Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Prodigal Son
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Raiya got up and followed Nemo to his unique room. Nemo stopped at what looked like an armoire and unlocked it. "Is this where you keep all your trophies from your victims?" Raiya asked jokingly.




Felix nodded, "That would be admittedly boring... How about this then?" Felix waved his hand, a small table and two chairs conjuring themselves out of his mana inventory. He waved his hand again, conjuring a full marble chess set. He sat down, holding the activated scroll and mana crystal in his left hand, while gesturing to sit with his right. "Care to play?"
Hidden 6 yrs ago 6 yrs ago Post by Cottonmouth
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"Only some of them." Nemo responded genuinely as he swung the doors open. Inside there were various rifle cases stacked on top of each other like a library. He ran his finger down the stack until he reached one in particular. "This is where I keep all my finest rifles and shotguns. Most are English in origin." Nemo explained as he pulled a vintage looking case out from the stack and set it on a table nearby. He flipped up the top of the case to reveal a fancy looking disassembled bolt action rifle resting inside a burgundy velvet interior.

"This is one of my favorites however. A Holland & Holland Bolt Action chambered in .375 H&H Magnum. A gun so fine that it can blur the lines between art and weaponry. It was originally owned by Count Borchester until I parted him of it." Nemo explained as he began to assemble the weapon. "Most use it for safari hunting, but I often have other plans in mind." He attached a Swarovski scope to the top and then laid it to rest on the table for now.

Nemo went back to the armoire and returned the case. He opened a lower drawer and retrieved cartridges for the rifle. "I noticed you use a Beretta Model 70. I'll admit it's a choice that's refined enough to be seen with, but maybe I could interest you something with a little more pizazz, how about a... Colt 1908 vest pocket?" Nemo asked, producing a petite engraved pistol that he could practically hide under his hand. He held it up pinched between two fingers as testament to how light it was. The grin of anticipation on Nemo's face betrayed his earlier tone of seriousness.
Hidden 6 yrs ago 6 yrs ago Post by Prodigal Son
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Raiya raised her right eyebrow at the small weapon. Somehow, it was even smaller than her model 70, which was already a fairly small CCW. She smirked as she gripped the minuscule pistol. "What am I supposed to use this for? Knocking down pop cans in the back yard with cousin Jimmy?" She chuckled. "I bet this would bounce off leather. What is it, a pellet gun? It looks almost too small to even be a .22."

Raiya handed the dinky gun back to Nemo. She then waved her hand and summoned her Beretta. "This is chambered in .380. Small enough to conceal, but lethal enough to rely upon. But this," She dispersed her weapon and summoned her USP, "This right here is my problem solver. Chambered in 45. ACP, enchanted for extra power behind each shot. And, well, you've seen what my special ammo can do."
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Hidden 6 yrs ago 6 yrs ago Post by Cottonmouth
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"Oh, you'd be surprised what it can do." Nemo said as he slipped the small gun in his pocket. "For .380 I generally resort to the Walther PPK, but your pistol is already fine enough. The other one needs some work though, it's simply too utilitarian for my tastes. I mean what are we, mall cops? It's a real problem creator that's what it is. A fashion problem." Nemo rambled on and pulled out another drawer and retrieved a smaller vintage looking case. He set it down on the table and flipped it open, revealing a pistol nestled within.

"This is what you should have, a Colt Commander in .45 ACP. It's dimensions are a near match as well." The pistol was mostly blued to a near black, with a slightly engraved slide, mother of pearl grips with silver Colt medallions, and some heat blued screws and accents. It wasn't overly gaudy or rich looking like many of Nemo's weapons, but still had more than enough class to be used by a mafioso.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Prodigal Son
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Raiya took in the weapon, examining the piece of artwork. The subtle bluing, and the mother of pearl grips brought a smile to Raiya's face. "Now this, this is classy. Could- Could we go out and shoot it?" Raiya asked gesturing with her head towards the door.
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Nemo pondered the idea for a moment. He used his pointer finger to push the case closer to Raiya and shrugged. "You can do whatever you want with your new gun. Though be careful with it, it was one of my bests. And don't forget the holster." He replied, gesturing to the black leather embossed holster set in the case. It would either fit on a belt or within her jacket if she didn't want to keep it in her mana inventory. "Until I can sway you over to the six shooter society, accept this as a gift." Nemo added.

