilians.

The younger Gio held up his arm, shooting out swarms of cawing black birds from his index finger

The repetitive sound was shrill and irritating, along with the flapping of their wings as they swarmed her.

“You should know the more time you waste, the more non-lethal ideas I get," Gio said, the whining of the birds getting higher and higher, until it was an encompassing whistle that made her feel like she was going crazy. "So it's in your best interest to defeat me quickly."

"[Blink]." Arielle flashed past the birds and dashed away, but they were in hot pursuit.

Gio's laughter was irritating as she ran for the buildings in the distance, hoping that maybe if she could get far enough away that she could outrun his domain or find the limits of it at least.

Suddenly, ribbons of darkness obscured her way.

"[Flash Blink]." She made up a name on the spot, but what she actually did was combine a weaker lightning spell Vittoria taught her with a speed boost that had her tearing through the darkness without faltering.

Wind rushed past her, the mist thickening to slow her down.

She boosted her speed again, again, flying past the first set of buildings, going for the horizon.

More ribbons appeared in her way, but she used the same set of spells, trying to cut through–

It didn’t work.

The darkness remained.

She didn't understand why, but she halted right in front of the ropes. 

It shot out and wrapped around her regardless, trapping her in a dark, sticky web, tightening as she struggled, holding down her wand arm.

"[Air Slice]," she rasped, but the void slices were only absorbed in the sticky web.

Then footsteps approached her from the horizon she was just running to.

She was not surprised to see Gio's advance, along with younger Gio and the irritating birds surrounding them, flying in wait.

"You are wasting both our time with those spells," Gio said. "And the longer you waste, the more annoyed I get, and the more likely it is that I have to–"

[Spell Breaker]," Areille declared.

The ribbons split, and the birds shattered into dust. 

She didn't bother redirecting the backlash, too annoyed and kind of hoping it would knock Gio out.

It didn’t. 

Gio absorbed the backlash with a blink of surprise, followed by a wide grin. 

“Interesting,” he said.

His actual clone wasn’t emoting or talking, which likely meant that it was little more than a puppet. It didn’t have a soul like Vittoria imbued in hers, or perhaps Gio didn’t have the expertise of splitting his soul into different creatures. Or maybe he simply didn't want to.

“Let’s see if you find this one so easy to break," Gio said.

The next attack was an even bigger swarm of birds, recruiting even more essences.

Arielle wondered how this entire thing wasn’t just a waste of essences on his end. This wasn’t like with demons who had internal essences they could draw from and could command essences from their attachments to their hellish domains.

 Gio was utilizing batteries and his EPUQ.

Just what was his limit? Should she force him to use up all his quota so that she can finally leave? Was that even possible, considering how much allowance archmages get?

As the swarm approached her, Arielle put her wand up and broke that spell too.

And the next.

And the next.

It didn't matter how big the swarm was; she just kept turning it to dust, and each time she did, Gio's smile got wider and wider.  

"You fascinate me more and more with each move, Arielle Blacksoil," he said.

Well, you annoy me, Arielle thought, but she never said it, instead searching his dimensional cover for an escape.

She soon realized something odd; a Luxa complex that was baked into the domain spell, had moved with her. It extracted itself as though drawn to her, and shifted around every time she broke his spell.

But it always glitched and smacked back into place right before he cast his next spell.

The pattern might be a clue to her freedom. 

To test out what it did, next time Gio’s birds attacked, instead of breaking the spells, Arielle threw up a shield and redirected it.

The Luxa complex extracted from the rest of the domain spell, and this time it didn't glitch. It formed the exact shape of her shield spell, but with just Luxa.

Finally, she understood.

It was trying to steal her spells, or alter them in some way. Or maybe just understand them. That was what Gio had done before, how he had made the ribbons unbreakable. It was likely how he rendered this domain undefeatable.

It glitched with [Spell Breaker] because that wasn't a real spell. It was just her, breaking his spells after taking control of them.

A flash of movement yanked her attention back to the battle.

The Gio-clone had charged towards her with lightning shooting out of his hand, and she redirected the lightning, and grabbed the spell that attached Gio to his clone. 

Then she broke it.

Gio's expression froze on his face.

So did Ari's.

There was a moment of silence where not even the whispers or ghostly wind could be heard.

“How did you...” he murmured, his eyes widening. "You learned that from the Phasewalkers?"

She didn't respond.

Breaking Gio’s attachment hadn’t made the clone disappear automatically. At least not until he waved his hand and his bird devoured it in a cyclone of feathers. 

Gio stood there for several seconds, as though running through everything in his mind.

“This" he said. "Is so fun."

Madness glinted in his eyes as he chuckled and shot at her with even more birds, coming from every direction.

Arielle gritted her teeth as she broke yet another spell. She had no other choice but to fight her way through this, it looked like. The way out was through him.

Since he already knew about her spellbreaking ability anyway–and now knew she could cast it without a word–she would keep using it. After all, it was the only thing he couldn't copy or change. 

