The Clash

The frozen moment of time shattered and Elody found she could move again. As Kazum's focus shifted to Nectanius, the wards he'd cast over her grew weaker. Elody speared through them, ignoring how they burned her body as she went. She knew that she had only seconds now before everything in this cavern was dead. The clashing of two such powerful beings left no other options. Already they were mustering their power, like a battle between two gods. Kazum was no longer bothering with elemental spells. He was no longer playing around. Instead he was unleashing rays of nothingness, spreading oblivion and entrophic barriers. Nectanius was countering with raw power, battering them down one by one. Neither had yet committed seriously. They were feeling one another out.

Elody already realised it wasn't the sort of fight which tended to have a winner and a loser. It was the sort of fight which had two losers and a whole lot of random destruction.

"Vrasha!" She was at the other woman's side in an instant. Vrasha was crouched, frozen by the sheer amount of magic being thrown around. Elody rasied a barrier of ice around them, using it to buy precious seconds as she started to tunnel. The ground was shaking. A brilliant light washed across the cavern. One of the mage students burst into flame.

"Get down!" Elody roared. "Get down as far as you can!"

It was no use. There was no way they could tunnel away quickly enough to survive. The only chance was for Elody to hold the barrier. She gathered the last remnants of her power and prepared to sell herself as dearly as she could. **** stared her in the face for the third time that day and Elody realised she now knew what it was to be mortal. A chuckle escaped her lips in spite of the dire situation. She was burning like a star, brighter than she ever had in her whole life. Neither her time as a human nor her time as a spirit compared to this moment. She looked down on Vrasha and felt love. Yes, this was what it was. She loved Vrasha. She loved Vrasha with her heart and soul.

"You saved me," Vrasha said.

"I have not saved anyone yet," Elody told her. "The barrier will probably not hold."

"No, not that! I mean before! In the lake! When the water was overwhelming me and my resistance was dying I heard your voice!"

"You broke the power of the spell yourself," Elody said. "I had no strength to lend you."

"Idiot! Don't you see? The very fact that you were there was strength enough!"

Vrasha kissed her, surprising the nature spirit so much she nearly dropped the barrier. Feeling Vrasha up close was more amazing than it had ever been before, and she did not want to let go.

"I will marry you," Vrasha said to her but Elody simply shook her head.

"You cannot. My nature is-"

"Screw that! Don't you see? Your nature is here with me. You are a spirit now but you were human once! I felt the anger when you saw me, the rage and the pain when you thought you were beaten. You're no more alien than I am! We should be married, I think I love you. I think I have for a while."

Elody tried to answer but before she could, the final blow was struck.

It was a quick battle, but not unexpected. Kazum and Nectanius both wefre true experts in the art of magical combat. It was not like the fight with Elody, where Kazum had spent most of it toying with her. When two equals clashed with power like this, the one to lose was the one who first found their guard defeated. It took only a single mistake, one error could lead you to doom. Once that error was committed, overwhelming **** could be brought to bear and the battle would be decided.

And so Elody desperately held her barrier as overwhelming **** was brought to bear. The cavern shook, the stones ran hot. Boulders and rubble rained from the ceiling. Incredible power was churning all around them. If stone could scream then the entire well was wailing in agony. It became so bright that Elody had to block it out for fear of them going blind. The **** which hammered against her shield was almost more than she could withstand. She cried out in pain, trembling with effort. Only the knowledge that if she failed here, Vrasha would die allowed her to push past her limits. It was the most intense, destructive **** she had ever endured.

And it was not even directed at her.

When it was over - when it was finally over - Elody felt as if she had spent every single drop of her power. He sagged to the ground, collapsing towards the stone. Her body trembled and she was weaker than she could ever recall being. The barrier she had conjured faded away to reveal a scene which was like that of a horror.

Gone was the lake, the buildings, the pumps and the pipes. Now it was a wasteland of twisted ruins and boiling metal. Molten steal fell from the air in a deadly rain while magma bubbled and pooled in rocky crevices created by the expenditure of such titanic power. The buildings had been wiped away - they were not even ruins - and near the centre where the two mages had clashed, both of them now lay.

"Are they dead?" Vrasha asked.

"Probably," Elody groaned. "Power like that... even when he won, Nectanius must have known that Kazum would still have time for a counterattack. He knew from the start that the only victory would be mutual destruction."

"Kazum called him a necromancer," Vrasha said. "Necromancers aren't usually the greatest guys."

"I do not know what to say to that," Elody admitted, finally finding the power to push herself to her feet. "I do not know what history he had, or what choices led him here. But he helped me and he did not have to. For that, I will always be thankful."

Vrasha helped to support Elody and as a pair they staggered towards where the mages lay. Kazum had been turned to stone. His whole body had become solid rock, somehow undamaged by the destruction all around him. Elody laid one hand upon his brow, seeking any form of life.

There was none. He was just rock now.

And beside him, the massive ruins of Nectanius. The golem-body he had made lay gutted and destroyed. The water had boiled away and the stone had distorted with heat and pressure. It was just possible to make out that it once had had human form.

"They are gone," Elody said. "They have to be. Come, there is nothing left for us here."

"What are we going to do?" Vrasha asked.

"We will gather the others and leave," Elody spoke. "There is going to be confusion and chaos. No one will notice. The water that Gelmina used to make its slaves has been destroyed and they will have no more. They will have stockpiles I am sure, but they will slowly dwindle. Their age of happy slavery is ended."

Vrasha closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

"Yes," She said. "It is over. But they are going to be in for a very rough time now. This could turn very bad for them if they don't adapt to it well. There will be those who seek to keep slavery by **** if they must. I will not have it turning out as it did back home. With my father and my brother."

"We will deal with that," Elody promised. "One thing at a time, Vrasha. It will take them weeks or even months to realise what has happened here. In that time, we must be gone. Come with me, let's gather the others."

"Elody..."

"Yes?"

"I'm naked. I can't exactly go prancing through the palace like this..."

"Well, your clothes have probably been destroyed," Elody pointed out. "And I don't have any either. Perhaps if I can find a collar, the two of us can pose as slaves and get out that way?"

For some reason, Vrasha seemed to find that absolutely hilarious.