The success of the lightning over the plant matter had Edward cackling, as if he were mad with power. Such a small victory fed his ego, and so drunk off the feeling he hadn’t initially noticed the disaster that would follow.
His laughter had slowed as the realization dawned on him that something was wrong. The destruction that was once a point of satisfaction turned to panic and regret as he remembered the simple fact that he was surrounded by mortals.
“Oh right…shit.” Damnit. His abilities weren’t suited for rescue, and definitely not in this scale. Focused to the immediate danger, Edward rushed to the people beneath the first set of lights that fell. He’d become tangible in his sprint, visible too, as he’d run into and push those people out of the way. “Move fools!”
In truth he’d prefer to stay invisible, but his lack of training in that field left him without options. There wasn’t any time to complain or feel embarrassed about it though. He’d drop another bag of bones and braced for impact if it failed.
“Rise and serve the master of death!” This chant sounded more desperate then cocky, as he stirred the bones in this bag to move and grow like a tree, forming into something like a large skeletal hand in hopes to catch the debris that was to fall on him and the others he failed to get out of the way.
Indeed, the necromancer was far too concerned with the supernatural to bother with such trivial mortal affairs. Fool that he was to not recognize how the spirits could react; his attention was still focus on the now absent party. He hadn't even noticed he was alone, not that it bothered him.
It wasn't until the emergence of vines that caught his attention. First to the spirits that had been consumed by flowers. His first thought was of rescue in truth. Passionate over the preservation of a soul, foolish as it may be in this world. Even be they wisps, all that meant was that he had to dispatch of them himself. No problem for a mage so overconfident in his ability.
But whatever plan he had was cut short when vines emerged to target him. Close quarters was not his strong suit, and he was far from the more capable reapers in fitness. Still, his confidence didn't waver.
"Oho, You wish to claim my essence wisp?" Edward spoke with a hint of sinister glee. If nothing else, a good fight would let him show off how powerful he thought he was.
He first attempted to evade the vines, drifting backwards as fast as he could to gain distance. In an attempt to slow down some of the vines, he had drew out one of his bone-filled, tied up bags out onto the closest vine; and once it reached its tip, spoke his spell.
"Rise and serve the master of death!"
The bones within the bag at once became animate, protruding from the bag with sharpened bits. To his will, the bones assembled a crude net-like formation. The mass could only extend a 7 foot diameter, and lack of material had its gaps wide; he'd at least hope the it will slow ever so slightly the majority of the vines.
Confident with the distance he gained, he'd draw out his staff; the gold ring on his finger shimmered as the black gem within sparked with electricity, until it morphed to his hand as his weapon.
"Witness my power!"
Well, the staff wasn't his power, but they didn't need to know that. Edward let out a cackle as electricity fired from its tip to the mass of vines, sustaining the duration of the lightning in hopes to achieve substantial damage.
Edward was no biologist, but he knew bones well. He’s worked with them since he was a child after all. The creepy kid that played with dead rats and bird skeletons at one time. He had a general awareness for how bones were. The structure, the shape, the pieces. How it all assembled like puzzle pieces. Despite the wide variety of vertebrates there was some sense of order to their scale and anatomy. This Skelton thought, upon his thorough observation, wasn’t like that. Joints too small, pieces too large. Bits and parts that looked like they were put together from different animals. It reminded him of those videos of people faking skeletons of monsters, or how people fashioned monsters from miscellaneous dinosaur bones. Like, someone’s imagination of a monster’s skeleton rather than the real thing.
Well, this at least gave him inspiration for how he could recreate it. Maybe he could raid a museum? Well, personal hobby aside it did strike him curious. Perhaps this was indeed a spell rather than an individual spirit. In that case though, that raised the question if this is Celeste’s spell, branding her in league of the arcane, or if this was placed on her by someone else.
The mystery deepens! In fact, why the hell was her hair pink? It was like she was the protagonist of some kind of anime. Life imitates art he supposed, Maybe that’s why all those specters followed her.
Through the moving line, Edward’s pace made him appear almost in sync with the lines of ghosts, aside from him being busy with his book, and occasionally walking out of the line to try another angle. At a distance, the dark purple robes he wore probably didn’t look to out of place in the venue by its shape and color, though the distinct pointed hat, eyepatch with a skull design, and vibrant white pants shattered that illusion of being any well dressed or fashionable ghost.
