Arcane Apocalypse ~ 153 (Patreon)

A few minutes earlier … 

Gabriel Vexley wore a deep frown as he descended towards Graz, his ever-annoying elder sister currently carried on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. 

He knew how a city protected by an Obelisk’s emergency lockdown field felt; he’d been inside one like that once, and Graz reminded him of that experience. 

And yet there was fighting, concentrated but intense. He glanced down at the Divination spell weave held in his hand; it had finally stuck a few minutes ago, and sure enough, it was pointing him toward the part of the city where a veritable horde of Evergreen monsters, of all things, clashed with a small packet of defenders. 

The Ward he had wrapped around himself kept his presence concealed for now, though more importantly, it also used a bit of Illusionism to hide him from more mundane sight. 

He floated down to the battle, only watching for now. He had his Skills held at the ready, the tiniest flexing of his will away from snapping into existence. The defenders were holding for now, however, and he was loath to rob any of them of the experience. They would surely need every last drop of it in the months to come. 

His Divination spell was growing fuzzy, which would have annoyed him under any other circumstance. Not now, however. He’d used his own blood as the vector to track the nearest blood relative he had within range, and the fact that it couldn’t lock on even from this close meant it had found more than one viable target. 

It was a garbage spell, but Divination had never been his speciality. Gabriel didn’t care, finally letting himself relax for the first time in what felt like years. Two blood relatives — after he’d excluded Sophie from the spell’s search — close enough to him to be detected could only mean both Mia and his mother had survived. Not only that, they were down there in that chaos, fighting.

A part of him, a large part, wanted to intervene immediately and squash all the monsters right that very instant, but he held himself back. He knew System theory well enough to tell that even what he was doing now would diminish their XP and Feats of Strength. It was a worthwhile tradeoff, however, considering some of those monsters were Rank 1. 

He couldn’t lose them, not now that he was right there … but he also knew he wouldn’t always be there. The only way to truly protect someone in the Seven Realms was to make them powerful enough to defend themselves. He’d learned that much over the course of the five dreadful years he’d spent in the Mystic Realm.

The System rewarded bravery in the face of danger; it rewarded courage, overcoming a superior foe; it rewarded perseverance. That was why he was hiding for now. Revealing himself would mean robbing the defenders of the perceived danger and the rewards they would receive for prevailing over it. He wouldn’t influence the battle at all if none of them looked like they were going to die. It would be best if he could just sit back and watch them win. 

So he watched, his eyes narrowed, scanning the crowd for that familiar mop of pitch-black hair. He couldn’t find Mia, but he found some interesting fighters. That vampire girl was quite something for one, and was that a Berserker? An Ice Mage, too, along with an Arcane Mage. Those were so dreadfully rare. He himself still didn’t qualify for the class with his Major Arcane Affinity, despite everything he’d gone through. Oh well, his Abjuration Arcanist Class had served him well enough; he had no regrets on that front. 

His gaze danced across the battlefield, but he always kept a thread of his focus on the information his Aura of the Sentinel Subskill fed him. Whenever someone was out to deliver a lethal blow, little alarm bells rang in his head, and he instinctively protected them without giving himself away.

A tiny barrier to trip a monster, a thin film of arcane magic to turn a lethal blow into a grievous one, or a small nudge to help with a parry or a dodge. He kept his involvement to the absolute minimum, not wanting to diminish their rewards more than absolutely necessary to keep them alive. 

He hadn’t had the opportunity to fulfil this role before, but he’d been on the receiving end of it at the hands of Prince Arwen’s combat tutors. He wasn’t quite as good a fit for the task as the Rank 5 Death Mage employed by the Royal Family had been with his Death Wards — those things quite literally warded off ‘death’ on a conceptual level — but his abjuration Skills were a reasonably good alternative. 

He watched on as they fought, his senses honed to the limit as he focused on the slight nudges his Aura of the Sentinel was sending his way. His eyes narrowed as he heard the roaring werewolf and watched the wretch ride in on his bound monster. Gabriel’s fingers twitched, a breath away from swatting the murderous beastkin into the nearest wall, but he held himself back.

Risk and reward. Somewhere down in that mass of defenders were two members of his family, fighting tooth and nail, and he was loath to rob them of a prime opportunity, as previously stated. 

He watched the fledgling vampire creep up on the grandstanding werewolf, a silver-edged hatchet gripped in her hand, while he sent a protective ward at the man the beastkin held by the neck. 

A scream, and then a savage tearing of flesh and bone rang out, making Gabriel breathe a minute sigh of relief. The defenders were surrounded now, and his Aura was pinging warnings at him at a much increased pace as the monsters suddenly regained their free will. 

They might have been able to fight their way out of the encirclement, but they would have taken horrible losses. He couldn’t allow that. They’d beaten the werewolf, the one who’d apparently held an entire horde of Evergreen monsters in his thrall. That should count as a reasonably important Feat of Strength. Good. 

It was time he intervened, now that the balance between risk and reward was rapidly tilting towards the former. His magic surged, and his custom Wards of Concealment dissipated around him, letting his presence unfurl and make itself known. 

