In the year 2012, a mysterious illness began to sweep the globe. In its wake, those who survived it were left with immensely powerful supernatural abilities.
As the number of people capable of wielding magic powers increased, they began to organize and seize control of the course of history. Using their powers to travel between parallel universes, these mages forge empires of a scale never before seen. And at the center of it all is the Academy, a neutral institution founded for mages to share their knowledge with each other.
Mages struggle against each other to impose their will upon the multiverse, but there is one threat that unites them all together. In recent months, mysterious entities have appeared. These entities wield power far greater than any one mage, and they seem determined to annihilate all of humanity. The mages will have to set aside their differences in order to beat them. The fate of the multiverse depends on it.
Admittedly, this wasn’t going as well as he hoped. From what he could make out of the situation, his side didn’t have very much in the way of offensive options. The blizzard guy was a nice touch, and looked like they could contend with “Burning One”, but the kid, Wally, wasn’t much physical use. If he was paying attention in the class, he understood that the stuff he made wasn’t even real!
He glanced at the thieves. Were they buying the shtick? They didn’t need to totally believe, just be interested a bit. After that he could gently guide them along his path. Hmm. Now that he thought about it, Wally could be potentially useful for that part. After all, whats a good trick withoit a bit of illusion.
He looked back at his tempermental ally, and spoke just loud enough the two of them to hear. “Look, play along and follow my lead, and we’ll have these guys worshipping us.”
Post by Wally Oliveira on Jun 28, 2018 9:17:55 GMT -7
Wally gritted his teeth, pretty sure that the situation wasn't going so good on his side. His illusion definitely worked on the redhead, that much was obvious, but jack whatever when the fireball girl was still advancing, the snake was still advancing and no doubt that the redhead would soon advance. He blew out a breath, seeing his bangs blow up for a second. "Why couldn't the rest of you get your part right?!" This was thrown at Crew and the new ice guy.
He honestly had no real need to move from where he was, nothing was currently flying by him or trying to hit him, and so he heard Crew loud and clear. "What the hell are you talking about?" Oh yeah, the past and stupid, gullible people. Still he had to frown even as he nodded. "Alright, I know what you're saying. This better be amazing 'cause these guys can't be as idiotic as others to think we're something greater than humans just like that." Thankfully for Crew, Wally wasn't speaking too loudly either.
"I'm still doing my magic on my own, but I'll probably help. Once again, better be great."
Post by Kaida Adachi on Jun 28, 2018 9:44:08 GMT -7
As the winds raced towards Hikaru, Kaida threw her head in front of the cold, almost blizzard. Instantly, she felt the most uncomfortable sensation of ice forming all along her wet scales, even traveling along her teeth and sealing her mouth!...For a few seconds anyhow. The incredible cold didn't cause lasting harm as she ripped her mouth open and felt the dead skin and scales starting to replace themselves.
She could hear two voices, it seemed one of her enemies didn't seem to appreciate Kamuela and the other failing. How rude. Nothing could get past her body, did he think he could do any better? She had to blink some scarlet out of her eyes from the ice that killed her flesh, and located Kamuela, kind of hard to miss a guy who was making a blizzard out of nothing. "Is that it? Heh, that's gonna hurt a lot if it happens again, but I can take it." Her eyes took on a steel as she kept talking, "Can you just leave? That or just put fires out, I don't want to see you burned just because star girl here thought ya were some enemy or something damn stupid like that." These words also held a sort of threat towards the star girl, it was obvious the serpent didn't want him hurt, and she'd notice if they tried...
Post by Kayleigh Parker on Jun 28, 2018 16:23:53 GMT -7
Kayleigh watched with satisfaction as the shield she cast over the snake formed around its body and protected it against an oncoming attack. It was a great feeling to know that her light was strong and durable enough to compete against mages who also obviously possessed great power. Kayleigh wasn't the type to be arrogant or to have a big head on her shoulders, but it was a huge boost to her confidence nonetheless. If she was going to continue to traverse the multiverse and inevitably end up fighting mages, she needed to know that she could handle herself.