The necromancer had gotten a few sketches in before he noticed the head of the spirit line stopped. Having looked up to observe, he saw Celeste recognizing the empty-headed cheese enthusiast Lucian before dragging him off. Unaware that Lucian was indeed incorporeal to most mortals, Edward’s natural assumption that he was just trying to blend in and eat some cheese. He wouldn’t be trying to eat corporeal food while being incorporeal in a giant venue after all, he wasn’t that stupid right?
Nonetheless, that bastard knew Celeste?! Why didn’t he tell any of them? Or, maybe no one had bothered to tell him. It wouldn’t be the first slight of disrespect his co workers expressed. The fools. Throwing away his rat skeletons for “Sanitary Reasons.” Bah, as if they had any need for such things in death.
Still, this was a bit of a shock. The fool should have hid himself instead of just, sitting around in plain sight getting his fill of dairy.
Maybe he knew more about her curse? … No, Lucian was an air head in death, he doubt he’d retain such information even if she told him.
Ed stood there to process his thoughts while Lucian was led off. Surely he had to keep following, but he felt like he was forgetting something.
Edward had always hated crowd. He was never fond of cities either. He didn't think he'd have to relive such claustrophobia after dying, yet here he was. Another job for the afterlife. At least he didn't have to force his way through a crowd, being incorporeal had its perks. The wizard was deep in thought as he drifted through the crowds, not bothering to show himself nor engaging in the event.
Despite his reluctance on the assignment, a prevention job seemed apt enough. A job that doesn't necessarily mean anything drastic will happen, and yet will also provide experience. Still, the lack of any specific task meant that until shit hit the fan, if it even would, he was more or less stuck at this..this 'fashion' venue.
A scoff at the very idea. What could be more fashionable then a sick eyepatch and an entire set of robes that highlighted how much of a master of the arcane he was. Aside from the food, there was little to enjoy from this locale. He had standards, unlike a more empty-headed coworker that was already indulging himself in cheese.
Well, at the very least he could study the target of intrigue. It was curious how this mortal somehow drew in so many dangerous spirits that would even warrant such a vague job to begin with. Perhaps the true culprit is a cursed placed on her. Or maybe its something to do with a horrible tragedy. He was vaguely aware of charlatan spiritualists, who failed to even account for a city in the afterlife, that would make comments on how emotions can attract spirits. Was that even true? Its not like Edward himself was ever drawn in by such an affect. Hogwash, most likely.
For now, he'd have to settle on following this Celeste character. The necromancer came to a stop as he spotted the target of interest. Though, whatever curiosities he had about her curse or what have you was overshadowed by the larger specter stalking just behind her. Nevermind the other ghosts that followed, there was a god-damned skeletal behemoth just behind her. A dragon? That alone raised so many questions. Dragons weren't real animals, right? That couldn't just be a ghost. And yet the nature suggested skeletal remains. Perhaps its some form of, magical being? No, no this was extremely unusual. The bodies of ghosts are more based on will then their actual living bodies, true, yet this was too specific. It wasn't just a monster, but the apparent remains of one.
More important than that, this was an amazing reference. His imagination ran wild with what he could do to re-create such a spirit of bones. Perhaps he could raid a museum for parts or try to sculpt the shapes of the more unnatural bones from scratch. No, he needed a sketch first. Detailed sketches.
Edward hovered closer to the trail of spirits. He kept a distance behind so as to avoid a direct disturbance, but kept close enough so that he could maintain a good angle to begin sketching the creature. With his tome in one hand, and a pen in the other, he drew furiously multiple sketches of the monster. A stupid, wild grin on his face as all manner of thoughts and plans as to his next, newly inspired project raced through his head.
✦ Edward Bennigan ✦ 29 ✦ Male ✦ Appearance: Edward is a somewhat tall, pale man with a light physique and raven black hair. His eyes are a dark brown, and his cheeks and nose are tinged slightly red; vaguely appearing as if he were sick. He often sports some fancy, and rather, nerdy blue loose fitting cloak as if to embrace the stereotypically nerdy side of a dungeons and dragons dork embracing the arts of wizardry. In a more casual setting he prefers loose t-shirts, hoodies, and sweatpants or shorts. ✦ Weapon: A simple black wooden staff with a purple orb embedded at the top, which harnesses electricity. The staff can unleash a discharge of electrical currents up to 30 feet away. In addition to its scorching power, the electricity has enough kick to potentially push targets back. The discharge can last for about 10 seconds.