Although he did start altering his mode of attack. 

After Arielle got rid of the birds, Gio thrust his hand up in the air, erecting a golem from the ground. Arielle tore it to pieces. The mist became an abyssal monster of its own, wrapping around her limbs, trapping her wand arm, but she tore it too, with her eyes this time.

That made Gio whoop for some reason.

He created monster after monster in the environment, making them bigger, wilder each time, and Arielle just kept breaking them down, hoping he would get tired eventually.  

However, with the last monster, a serpent made of dark, muddy water, something happened.

The spell didn't break.

In Arielle's hand, it felt like the orbs had been fused somewhere, like there was a stronger opposing force holding the orbs in place so she could not control them.

It wasn't quite like with the hybrid. She could still feel the essences; she just couldn't take them.

"I got it!" Gio said, and clapped in delight. "Oh, finally! That took a while, didn’t it?"

Arielle could not control her shock as she looked down at her hand and at his face. He seemed ecstatic, waiting to see what she would do next, but she was too surprised to act.

“How…” She wondered. 

“As I said,” he said. "You’re not the only one with tricks up your sleeve.’’

"How did you do it?"

"Tell me your secrets, and I'll tell you mine," Gio winked. "It's how friendships work, isn't it?"

"We're not friends."

"No, but we will be."

Ari gritted her teeth. Her plan to run out his limit or exhaust him didn't seem to be working. And she also had something niggling in her mind, knocking loose a vital piece of information that she suddenly recalled with stark horror. 

She was technically in a kind of abyss right now, wasn’t she?

Alarm was like a thunderclap in her brain, the realization hitting her at once.

She was in an abyss, and she wasn't supposed to be. She had to get out of here.

It wasn't just about the fight anymore. It was about demons and the fact that they could find her here and make her into a danger to everyone.

Gio's domain spells suddenly shimmered, the bonds pulling. There was a shift in the atmosphere that made him murmur.

"Elric's here," Gio said. "He's trying to break you out."

Arielle's heart skipped a beat, her attention split between two problems. The most immediate one was her escape.

There was no point in her continuing to hide her skills from Gio.  He already knew enough to get her in trouble, and all this was just prolonging the disaster. He had just learned how to overpower one of her key skills, and she didn't know how he'd done it, but she couldn't afford for him to learn more.  

"Do you think we can get him to leave us alone?" Gio wondered aloud. "I have one way. I mean it wouldn't be pleasant for him, but since you and aren't finished I thought maybe–"

“Enough!” Arielle barked, furious at the thought of him hurting Elric. Furious enough that she no longer cared if he suffered backlash. Since he already knew she could break spells anyway, she might as well. 

She spread her hands, tugging at the several weak spots in his dimensional spell. This one offered her zero resistance, and the whole thing exploded.

Gio gave a sharp cry as the backlash struck him full on in the chest, sending him flying.

The environment instantly changed back to normal, and Arielle was finally free enough to take a deep breath as she stared at Gio in the distance, plowing into the ground, skidding and finally stopping with his body halfway buried after running an unsightly track through the perfect lawns. 

As her blood pounded in her ears, they were greeted by the sound of running footsteps, while Gio struggled, getting to his knees.

He coughed out blood, and then looked up, wiping his mouth. His eyes were bloodshot, and there was blood running out of his nose as well. The veins in his forehead popped, his hand shaky as he got to his feet.

“If you hurt Elric,” Ari whispered, knowing he would hear her regardless of the distance. "I will kill you."

The words came from somewhere deep within her, somewhere wasn’t entirely cognizant of. They surprised her, but at the same time, she didn’t take them back. If Gio did try to go after Elric or hurt him, she would do to him exactly what she had done to the demon and would likely suffer no remorse. 

Gio kept his eyes on her for long, silent seconds. 

Then he threw back his head, and started laughing maniacally, coughing and hacking at the same time.

The footmen around the compound immediately appeared from their posts and began jogging to Gio, while Arielle heard someone calling her name.

It was Elric who also ran around the corner and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her close.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

She nodded. "He wanted to test me. I had to break his spells."

"All of them?"

"Most of them, but he managed to stop me from breaking one. I don't know how." She bit her lip. "He threatened to reveal everything to the council."

Elric's face tensed, but he nodded. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

They watched as Gio healed most of his injuries and waved away the guards. Elric assured the footmen that they were unharmed too, and didn’t need further assistance. 

They were soon alone, before Gio walked over to them.

"Why the long faces?" he remarked, with bloodstained lips. "I'm fine if that's what you're worried about."

"It's not," Arielle said honestly, and he chuckled.

"Don't worry," he said. "I told them that I got a spell wrong, and that was what happened. Your secret is safe with me."

"It better be," Elric said.

"It is, for now, or for as long as I want it to be. But this isn't the end of our discussion, Arielle Blacksoil. Far from it. In fact, I guarantee we’ll meet like this again, and we can share more secrets, explore our abilities. I will mark my calendar.”