Suddenly something strange happened... it appeared that the flames that surrounded the star girl were veering in Kayleigh's direction! They whipped towards her like a whirlwind of flame, the heat of the fire intense on her face. What was going on? Did the star girl not have as firm a grip on her power as Kayleigh initially suspected, or was the star girl doing this to try and tell Kayleigh to stand down? The second option didn't seem to make much sense, as they were obviously fighting on the same side here. Maybe the girl's power was as uncontrollable as real wildfire. That wasn't good, but it also wasn't the most pressing issue of the moment.
She banished the light that encased itself around the snake and called it back unto herself, reveling in the feel of its energy crackling between the palms of her hands. She felt that she and her current companions in the battle held the upper hand, and it was her intention to use her powers so that they kept the advantage. She felt the light pulse and swell in her hands, took a deep breath, and pushed out.
Post by Serpentarius on Jun 28, 2018 19:29:57 GMT -7
Hikaru sighed. As much as she hoped these people would go away, it seemed like they weren't going to. She was going to have to give them just a little push. Hikaru used her power on the person that seemed most affected by her power before and made him start orbiting around her, gently pushing him away from the area. It wouldn't be super fast, but she didn't want to fling him at high speeds into a tree or god knows what else. It was for the best, they really needed to leave so she didn't hurt them. He could still use his power or move to some degree, but her power would be trying to lift him up a few inches off the ground and would be trying to get him to move, so if he wasn't prepared for sudden movement it might throw off what he was trying to do.
Kamuela would notice the protective powers that seemed to be keeping two of them safe from the full force of his attack. "Interesting" he would think to himself as he looked back. He looked over to Kaida and the others, he looked on with something he had never felt before. This feeling was one of strong resentment. How could this blazing woman and the girl who had the kama not see her solution was not going to solve the issue? How could Kaida not see that what she was doing was sewing death? Very briefly, his aura would glow a navy blue before settling back to it's normal hue.
He would then close his eyes and calm himself. He though a brief moment about his next move. When he knew what it was, he would glow more brightly than ever. He would attempt to his Illusions on Hikaru. If it succeeded it would look like he disappeared before appearing between her and Kaida, his marks now glowing with a bright iridescent burst of color. Her flames and allies would appear to freeze into blocks of solid ice before dissolving into snowflakes, and all heat would be replaced with an unending cold. He would sush her calmly and give a haunting smile. He would hum melodically and she would feel herself fading away, slowly dissolving into snowflakes. All attacks would go right through him, and all attempts to burn away would seem useless. In fact, they wouldn't even affect the now silent and icy terrain.
Ok, the snake looks completely fine. And that meant he should do something to it, he knew his illusions definitely worked on the thing after all. So, after looking around for a quick second and seeing how these bunches of thieves and... hostages appeared, Wally brought up an illusion, concentrating to make the clothes and actions as authentic as possible. So no phasing through people or objects, no repeating actions, that sort of things. He wanted this snake to genuinely think it was being crowded and pushed back by a sudden group of people after all. So he sent the illusion running.
And then he proceeded to send the illusionary people straight towards the enemies, all of them able to see the illusion, but the one that'll be most crowded by the "group of people" being the snake. Hopefully it won't be able to do much.
Interference (Illlusion) on Kaida
No good offense was worth anything if not supported by a good defense. Kayleigh knew she could pack a punch, but she also knew that the light she manipulated and controlled was as hard as diamond and just as difficult to break. Feeling the light pouring from her hands, she allowed it to shimmer in the air above her head for a few seconds before she willed it into another shield-like shape. Her eyes fixed solely on the star girl, she cast the impenetrable light in the girl's direction.
Her reasoning was two-fold: if she could protect the star girl from taking damage, the star girl could more effectively use her own powers to attack their opponents. Plus, perhaps Kayleigh's light wrapping around the star girl might cut off the flames that were directed Kayleigh's way and protect her from suffering from some friendly fire. Even if she did get hurt a bit, though, she wouldn't take it personally. She had never met the star girl before, didn't even know her name, but even so, she felt a sort of kindred spirit with the girl that culminated in trust.