Its core form rests on a gold ring.
Time was running out. It was never enough time; A spell like this, he should have tried to work on first. What good was making a dead dog move anyway? What good was making a cool sword? Magic was, as he had protested to his family, a solution to their problems. And yet, why did he wait until the first sign that she wasn't okay?
Anne...
Its been 10 years, watching her slowly decay. The doctors said she wouldn't make 5, yet here she was; sticking it out to the end. She was always stubborn like that, not that she expected to get any better.
"Not that stupid book again." Protested the pale figure on the bed, a hint of playful sarcasm peering out from an otherwise withered voice. Her eyes barely open but was all too familiar of the routine. "I have it this time, Anne, really! I promise, you're going to get better."
"The doctor said you shouldn't be bringing that in here. Honestly, Edd..." Despite the wheezing and coughing, her voice still had hints of that warm fire that she used to sound like. Despite her condition, she hasn't really changed. She never believed in me. Its always been like that.
Since I first showed her, moving a dead frog on its own. It was funny how it freaked her out at the time but..She never saw how it could help. No one did. Not his family, not his school friends, his teachers. The whole town were either apathetic or scornful of such practices. An affront to nature, some would say. A waste of time from others. To hell with them, but it won't be Anne's time now.
"I finally figured it out, Anne. Its been 10 years but I can fix you! I-And you're still here despite what they said. Don't you see? Its- its like destiny!" Anne wasn't convinced, Ed's voice wasn't particularly convincing either. Panicked croaking between each promise. He wasn't really sure what would happen. He knew, at least partially, that the spell should heal. But would it be enough? Could he endure the cost? The sacrifice? He was sure. He calculated this. He knew, in the next few hours, she'd be discharged from the hospital and the two of them can scream at the sun in overwhelming triumph. That both their parents will celebrate all the work he put into those 10 years instead of finding a proper job. It was this moment. This was the day he'd triumph over nature. Spit god himself in the face for allowing such a cruel world to exist. It may not be anything significant compared to the source of his inspirations. The work he's read from that strange old cabin. The promises...the ideas. But its a step forward.
A hand was placed over her forehead. "Okay Edd, I'll let you do it one more time.." She relented with a huff, though it seemed to be more out of pity over his fruitless efforts to 'save' her. Arcane words would escape his mouth, following the motion of his hand, his old book held in his other hand as he read it out loud. Before, he'd say a litany of other odd phrases, failed spells with nothing but chirping crickets and a somber patient to accompany his failure. This time, was truly different. As her withered flesh slowly began to rejuvenate. Though it took her a moment to realize, her eyes widened upon realizing the sudden lift in her condition. But that joy was short lived, replaced by a concerned inquiry.
"Ed?" She repeated, as the sorcerer seemed stiff.
"Edd! Eddie!" She cried out, the sudden shift creating a myriad of emotions. A hole was burning over his chest, through his shirt; where his heart was. Only it wasn't on fire, it as smoldering and rotting rapidly to dust. And through the process, Edward was frozen; almost so. His eyes, started to move one last time as shock of the pain subsided briefly before his mortality came to a close. His mouth opening, he was about to say something. "See? You're all better now" "Just kidding!" "I'm sorry." "I love you." Words that she wanted to hear. What she wanted him to say. But instead what came out was what she feared. Nothing. Not even a whimper, just...silence. And then he fell, stiff as a board, along the hospital floor. Whatever he intended to say, she would never find out.
✦ Magic Branch Necromancy. ✦ Magic Edward has been fascinated in arcane research since he was young, despite the disapproval of family and friends; thus he is well experienced in basic spells and even implementing both written and spoken variations of his own work.