Nemo picked up his bolt action and began to load rounds into it one by one. "I need to zero in the scope anyways, so this works out well." He noted as he rested the gun on his shoulder like a baseball bat by holding the front end of the barrel.
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Travis raised an eyebrow upon watching Felix not only summoning a table with a set of two chairs but a chessboard as well, covered side-by-side with fine-crafted pieces established within each checkered square. His gaze then shifted to Felix himself, "Is there honestly anything that you don't keep in your mana inventory?"

He then took his seat at the table, "sure, I'm game. It'll definitely pass the time while we're out here."
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"I come prepared for any situation. And, well, my manawell is large enough to contain quite a lot."

Felix and Travis began to play, and before they knew it two hours had passed. The score was a tie with both of them having won two out of the four games they had played. Felix was getting ready to set up another game before he felt a chill up his spine, as the spell ran out of energy, bringing Felix back into his weakened state.

"Well, I guess that answers that. Two hours isn't nothing to laugh at. I'm sure if we carried more mana batteries that we could interchange, that we could extend the effects as well. I guess we'll have to have a tie breaker match later."

With that Felix used his magic to pick up all of the items back in his inventory. He then opened a portal back to the lab and stepped through.




Raiya's eyes lit up, "You mean, I can really have this? Thanks!" Raiya grabbed the box and began to head out the door. "Let's go have some fun then."
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"O-of course." Nemo said, however his tone sounded much more uncertain than his words. He likely hadn't ever given away anything from his collections before. After locking the wooden armoire back up Nemo pulled back the bolt and loaded his rifle with cartridges he retrieved earlier. He shut the bolt and then carried the rifle out of the room by resting it on his shoulder with the barrel pointing down.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by ShiningSector
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Travis kept up the use of his manalysis while he and Felix past the time through chess. Every turn he took, he took the brief moment to gaze at Felix's mana flow and then turned his attention to the mana crystal powering their spell. About an hour of doing this routine, he began cutting back the need to check on the Magi having concluded that the spell was performing as expected, as long as it had a flow of mana energy to consume.

Another hour had passed and their spell had given out, due to the mana crystal it was pairing with having run dry. With their test complete, it was evident that they had no need to linger further seeing as Felix's condition becoming more apparent now. Travis rose from his seat, almost immediately as Felix recalled the chess set and furniture back into his inventory before processing to follow him back into his portal, back to the mansion.

"Now that we know that our rune can function for awhile," Travis began, "we'll certainly need to address power source problem and come up with an efficient solution if you're going to be operating outside the mansion for far longer than 2 hours."
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"Well, now that we know for sure it works, I think it's time to have another meeting." Felix tapped on his manadial and held it up to his mouth. The manadial was connected to the PA system rigged in the house, so everyone within the house could hear.

"Attention everyone, please meet us in the lab. I have important information that I would like to discuss."
After that Felix switched off his manadial.

Chapter 3: Paragon of Potentialis





Raiya sighed heavily at the announcement from the PA. Raiya and Nemo had made it to the front door, about to head out into the forest before the announcement rang out. "Well," Raiya said, "Better go and see what that is all about." Raiya began to walk down to the lab. It took about 30 seconds to reach the door where Felix had put together a circle of chairs as a make shift meeting area.




Felix used his magic to pull a few chairs from around the room together in a circle. The white lab room wasn't exactly the best place for a meeting, but Felix wanted to allow Travis to work while he debriefed. Everyone filed in one by one until every member of Paragon's End was present. Felix crossed his legs and stretched his hands behind his head before beginning.

"As you know," Felix began, "Travis and I have been working on a semi-permanent fix for my predicament. To put it bluntly, what we've created is a temporary stopgap measure that allows me to be present on missions for two hours at a time. Now, to the reason why I have actually called you all here. I had mentioned before that the Catholics had an array of sensors that detected mana-wave energy. For this reason I concealed us here outside the area of detection within the bounds of the academia. While we were working on this solution to my problem, I was also working on my own project. I figured a way to bypass the mananetwork communications lines that send the sensor data to the Catholics. A little technowizardry through my manadial, and I can now see every reading the Catholics see." Felix extended his wrist out and tapped on his watch a few times, he then took the circular managem from the dial and placed it in the middle of the circle, a large holographic projection appeared in the midst of them, projecting what looked to be a sort of heat map of the globe.