Kaida had noticed that some sort of shield had defended her from attack a few seconds ago, and located the red haired girl responsible for the defense. She supposed she could return the davor for honors sake. At the same time her tail moved, Kaida once again raised her head and prepared to batter away any strike towards the red head.
Maneuver (Field) by Crew for Wally Oliveira results in PARTIAL success due to suppression by the lesser Interference (Corruption) Hikaru Yamanoue used, +10% combat advantage
Post by Hikaru Yamanoue on Jun 29, 2018 14:54:32 GMT -7
Hikaru could understand people fighting her. She was starting a pretty big fire and was intentionally burning this camp to the ground. While she was going out of her way to let the people in the camp escape, she didn't intend to salvage any of the goods even if it was a waste. The people themselves would probably be a bit traumatized, but that was half the point. She could especially understand since it looked like most of these people were from the Information Age where life seemed more peaceful and the people seemed softer and were completely unaccustomed to what people in her village considered normal. She could understand, even if she felt it was all rather stupid on their end, but she couldn't understand people going after the people that were only putting out fires and ensuring that no one got hurt.
They had done nothing, hurt no one, didn't even attack or act aggressively towards anyone, and yet they were becoming targets. Not just targets, but it looked like this person was trying to murder them in cold blood. Hikaru could only watched wide-eyed in horror as this mage started encasing their bodies in ice, as though that somehow couldn't seriously hurt them. It only got worse from there, as it looked he was slowly breaking them apart in the process. That removed any doubt that he just accidentally pushed things a little too hard, or that he was somehow trying to accomplish something else and it just looked bad. This was murder and there was very little doubt about it.
As much as she was nervous about increasing the heat she was putting out, she had to do everything she can to free the people trying to protect the land around this camp, and the people in it, from being executed like this. Hikaru's body shone even brighter than before and the flames grew hotter and started fanning out in a wider circle around her. Normally she'd be more concerned about doing this, especially with someone so close, but this person has already revealed himself to be no better than the bandits she was fighting and she wasn't going to feel bad if she hurt a psychopath like this. It wasn't the most she could do, she honestly didn't know what the most she could do was as she had never pushed her power to its limits, but she was afraid to do more and wanted to see if this had any effect. She'd give it a few seconds and if it didn't look like she was making any progress, she'd have to continue to amp things up. The area with in a few feet of her was already hot enough that walking in it would be like putting a blow torch directly on the skin and it'd only get worse from there.
And unlike this person's illusions, Hikaru's fire was very much real.
Post by Kaida Adachi on Jun 29, 2018 15:51:19 GMT -7
Kaida suddenly stopped, eyes roving over her surroundings. The cold wasn't the problem, nor the heat, she could manage....but why were there so many people around her. As the heat washed her, she instinctively raised her tail to defend the humans, automatically assuming that they'd be fried without her interference. "He-hey! You're gonna fry them lady, dammit!" A pop. Her scales were coming off, and the water on her scales was sizzling. Unexpectedly, she yelped as her unprotected skin almost boiled, the blackened scales falling off to reveal skin turning an ugly color.
If she was this bad, the humans-! Kaida reared upwards, and howled out a command, breathing herself and the illusinary humans in protective water, "Stop it idiot! You'll kill everyone!" Her water was boiling! They had to leave! Her tail was still moistened, and she started advancing towards the star woman, intent on batting her away if she thought that it would be ok to set them all on fire!
Post by Wally Oliveira on Jun 29, 2018 16:20:16 GMT -7
Wally only had a few seconds to celebrate slowing down the snake mage, said celebration consisting of a cheer and attempt to jump into the air, before he found himself in a new part of the camp, maybe near the middle, in the literal blink of an eye. The sudden change of terrain did not do good things for his landing, and Wally only stayed standing after catching himself through one of the larger baskets filled with everything the thieves took. But it was pretty obvious who's magic just teleported him, and what seemed to be for completely no reason! He yelled to where Crew now stood, beginning to go back to where he was before. "Is it that hard to teleport me when we actually need..."