Spoken
A powerful spell that is derived from the philosophy of life and death being one cycle. By decaying an amount of organic matter, the spell will heal a near equivalent amount to another organic target, or take pieces from one part of the body to repair another. It is, in essence, a brute force method of healing derived from necromancy. Due to the unconventional and volatile nature of this spell, it is extremely difficult to use and causes fatigue, Thus the limit is once per day.
When speaking the spell, the caster must place a hand on the over the wound it wishes to regenerate and the target it is taking mass from. Limited to a flower’s worth of mass and currently can’t perform the spell consistently more then once a day. Due to the fatigue it places on Ed, it is inefficient to try and heal himself unless if it is to repair a critical injury. The healing can also re-attach limbs provided the limbs are mostly in tact. Fatal injuries can't be specified from targets, unless if it is delivered to Edward himself as a form of sacrificial healing.
Learned and mastered both written and spoken forms.
A reanimation spell that requires non-animate bone mass to function. As a written spell, Ed can create up to three skeletons from a sufficient amount of bone mass. (The bone mass does not need to be exact.) If the bones don't have an anatomy or are too destroyed, the spell will reform them as human skeletons by default. Animal skeletons can be revived in the same manner, but they can only be as large as a bear and only if the anatomy of the initial mass is still in tact; in theory Ed could attempt to make a custom anatomy, like a spider made of bones and a human skull; though this requires a lot of prep work and bone material to construct before casting the spell. Arthropod exoskeletons can be used in theory, but they are much harder to use then traditional bones and are more dependent on quality (and can't default to a human anatomy.) Fossils can be used, but are also difficult, usually those aren't efficient. (Though even old bones are reinforced after reanimation.)
Though the spell doesn't target flesh or other biomaterial, any flesh and organs still possessed on a corpse are animated with the skeleton and partially reinforced (Creating more of a 'zombie' if the corpse is relatively fresh), but aren't essential to the skeleton's general construction.
The reanimated function almost like puppets as they respond to ed's control; simple commands and motions need some focus, with complex movements or actions requiring complete focus. The spell's duration for this written form is roughly 24 hours, it can be re-casted before the duration ends to refresh that duration. Each time a skeleton is reanimated upon the magic strains its general composition, so that every cast risks destroying the skeleton.
After the skeleton is reanimated, the bones are reinforced by the dark magic that binds them, as well as connecting their joints. Though they are not hard to sever by those joints, they can be easily re-attached. However, they cannot repair the bones matter itself. The flesh and other body-parts that are apart of the reanimated body are also somewhat reinforced by magic, but not as much as the bones themselves and thus are the first to fall off when taking significant damage. Fleshy corpses can provide some additional, albeit temporary protection due to this.
If the spell's effect ends on a skeleton whether by duration, failed reanimation, or damage, their bone mass will completely disintegrate to dust; preventing further use. There can only ever be three reanimated under the written spell's control, recasting the spell with new targets will cause any excess reanimated over the amount to be destroyed as well. Additionally, any reanimated that is larger then a human skeleton will count as three summons due to strain of maintaining such mass.
If the spell is spoken, it will instead imbue a target with a temporary burst of life. Due to its lack of permeance, the spell doesn't interfere with the written summon limit, though it can only target one mass per cast. Doing so will cause the bone mass to animate and move in a specific direction by the caster within a span of 10 seconds. During this animation the mass can opt a new shape instead of defaulting into a stable skeletal anatomy, such as a spike made of bones emerging from the pile, a bone wall, or otherwise launching them as an unconventional projectile as some examples. Due to the brief nature of the spoken version, it won't automatically cause the bone mass to disintegrate afterwards, though if used frequently on the same pile within a close timeframe will cause the strain to destroy them.
Learned and mastered both written and spoken forms.
This spell conjures up to four blades composed of spectral blades made of blood and ghostly fire. In its spoken form, the swords take a temporary form, hovering either just above Edward himself or directly out from the palm of his hand, and can be launched outward to chase a target with a limited homing precision (general effective range of 60 feet.) Upon hitting their target, the blade will burst and inflict a necrotic curse in which the wounded target's senses are blurred and generally have a harder time moving for a duration of one minute.