"This is the concentration of all manawaves within the world. The reason why I thought this was important is twofold, 1) I am now privy to some of the same information the Catholics are and 2) this will make finding the paragons much easier. Paragons are massive singularities of condensed manawaves, my thought process was that any abnormally dense readings would give us an indication where to look for the rest of the paragons. Of course, that was my thought process, however, it appears that, much like what we've done in concealing the massive waves, other entities must have done the same with the majority of the rest. That is all except for two massive concentrated readings. One of which is in central Wales within the United Kingdom. This is very interesting when compared to the legend of Excalibur, which is said to be one of the nine paragons. Excalibur was said to have been lost in a great battle in Wales proper. I am of the belief that the Paragon is still there, either underneath some rubble or a heirloom passed down to some non-talents. Either way, the readings are clear. There must be a paragon within central Wales. This is our next mission. To investigate Wales, and bring back that paragon. Any questions?" Felix finished.
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Nemo sat in the seat with his legs crossed. "Many of my assets are in England, I'll arrange a vehicle for us to use for transport around Wales." He noted. Nemo's interests were definitely stirred by Felix's announcement, Excalibur was a weapon he had desired for a very long time. However he knew that since it was a paragon, it wasn't going to be something added to his collection even if they did find it.
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As Felix briefed everyone else, Travis peered over his findings with their most recent test. It was a success of course but it did introduce a slight snag. They had made the rune as efficient as it can be with only a necessary number of redundancies to have strong stabilizing influence over Felix's predicament. But after all that, the rune could only remain active for two hours. Felix described it more of a non-issue though Travis was hesitant to accept the fact outright. Considering just how long they were out on their last adventure to seize Fantasia, two hours may not be enough to cover their upcoming expedition, assuming of course that they just brought only one mana crystal. The only answer as Felix mentioned, was to bring a sufficient number of mana crystals to extend the time Felix could operate outside the mansion.

Travis took the time to study over Felix's training vest which was the object of which the rune would be applied to and produced a diagram on how it would the rune would inscribed. Much of the work however was done on the vest itself as he noted the focal points over the vest and the amount of coverage the rune would have. At this point, it was only a matter of simply applying the rune.

The Untalent then turned to one of his other projects; something he had been working on the side when he had the free time. While he and Felix's runic spell demanded the majority of their concentration and efforts, he hadn't forgotten about Zuri's condition. However her problem was complex and required a different approach than what he had took before. Zuri's problem was a curse of unknown origin being bestowed upon her. A curse. Travis didn't fancy curses too much. They had blaringly different behaviors when compared to a runic lock, despite some similarities. Additionally, curses held more rules, specific ones that defined how they functioned and usually benefiting the caster in the end or simply having a neutral yet long-lasting impact on the victim it was applied to.

When initially looking at the problem, Travis simply had nothing to go by; Zuri's curse was absolved of any distinguishable attributes he could go by.

That was however, until he had earlier on got in touch with some of his Academia team members. It was a yearly procedure where his research team would share their discoveries and other findings with one another to in order to critique and improve the new spells before being officially published. Travis had supplied his knowledge surrounding his mana-efficient formulae, to the group as his offering for the get-together. The rest provided their own work too and Travis then found what he had been looking for. A small collaboration had begun a year prior between two Scholars, a Ruin Mage, and headed by a Cleric. Their work was a formulaic spell capable of virtually surveying, probing, and even dissecting incantations and enchantments. This also included curses as well. Apparently, the spell, after analyzing whatever manaform invocation assigned to it, could then literally deconstruct it's target, effectively dispelling it regardless of any pre-established rules.