And the fire mage was now almost melting the unfortunate space near here. Probably where he would have been standing, and where he clearly wasn't going anywhere nearer to. He pressed his hands to the sides of his head, silent before letting out a pained, "Thanks." God he hated getting help! At the very least, the heat was still able to be described as oppressive from where he stood, so he wasn't completely saved by Crew, thankfully.
The only thing left? Find out why the hell the fire girl was going freaking crazy all of the sudden. Her thoughts though, once he tried tuning in, gave no clues whatsoever. Everything was people dying and ice. Great, just great. "Ok... who's doing that to her? Because I'm certain it's going to kill us if we don't do something different!" He knew it couldn't be Crew, unless he also had some weird secondary magic, and it definitely didn't look like her allies were happy with the sudden attack, judging by the screaming. So that left the last of his own allies, because of course. So while shielding his eyes and backing up as the fire mage advanced, Wally turned to see the new guy, with the glowing tattoos. "What the hell did you do to her!? I never saw all this!"
Post by Kayleigh Parker on Jun 30, 2018 16:51:28 GMT -7
Mage battles were an interesting thing. Before her powers manifested, Kayleigh had zero interest in being a psychologist, but ever since she'd been introduced to this new world, she'd spent a lot of time wondering what mages tick on a mental and emotional level. Take the star girl, for instance. Whatever her vendetta was here, it was fueled by a fiery passion that Kayleigh could identify with and related to. Judging by the other girl's features, she was of Japanese descent. It served to reason that she was either from here or the surrounding area. Were any of the people she was targeting family, or friends? She was burning the ground to the point that Kayleigh reckoned it would take months and months to recover. Whatever motivated the star girl to wreak her havoc here, it must have been majorly important.
The snake was more difficult to read, if only because Kayleigh wasn't 100% sure if the snake itself was a mage, or just a projection being controlled by a mage far away. It was talking, Kayleigh realized, and its voice was feminine. Even though she was aiding the star girl like Kayleigh was, she seemed to be less enthusiastic about it than Kayleigh was. Their enemies were a mystery to Kayleigh, and although she knew that people were more complicated and dimensional than comic book characters, their aims seemed to be violent and self-serving. This made it all the easier to fight against them.
As for Kayleigh's own motivations? She wasn't 100% sure. There was the desire for justice, definitely, and the passion and conviction with which the star girl spoke made her think that she was on justice's side today. But could justice only be achieved through conflict, and more specifically physical conflict where people could be hurt? There wasn't really enough time to weigh all the moral implications. She was in the heat of battle, and she needed to keep her head in the game. When all of this was finished and sorted out, hopefully with their side victorious, she'd be more apt to meditate on these questions.
Post by Serpentarius on Jun 30, 2018 22:52:33 GMT -7
Given she was becoming even more of a destructive force, that meant she needed to get the other people out of here. Doubly so since there was someone perfectly happy to go around killing mages. Even if they were fighting against her, she didn't see any reason why they deserved to burn. Except for the guy killing off people who were doing nothing and were acting peacefully. He could die in the fire for all she cared, though she wasn't going to go out of her way to keep him there. Yet.
Fortunately, she didn't need to see to activate her power and it only worked on solid objects. Much like the man before, Hikaru used her power to try to compel the other one into orbiting around her, so she could gently push him away. Not too fast because she didn't want him to face plant into anything at high speeds, but hopefully fast enough to get him out of here before he got himself hurt.
It seemed the rest of nature wasn't fooled by the illusions of Kaida's enemies. Instead, the animals saw their Boiúna being harassed, and the nature sensed her stress. While she settled on shielding everything from the horrible flame, they set off to suppress the source of her stress, a person wreathed in snow.