In its written form, the swords are persistent but lose their ability to be launched. In their inert state, they will continue to hover around Edward and can move within a space of 5 feet. With proper concentration and reaction, he can will those swords to move, attack, or block as basic actions. they can also be 'discarded' to lose their autonomy (Discarded phantom swords can't regain autonomy once done without recasting the spell) and instead be wielded as a weapon. In doing so, the weapon can persist away from Edward up to a distance of 100 feet (if the range limit is exceeded the sword will vanish.) In the written state, the curse can only be applied once per sword. Instead of inflicting immediately on injury, the caster has to manually trigger the curse (even if they aren't wielding it) on a target that has a wound from a corresponding sword (The curse can only be inflicted in this manner during the spell's initial duration, and not after its ended or re-casted.)
The duration of its written form lasts for one hour, two minutes in its spoken form.
Spoken only.
The spell conjures a spectral white hand that mimics the motions of Edward's left hand, only it also can move within a range of 15 feet from the left hand's point. The spectral hand can generally function as an additional hand and can also retract entirely into his left hand to easily fetch items. It can also effectively punch, grab, lift, etc with reasonable force though upon taking significant damage will cause the spell to fade.
Extra: For general spell knowledge, Edward keeps a trusty tome with his general research all recorded down, as well as notes, observations, ramblings and blank pages towards the back in case he needs to prepare written spells.
He is very possessive and secretive of that spellbook.
For most of his written spell use, he prefers to use paper talismans that are relatively cheap and easy to prepare, and versatile enough to be thrown when needed.
He carries three bags filled with general bones (usually animal bones) for his craft, as well as two smaller 'reserve' bone bags. As well as additional useless trinkets, inks, and curiosities stored within a satchel that he often has around a belt.
Edward has practiced some degree of flight, but can really only levitate, hover, and drift at a somewhat slow pace and currently isn't able to maintain it consistently.
He's also on the lower end of average in physical prowess when it comes to reapers, relying on his spells to do the heavy work for him and keeping a distance in combat.
Well, suppose Edward was a bit too optimistic with the questions. Didn't seem like he could give any detail to the specific ghost they were sent to track, figures. Regarding the familiar earring, if that is to be believed, that raised more questions on the cores. Perhaps the cores were made by mortals before being used in Decubitus? More questions to ask later.
Lucian was a bit...empty-headed, but it did seem he trying at least.
It wasn't his question to answer, but he felt obligated to reply.
"We were only sent for one spirit specifically that seemed to be disturbing the shrines, I'd imagine we'd get an update if we had more then one target. Speaking of, Chase are you able to use your divination to locate which shrines in particular our target has bothered?"
The wizard was mildly amused initially that the man didn’t recognize them as ghosts, not as there were any tell tale signs. Still, there was a sense of hurt pride when he addressed them as some form of hirees for his production, as if one day job wasn’t enough. He was another of the ‘bossy’ type, it seemed. Too many of those around. Still, he remained idle as he wasn’t the social type.
Of course, he watched in bewilderment as Lucian, the pitiable ignorant fool, unknowingly threatened the man with the false pretense that this was our guy. Perhaps, in some form of tragic irony; this movie-shooter was indeed the ghost they were looking for. Somehow blending in as a mortal.
A silly thought, to be sure, and impossible. But doubts set in when he noticed that earring.
It was subtle and quick, a detail that he could have easily missed if he wasn’t focused on the conversation. Could that really be? No, there’s no way a mortal could have obtained something like that…
He could have passed it off as some sort of, conveniently identical trinket, if Maya hadn’t also noticed it. Now, he was curious. Is the core why he can see ghosts? Did a ghost give it to him or are they suddenly letting the living carry those? Or perhaps, if he can see ghosts..
Edward did what all bookworms would do and made a note on the observation, he had briefly retrieved his spell book to jot down what he could on the matter. it could be nothing; but this kind of information should be shared with the hire-ups. Well, since he was building a profile
“Oh, could we also have your name? You don’t have to answer that if it’s too personal.”
The afterlife wasn’t as peaceful as he thought it was, Or at least, the last thing he’d think the afterlife was going to be like was being offered a job. Being more of a scholar, a job in life was just a necessary distraction from his personal studies for food and rent. But despite his apprehension to being a productive member of society, dead or alive, this job offered something to him like none other. This field was the perfect experience for his research after all, being so close to the nature of death and ensuring its cycle. It was unfortunate though that this ideal opportunity was squandered by co-workers. He wasn’t particularly fond of any of his current company, and right off the bat one of them seemed quite bossy.