Their problem however was that the formula lacked a platform as the spell could only be deployed via a lengthy incantation. Travis, almost nonchalantly, offered to apply their formulae into his own runic architecture as a mode for better deployment. The others eventually agreed to this agreement and in turn, he would receive the perfected product after it had been finalized. After a month, he received the information dump gathered and issued by his Academia research team. The dump included a plethora of research notes and spells awaiting further testing. While the load contained many useful assets, it was the runic spell, the Causality Scryer, he had been waiting for.

At the work table while Felix still gave his announcement, he had the spell work against an incantation simulator at mastery level to ensure its effects were legitimate. Each night before, he would run a new challenge for the spell and by the next morning, Travis would find that the Causality Scryer was successful in its assigned task. Funnily enough, he found that the spell had would have finished minutes after initiating the test. From all the experiments, he couldn't find any reason for the spell not being up to trial of eliminating Zuri's curse.

After verifying the spell's repeated success, he turned to face Felix, having completed his speech, "The pretty much sums it up for me," he began, "however I am curious what kind of opposition we may run into."
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Felix smiled at Nemo, "I'll leave that to you then." Turning to Travis, Felix let out a large sigh, "Indeed. I have no real reason to believe that there will be an occupying force surrounding the Paragon. However, I also have no reason to believe it is just sitting on someone's shelf. We must be diligent and careful. We will stick together this time. We leave tomorrow morning. This time, I'll make sure no one else gets hurt."




Raiya scoffed at Felix's comment, "you are barely holding yourself together. What makes you think you can protect us all. You are powerful, Felix. At one point maybe even the most powerful Arch-Mage to ever have been in the order. But admit it, you're a shell of your former self who has cobbled together what amounts to a magical oxygen tank. What happens if our enemy destroys your little lifeline? We'd have a liability to worry about on top of enemies trying to kill us. You're going to be nothing more than dead weight."




Raiya's seething words seared at the mind of Felix. She wasn't far off the mark. However, he decided months ago that he'd do everything in his power to protect what little he had left, and that included his team.

Felix rubbed his eyelids with his right thumb and index finger. "I've thought of that, Raiya. And I've decided that I will constantly keep a manaegis plate around the rune. The only way for someone to destroy it would be with an impact strong enough that it would kill me as well as destroy the rune. So, I'll be fine." Felix assured. "Is there anything else anyone would liked to discuss with me before we adjourn this meeting?"
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"Don't worry Raiya, I'm sure i have more than enough magic power to make up for Felix's unfortunate situation. Keeping you four out of harm shouldn't be too hard of a task." Nemo commented. He pulled out his communicator and navigated through a few menus until a holographic text box appeared. He began to type out a message as he waited for the session to adjourn.
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"Actually," Travis began in response to Felix's query, "there is one other thing I'd want to address. Apart from our research pertaining to your predicament, I had on the side began researching how to undo Zuri's unusual curse. To make a long story short, I believe I have a solution for unraveling her curse and properly dispelling it."

He paused only briefly, giving a reassuring glance at Zuri before continuing, "with your permission, I would like to test the spell out before we depart."
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Felix shrugged and stood up, "I figured you'd be researching into that. I feel a little bad myself for not having spent any real time looking into it myself. If no one else has anything to add, you can all be excused, all of you except Zuri of course."




Raiya sighed and stood up "I suppose we will have some time to go out and shoot a bit." Raiya said, looking at Nemo.
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Nemo rested his rifle back on his shoulder. "Seems so." He replied as he got up and walked out of the lab, waving as he exited through the door.

Nemo walked out of the building and looked to the forest. "I don't suppose you've got some empty bottles laying around for targets. It would be a shame to hit one of the trees." He said.

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Zuri's eyes opened when he heard that Travis found a way of dispelling the curse. She wanted to rediscover who she used to be, all the memories of her past, but considering how long this curse has been placed on her, Zuri would be lucky if she could recall just a few small fragments of it. However even that would be enough to satisfy her. "As long as you promise me that it won't hurt too badly.." she replies to Travis in a joking manner, a little bit of excitement showing on her face as she smiles.
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Raiya shook her head. "I don't keep my empties. Plus, I'm a hard liquor drinker, I mostly just fill my flask with what's at my bar at home or what's in the bar here." Raiya put her finger up to her lips, "We could use magic to make some targets... Or we could ask Felix to portal us to the nearest town and we could dumpster dive."
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