Quite suddenly, creatures that should have long fled the scene reappeared. A shriek split the air as a furry bat pitched by, attempting to claw at Kamuela with practically no regard for its own safety. Another sound, a growl, and a larger shape leapt forward and tried to lock its jaws around his ankles. A raccoon, even more unusually sticking around the mage war zone. The bat circled around, wings beating frantically as it went for the mage's face, potentially blocking his vision.
Action: Interference Obtruction on Kamuela
Stop the fire mage, in anyway he could. He nodded to himself, sounded like a great plan currently! He took a few strides back, for the very unlikely chance that his illusions don't work out, and faced the advancing mage. Well, faced her as well as he could with all the light around, he mostly had to stand facing mostly away from her.
Well, maybe he could stop her with some terrifying imagery? He threw up his hands, he had no idea! Stopping a living fireball on a rampage was never a situation he thought he'd have to deal with! But that was the option he had so that's what he tried. From what he've seen of this girl, she didn't like killing things most of the time, and probably even less if the thing, or person, had nothing to do with the situation.
So while an odd illusion, he had to say, it was a good illusion. Any mages he could vaguely remember, from the dog guy to the girl who could turn invisible would appear suddenly in front of all the enemies, screaming for the flames to stop. Maybe the screams were a bit unintelligible, and the voices off, and maybe the physical appearances a bit off, he was hoping at least one of the mages he brought up to be recognizable to the fire mage, and shock her enough to stop for some time. Or, if that didn't work, maybe a teammate would turn on her, who can say!
Interference (Illusion) against Hikaru
Kayleigh felt that their side had the upper hand, here, although the mages they were warring against were obviously powerful in their own right. The ice mage was particularly frightening, his cold blue energy battling with the star girl's flame in an epic clash of the elements, and even from across the battlefield Kayleigh could see the malice in his glare. But at the end of the day, fire would always beat ice.
With this in mind, Kayleigh decided to stick to the course of action she'd taken the entire battle: she would use the strength and durability of her magnificent light to protect her fellow warriors. The star girl was inflicting the most damage, Kayleigh noted, so it made sense that she would be the one worth protecting. It made sense to do so in the heat of this battle, and looking forward, perhaps the star girl would appreciate the kindness of Kayleigh's actions after the battle ended. Having a mage as powerful as the star girl could only be a benefit, after all.
The initial shield that she had sent to encapsulate the star girl was still there, wearing thinner from the onslaught from the ice mage, but it held its shape still. She summoned the light from within her and cast it towards star girl again, reinforcing its heft and doing her part to keep her new companion safe. With any luck, she would provide enough cover and protection that the star girl would be able to end this thing soon.
Being suddenly flung around like some sort of ragdoll wasn’t a great experience. Gravity seemed like it had a will of it’s own, and that it decided it didnt like him.
He didn’t know which of these grasses we’re behind it, but he’d need to put an end to it right now. Taking control of his own personal space, it’d just be a simple move of just adjusting his position relative to everyone else, to a better location
1. End the conflict here and focus on returning as many of the stolen goods to their owners as possible. They'll surely be appreciative. +5 Zenith, +60 Impact
2. Escalate further, burning to ash anything that can't run away with its own two legs. The story of divine retribution will surely spread throughout all of Japan. +15 Zenith, +40 Impact, Kyoto becomes Hero territory
Post by Hikaru Yamanoue on Jul 1, 2018 16:50:21 GMT -7
Hikaru gradually increased the temperature of her flames, becoming increasingly disheartened as it seemed to do nothing for the people frozen and dissolving. Hell, it didn't even seem to be doing anything to the smug murderer looming over her. It wasn't until she heard a voice that shouldn't belong there that she realized something was going on. It was distant, and she couldn't quite make out the words, but it was a distinctly female voice and there was only one woman here: one of the people helping her that should be encased in ice. At that moment, she stopped increasing the amount of heat she was putting off and stopped to think about this for a moment. Something wasn't quite adding up.
