Chapter: 573 – Delayed

Tala, Rane, and Terry moved forward toward the burgeoning magical beast, less aggressively than they would prefer.

-I don’t make the rules, I just convey them.-

I know, I know. Tala was still a bit irked by the restrictions.

As Alat had already stated, this fount—and indeed everything in the region—was treasured by gated humanity for the harvests provided.

There was also that the burn-wolves—whose ancestors long ago came from this fount and whose numbers continued to grow with new additions from the same—were an excellent apex predator for the region, keeping other, more problematic, predators from gaining a foothold.

-I was going to reiterate that, yes.-

Over all, the fount provided a constant source of stable magic for uncounted arcanous flora and fauna, and the surrounding region was to be protected at most costs.

Thus, Tala, Rane, and Terry couldn’t go in with their usual… fervor.

-Mistress Ingrit has made a special request that we exercise restraint. Apparently, she went a bit out on a limb to offer us this task.-

Noted. No lines of destruction, no wide-scale dissolution, no collateral damage if at all possible.

-Yes. As I’m sure you are aware, the memories of the encounter will be meticulously reviewed.-

Tala considered for a moment, then sighed. It did make a sort of sense. “I’ll be on mitigation duty.”

Rane looked at her with a raised eyebrow, then simply nodded. “As you wish.”

With that confirmation, she launched high up into the sky, reducing her own gravity so that she maintained that height, even as she continued her forward movement.

As she came close, she drove out a ring of iron spikes, embedding them into the ground around the clearing to give her an unassailable anchor for her aura and authority.

The toad seemed to realize the spikes wouldn’t hit it, because it didn’t even twitch, let alone try to oppose Tala’s actions.

Silly frog. It’s already lost.

-Well, you see, frogs and toads are actually quite different, and this is explicitly a toad.-

Tala sent Alat the impression of a flat stare.

-Fine, fine…-

Thank you.

The toad’s aura was… odd.

It seemed to be fluctuating between very distinctly arcanous—thus barely more than mundane—and somewhere in the Refined range… she didn’t know the term for magical beasts in that advancement range, if there even was a distinct one. In truth, aside from the distinction between arcanous and magical and the difference between magical and god-beast, Tala had no idea what the actual stages were or meant for such creatures.

Regardless, Tala could feel that the toad was somehow working to meld its reality node with that of the entire region that was permeated with the magic coming through the fount.

She was sure that the task it was working on seemed a bit different from its perspective, as it was likely simply working to attune its magic to that coming through the fount, or something like that, but to her? It was somehow actively becoming one with the region.

Fascinating.

-Yeah, I almost wish we could just watch the whole process take place…-

Hmmm… Put in a request?

-For here?-

No, Alat. Put in a request to observe next time there is a known magical binding for a beast. One that is going to be allowed.

-Oh, yeah. That makes much more sense. I’ll submit the request for us to be allowed to observe such.-

…You knew what I meant.

-I always know what you mean. I can also place ideas straight into your head. Our conversations are a facade of overlapping of niceties meant to help maintain your sanity and sense of self without artificially propping it up through mental or memory manipulation.-

…Yeah… let’s pretend I didn’t need that reminder.

-As you say, individual who is definitely not me.-

…I hate you sometimes.

-Self-loathing is often found, and even to be expected, in the truly self-aware.-

Tala decided to stop feeding Alat’s… attitude.

-Rude… but fair. Get back to focusing on the matter at hand.-

The barest moment had passed, and she refocused in time to see Terry and Rane engage.

Her husband shot down, right along the toad’s left side, Force cleaving the back leg free on that side in a single stroke.

Terry immediately flickered in and grabbed onto the frog-leg and flung it away before flickering again to appear in its path, where he caught it and began to devour it.

The frog—toad—for its part seemed… ambivalent to the attack and resulting damage.

Blood fountained out of the severed joint, and Tala imposed her will, keeping the burning liquid from spraying across the surrounding landscape. As nothing opposed her action, it simply happened as she wished, the blood moving and funneling through the portal she opened into her sanctum, to be stored in stasis until Mistress Ingrit found someone who could use it.

At the same time, the toad regrew its back leg at least as fast as Tala could have replaced a lost leg. The act was made all the more incredibly impressive due to the size disparity. The regrowth looked like nothing so much as a blazing tongue of fire flaring forth before solidifying into a fully functional limb.

Well, at least we know why it didn’t much care about losing the leg. Tala’s thoughts held a note of begrudging respect.

-Indeed.-

The whole process did, however, give her a thought. With a flexing of her will, she tried to move the toad into a stone box in her sanctum.

The entire region began to shudder, and Tala instantly stopped. The animal was integrated enough that it couldn’t be removed without either destroying it or severing it from the surroundings.

Well, that’s inconvenient.

Rane continued to cut off chunks for Terry to munch on, and Terry continued to munch, quite content with the arrangement.

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Still, the flow of power through the fount seemed more than sufficient for the toad to draw from and maintain itself.

It seemingly remained entirely unconcerned.

Rane finally paused, looking up at Tala before shouting. “May I borrow your authority?”

“Oh? Sure.” She was curious what he would do.

He smiled. “Thank you.”

He then looked at the toad, raising his blade.

Tala felt a pull on the void aspects of Flow and her elk-leathers as soulbound to her. Then her authority and power moved, overlaying what Rane was doing.

It wasn’t that he was controlling her, not really. It was more that she had opened herself up entirely to his wishes, and so she moved and acted exactly as he needed.

He then took a guiding hand over the aura that she’d established and maintained with her iron spikes.

With a long exhale, he stepped forward and swung Force.

The swing was likely unneeded—after all, the blade didn’t even connect—but it seemed to help crystallize Rane’s mental model for the magic he was working and guiding her through.

A curved blade of void magic came into being and swept a full circuit around the toad in the blink of an eye.