The vampire and the Arcane Mage froze like a pair of deer caught in the headlights, but the others proved to be much less sensitive to mana. What they most certainly did notice, however, was when he shaped his mana into a firm arcane construct with the help of his Barrier Master Skill and slammed it down on the horde of monsters, killing all of them and plugging their tunnels in one swift move. 

As they look up at him, terror, awe, and wariness, among a variety of other emotions, warring on their faces, he finds his gaze gravitating towards the pink-haired girl.

Gabriel froze, staring into those sapphire-blue eyes, flickering with inner light, dancing across the many facets of her gem-like irises. He’d seen eyes like those before, once, and knew what they meant, but that information was quickly shoved into a distant corner of his mind. 

The eyes, the hair colour, even the facial structure were different, but a familiar ache yawned open in his heart like a bottomless abyss the moment he finally took in her features. Filled with trepidation, he glanced down at the spell weave still held in his grasp and twisted it to suit his purposes. 

It didn’t need to show him a direction anymore; all he needed to know was the answer to a simple question. It wasn’t an open-ended question either. Yes or No?

He aimed it, narrowing the spell’s parameters down to the girl, and activated it. The spell pinged an affirmative not a moment later, and Gabriel almost fell out of the sky as a wave of renewed relief crashed into him. 

It’s her. She’s really alive. He thought, his mouth curling into a subconscious grin that he hadn’t made since the day he got whisked away to the Mystic Realm. 

“Hey, Sis,” he said, feeling lighter than he’d ever had during the last five years. “I love what you did with your hair.”

*****

“Gabriel?” Mia hated how brittle her voice sounded. All her earlier emotions at the incredibly powerful stranger’s appearance were banished from her mind, a fragile ember of rekindled hope taking their place, quickly followed by doubt, anger, frustration, and a whole storm of contrasting, chaotic emotions that she did her best to suppress.

A part of her didn’t dare to hope, angry that she had even let herself be fooled. Another was angry for an altogether different reason. After all, if this really was her brother, then where the fuck had he been for the last year? Did he abandon her just like their absolute failure of a father? 

He wouldn’t have. He has to have had a very good reason. Another part of her argued. Right? Right!?

To say she felt like a mess would be like saying the ocean was wet. She vaguely noticed the people around her pulling away, retreating warily as G- … the man floated down, his feet landing softly on the cracked asphalt.

He unceremoniously dumped the woman he was carrying on his shoulder, though she floated down to the ground soft as a feather and seemed to be only now waking up. How the hell did she manage to fall asleep while being carried like a sack of potatoes? Honestly, the woman’s magical presence was so tiny that next to Gabriel’s, Mia had only now noticed her existence.

Carmilla lingered near at least, standing next to Mia protectively, and her body language showed the silly girl was perfectly willing to throw hands with the massively more powerful man approaching them. Hopefully, it won't come to that. 

“Mia,” he said, his grin turning into something softer, more halting, and he paused in his stride as he noticed just how tense everyone was. Mia felt her throat tighten with emotion at that familiar voice she’d missed so much. She’d thought she'd never hear it again. “Well, this is certainly a … situation, huh?”

His smile turned awkward, and he scratched his bare chin, and that simple action somehow caused much of Mia’s doubt to fade away. Each reaction and little fidgeting motion, every expression, it was all of it was so achingly familiar. Only Gabriel could ruin his anime-worthy heroic entrance by being such an awkward dork right after. 

“Idiot,” Mia whispered softly, each syllable quivering with emotions she couldn’t quite name. 

Camie looked back at her questioningly, but Mia just gave her a quivering smile and stepped around her, one of her hands giving the girl’s shoulder a squeeze as much to tell her that things were fine as to steady herself. 

The next thing she knew, she crashed into her brother, arms wrapped around his body so tightly she was sure a lesser man would have had a few cracked ribs. She buried her face in his chest, trying to keep at least her sobbing at bay, even if resisting her tears was a lost cause.

She felt him return the hug, large comforting arms returning the embrace with carefully moderated strength.

Mia felt the shuddering breath he took, and when he next spoke, his voice cracked. “I’m here, Sis.”

“Mia?” Ah, that was her mother’s voice. Mia took a calming breath and pulled away, glancing over at her very worried and confused-looking mother. 

Not finding the words to relay what she wanted, she just smiled weakly. “Mom.”

Gabriel twitched next to her, and looking up, she saw his eyes widen. Yeah, Helene had gotten a rather serious makeover when the System awakened her Bloodline. She looked twenty years younger, and her greying hair turned pristine alabaster white. 

“Mom?” The strange woman who Gabriel had been carrying spoke up, and Mia’s head snapped around to stare at her in confusion.

Soft white hair with its tips shifting into hues of light blue and pink, pale blue eyes and a pair of small, triangular ears. But the face was unchanged.

“Sophie?” Helene asked, her steps faltering as she jerked her head around to stare at the newcomer. 

“Hi, Mom,” Sophie said with an awkward smile, then shifted her eyes to meet Mia’s gaze, and Mia just stared at her. “Hi, Mia.”