Magic was a truly powerful force. It could do things beyond her wildest imagination. Could it make her see things? Honestly, that seemed pretty simple compared to a lot of the ridiculous things she'd seen mages do, even if it was quite a realistic illusion. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but she wanted to believe that was what was happening. Hikaru closed her eyes and breathed. If she couldn't trust her eyes, she needed to focus on her other senses. The fire didn't affect her at all when her power was on, she didn't feel the heat, the flames, and she couldn't even tell when something was orbiting her. But she could still feel the world. The wind, the grass burning under her feet. The feeling of stepping on ashes. All she needed to do was focus inward for a moment, something she did often. It wasn't magic, but it did steady her spirit. She kept slowly walking forward, even more slowly than before given she was blind, while she waited for this illusion to pass. Hopefully it would soon.
Fortunately, she didn't need to see what she was doing to accomplish her goals. She lowered the temperature of her flames back down to what it was before, but it's not like she needed her full power to burn this camp to the ground. The people under the influence of her gravity would continue to orbit around her, and thus away from the camp without her thinking too hard about it at this point. With any luck, she'd be able to finish her work in peace.
Flames licked at the camp, running through the grass, burning the horse fodder they couldn't bring along when they grabbed their horses and ran, running up their tents, and reducing the baskets and wooden crates they had to ash. She had no intention of letting anything but the people escape. This entire camp was going to be burned into the ground and there would be nothing but a small scar on the wilderness to show for it. Hikaru still didn't mind the others helping to contain the effects. She did have backup plans to avoid letting the fire spread to far, but as long as someone was putting them out for her they weren't necessary and really did save her a lot of effort. As long as the giant snake let the camp burn they would have no problems.
Even at her slow pace, it didn't take long for Hikaru to finish off the rest of the camp. From there, she reduced her flames so low that, for the first time this fight, her form was visible and staring at her was no more difficult than staring at a campfire and the surrounding area was just a little unpleasantly hot. She used her power to fling herself a short distance, then shut her power off in mid air before landing gracefully on the ground. It was a practiced maneuver given she would burn if she turned her power off too soon, but didn't want to walk around and create new fires. This was the easiest way to do that. Now it was time to head home, but first she turned to the two that helped her if they stuck around long enough for her to finish off the camp.
"Thank you," she bowed slightly. "I do my best, but fire can be quite difficult to control. I'm glad you were able to save the surrounding countryside."
Post by Wally Oliveira on Jul 3, 2018 8:33:04 GMT -7
Yet another loss!? Really, he should have known! Things like this always seemed to happen to him, things he literally can't fix, and boy is a fire spreading absolutely everywhere a perfect example! But he could at least not get burned himself, that was one bit of control he still had, and rushed away, cupping his mouth so others could hear him. "Everyone get away from the fire, just, you know, get to the portal, or the forest, whichever you get to first!"
He himself went for the portal, after watching quite a few normal people dash past him, eyes wide with fear, but not burned in the slightest. That was pretty good, they might be able to rise another time, like everyone else like them.
Post by Serpentarius on Jul 8, 2018 17:26:29 GMT -7
The fervid eyewitness accounts of divine retribution spread across the country like wildfire, eventually even reaching the mainland. Reports of godlike beings had been on the rise for several years, but this incident made it clear to the mundane rulers that the status quo could not last. Scholars were dispatched across the Chinese Empire and abroad to catalog all reported supernatural activity and return it to Beijing for the emperor's perusal. Due to the greater density of mages in 1448, the survey was in some ways even more thorough than the studies of 2018, and it was only a matter of time until the findings became known to the Academy.
The Chinese scholars correctly linked mages to the mysterious sickness that produced them. Furthermore, the scholars divided the illness's outcomes into three categories: immediate death, survival as a mage, and a third hitherto unnoticed possibility. A very few subjects of the illness, upon recovering, went irrevocably insane and seemed to have little control over their supernatural powers. They innevitably annihilated themselves within a matter of days, but not before raving about their unshakeable belief that the world had been destroyed.