"No,” Elric said, and he got closer to Gio, giving him the most threatening look Ari had ever seen on him. “You’re not going to go near her again.”

"Or what? You'll report me?"

"Yes," Elric said, to which Gio smirked.

"Elric, need I remind you which of us has the more grievous secret?"

"Perhaps, but I'm not the only one with secrets." Elric's voice was unlike anything Arielle had ever heard before. It was hard and unyielding, his entire stance like a mother forest cat protecting a cub. "She's not going to be a toy that you poke at whenever you're bored, someone you endanger and ultimately discard. If you ever do anything like you just did today again, endangering an innocent child and toying with the lives of mundanes, I will take this matter to the council myself and see to it that you get kicked off."

"And you think you have the power to do that?" Gio's tone was silky smooth, tucking his hands in his pockets, his lapel falling back enough for Arielle to spot his inked skin. 

"No. But I think you've made enough enemies to warrant it." Elric raised an eyebrow. "You and I both know that Archmages aren't invincible, not even you. You're an egomaniac with no friends or allies and no one who actually likes having you around. You're a convenient monster who gets rid of other monsters, while making sure to create as much collateral damage as you can. Still, you only do as much as you think you can get away with because we both know that you are not the ultimate power, and the second you become more inconvenient than you are useful, they will suppress you and no one will stand up for you, because you've always been so vile and your usefulness has been so undercut by your sheer lack of decency and humanity that most people will just be relieved to be rid of you. In fact, they will probably judge it more convenient to just have Vittoria take your place after all."

Gio’s only sign of surprise was a single, long blink. He was quiet for a few seconds, the half-smile still lingering on his lips though the air had gotten significantly heavier and frostier.

"And you think you can orchestrate my ousting?" he finally asked. 

"Can't I?"   

"No. You don't have the reach."

"Maybe you should ask Yseult about my reach."

Gio stepped closer, the temperature dropping several more degrees, his authority whipping through the air, pressing down on Arielle.

Still, she refused to bow, and neither did Elric.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Gio asked.

“No," Elric said. "Gio, in the time we've spent together, I know you've been investigating me. And I've been investigating you. I did discover that I'm not the only one."

"Truly? I’m hurt.”

"Yes. I’m sure your father will be even more hurt if he knew what you're up to."

For the first time in that conversation, Gio's smile died.

It was a complete death, the blankness on his face bone-chilling. 

Then for a second, and only a second, the weight of his authority nearly crushed them into the ground. Arielle couldn’t breathe. There was not enough air, and she leaned against Elric who fought the effects more valiantly than she did. 

"Are you threatening me, Elric?" he asked.

"Yes," Elric whispered. "I do not care what you and your father are up to, and your business isn't mine. Just know that if any harm comes to Arielle, I will use my dying breath to ensure that we both go down. Mutually assured destruction."

Ari's head snapped to him. It was jarring to hear Elric use the exact phrase Gio had used. She wondered if he'd been listening or if it was merely a coincidence.

Meanwhile, Gio remained silent. He didn't say anything for a long time, letting his fury show only in his increasingly unleashed authority, his eyes travelling from Elric to Arielle and back to Elric. His gaze was imperceptible.

Then, without another word, he turned around and walked away.

Only once his back was in the distance did they both take deep breaths.

"How did you know I was here?" Ari asked Elric, as she panted to catch her breath.

"I put two and two together," Elric said, looking down and patting her hair. "Are you really okay? He didn't hurt you?"

"No, he didn't. I think he only wanted to test me."

“Of course.” Elric ran his hand over his face. “I should have seen this coming but I didn’t think he’d got this far. What he did could have gotten him in a lot of trouble."

"He knew we wouldn’t report it.” Arielle pursed her lips. “What did you mean earlier? About his father?"

"He's the top legendary mage in the world. Second only to the High Ascendant."

"Oh."

Elric took a breath. "I think Gio tried to kill him."

Ari’s jaw dropped. "What? How do you know?"

"A combination of things. Observing his reaction whenever I brought up his family. Looking into their history and Gio's avoidance of his father after a grievous attack. Talking to some old friends who knew him and discovering Gio was scared of him, the story of Gio's ascension..." Elric shrugged. "Once again, I put two and two together."

"Why does he want to kill his father?"

Elric said, "I'm not sure about that.”

"Why didn’t you tell us earlier?"

"I didn’t know until just now. I had theories, but putting it together...it felt like a stretch. My saying it out loud was a test. His reaction was the confirmation. Not to mention threatening Gio as I did…it’s a risk. He could fly off the handle. I only wanted to use it as a last resort, because the last thing I want is this to happen again.”

"I think you surprised him by bringing it up”

“Yeah. That part was nice.” A wry smile crawled on his face before it turned weary. “Come now. Let’s get you back to your room. It’s almost time for the ball.”