“Well, this is awkward." And that was Mark, tactful as ever. He gave Gabriel a long, complicated look. “You look like shit, Gabe.”

“ … Mark?” Gabriel asked, blinking owlishly at the dwarf. Then he grinned. “You got turned into a Dwarf.”

“You have pink hair, pretty boy,” Mark said, arms crossed. He stared at the man who could probably squash him into a paste with a thought, a smirk curling at the edges of his mouth. “Elf twink.”

Gabriel twitched as if slapped, though there was no wiping the grin off his face. He and Mark had been inseparable since they first met in primary school, and even Mia felt whatever tension remained in her drain away. They were always squabbling. Idiots. 

She breathed a fond sigh, glancing over at where … Sophie was bawling her eyes out in Helene’s arms, while her mother rubbed her back and whispered soothingly in her ears. 

Mia glanced away, feeling like she was intruding on a private moment despite the fact that they were still standing in the middle of dozens of very confused fighters. Right. They weren’t alone, and it seemed like any moment now someone was about to overcome the awkward air and start demanding answers.  

Although Gabriel’s earlier display had probably put the fear of God into them, so they might not. He even had the angelic wings to suit his name for maximum effect, though Mia knew it was due to the Pegasi blood flowing in his veins and had nothing to do with angels. Because angels were real. She was still processing that, on top of everything.

“So what have you been up to?” Mark asked, voicing the all-important question Mia had all but forgotten about.

“The System kidnapped me,” Gabriel answered with a displeased frown. “It’s been … five years for me. Five years I spent stuck in the Mystic Realm, you know what that is, right?”

Mia and Mark nodded. Although the implications only hit Mia a moment later. Her brother had been whisked away, and if what he was saying was true — and why would he lie? — then through some timey-wimey shenanigans, the last year had been five times that from his perspective.

Five years. That was more than a fifth of Mia’s life. Holy shit.

“On the flip side!” Gabe said, forcing some levity into his voice. “It’s been generous in preparing me for all of … this. Five years to prepare for the apocalypse and get stronger.”

Yeah. Mia wasn’t about to poke that coping mechanism, even with a ten-foot pole. She didn’t care where he’d been, or how strong he’d gotten, or even the why of it all. Not yet anyway; there would be a time for implications and consequences later. At that moment, she just felt happy she had her brother back. Nothing else mattered.

*****

Mia barely even remembered how they made their way back to their temporary lodgings. People started asking questions at some point, but Brent got the gist of what happened quickly enough to curtail any trouble. They would have to deal with the serious stuff tomorrow, but just for tonight, she didn’t care. 

They ended up in the living room — or was it called a lounge? — section of their hotel suite, and everyone started settling in. That is, the Vexley family plus Mark, who was practically part of the family anyway, having spent half his childhood at their house. Everyone else had wisely made themselves scarce. Then there was Camie, awkwardly lingering at the door, visibly debating whether she should follow their example.

“Oh, right!” Mia suddenly jolted, hopping up from the couch she’d plopped herself down on and grabbed her silly vampire by the wrist, gently dragging her over to the couch. “Gabe, Sophie, this is Carmilla. She’s my girlfriend.”

Just saying those words that she’d never thought she’d be able to — for a variety of reasons — filled her with a giddy joy. With that said, she pulled Camie down onto the couch and intertwined her fingers with the redhead’s, giving her hand a supportive squeeze and a smile. 

The smile on Carmilla’s face, a wooden, awkward thing that quivered uncertainly, turned a lot more genuine as she squeezed back. 

“Hello,” Camie said, even managing an uncertain smile as she glanced over at Mia’s siblings. It probably helped that Gabe was once again suppressing his presence, leaving only enough of it that they could sense him. Seeing someone while being unable to sense their presence was … unnerving, as Mia had learned. 

Gabriel was giving her a strange look, and Mia sent a glare his way, but he only snapped out of it when Sophie elbowed him in the side. 

“Ah, sorry,” Gabe said, plastering a smile on his face. “Hello, Carmilla. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah,” Sophie said, her own smile still a bit halting. “Nice to meet you.”

Both of them looked like they were forcefully stopping themselves from saying anything else. Sophie made sense; Mia’s relationship with her sister had always been rather distant due to the age difference, and then it took a nosedive into the abyss when she left everyone behind to move back to America. 

But what the hell is Gabe’s problem? Mia wondered, raising an eyebrow at him as she leaned into her girlfriend’s side, wrapping a possessive arm around her waist. 

“Sorry,” Gabe said, grimacing as he noticed the look Mia was sending his way. “Never met a vampire before that wasn’t trying to eat my face.”

“Carmilla has been nothing but nice so far,” Helene interrupted, aiming a comforting smile at the vampiress. 

“Right,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “Preconceptions are going to be a bitch.”

“Language,” Helene said, though the smile on her face took away the bite of it. 

“Sorry, Mom,” Gabe said, and there was something heavy in his voice. Like he couldn’t believe he was saying those words, but was nonetheless indescribably happy to do so. 

Today was a good day, Mia decided. Perhaps the best she’s ever had. They’d finally removed the largest obstacles standing in the way of securing the city, and she’d gotten her siblings back.