“Nerd”. There was a faint but audible scoff at being addressed such. A word used by the dull. Nonetheless, for the sake of his ambitions he did his best to get along. It was his first time off the training wheels so co-operation was begrudgingly required.
The sorcerer had instinctively retrieved his tome at the question, digging through pages madly as he replied.
“Well, it’s always possible for mortals to see ghosts and whatnot through magical means; but if this is a more passive trait as the description implies, this instead suggests it’s just a natural gift of his. It’s rare, but every now and then there are people out there that can just, see them. A boring answer I know, I don’t have much notes on the subject, though I hypothesize it might have something to do with their souls being more attuned to themselves. Though keep in mind that’s just conjecture.”
He’d eventually stop flipping through the pages, as he had not found anything worth adding through his skimmed reading of his own book.
“In any case, he’s a good lead. If he can see ghosts we shouldn’t have any problems talking to him, and he’ll at least be aware enough to help us out with identification if he indeed has seen our lost soul. With any luck, he can give us a detailed description of who we are looking for.” Edward closed his book, satisfied with his own conclusion, speaking in a manner-of-fact tone that suggested an unearned confidence- perhaps an instinctual pride of an intellectual that was nonetheless really out of their depths in experience.
He had taken the chance of his own pause to look at his surroundings; the park was pretty nice. Far from the city that occupies his afterlife, these woods sure were a peaceful sight. It would have made a great study location in his free time. He hadn’t thought of returning to the mortal world for such a pleasure before, but in contrast to a bustling city the reclusive bastard preferred the ambience of silent wilderness.
“I’m also interested in those wards. This spirit apparently has tripped through multiple instances, if we can find which wards had been triggered we might get a general foot trail of their path. It’s possible they might even be stuck at the end of the trail to make our job easier.”
He’d turn towards the group after his answer to see how they replied. One hand holding his tome and the other drifting back down to his side in a casual manner.
✦ Edward Bennigan ✦ 29 ✦ Male ✦ Appearance: Edward is a somewhat tall, pale man with a light physique and raven black hair. His eyes are a dark brown, and his cheeks and nose are tinged slightly red; vaguely appearing as if he were sick. He often sports some fancy, and rather, nerdy blue loose fitting cloak as if to embrace the stereotypically nerdy side of a dungeons and dragons dork embracing the arts of wizardry. In a more casual setting he prefers loose t-shirts, hoodies, and sweatpants or shorts. ✦ Weapon: A simple black wooden staff with a purple orb embedded at the top, which harnesses electricity. The staff can unleash a discharge of electrical currents up to 30 feet away. In addition to its scorching power, the electricity has enough kick to potentially push targets back. The discharge can last for about 10 seconds.
Its core form rests on a gold ring.
Time was running out. It was never enough time; A spell like this, he should have tried to work on first. What good was making a dead dog move anyway? What good was making a cool sword? Magic was, as he had protested to his family, a solution to their problems. And yet, why did he wait until the first sign that she wasn't okay?
Anne...
Its been 10 years, watching her slowly decay. The doctors said she wouldn't make 5, yet here she was; sticking it out to the end. She was always stubborn like that, not that she expected to get any better.
"Not that stupid book again." Protested the pale figure on the bed, a hint of playful sarcasm peering out from an otherwise withered voice. Her eyes barely open but was all too familiar of the routine. "I have it this time, Anne, really! I promise, you're going to get better."
"The doctor said you shouldn't be bringing that in here. Honestly, Edd..." Despite the wheezing and coughing, her voice still had hints of that warm fire that she used to sound like. Despite her condition, she hasn't really changed. She never believed in me. Its always been like that.
Since I first showed her, moving a dead frog on its own. It was funny how it freaked her out at the time but..She never saw how it could help. No one did. Not his family, not his school friends, his teachers. The whole town were either apathetic or scornful of such practices. An affront to nature, some would say. A waste of time from others. To hell with them, but it won't be Anne's time now.
"I finally figured it out, Anne. Its been 10 years but I can fix you! I-And you're still here despite what they said. Don't you see? Its- its like destiny!" Anne wasn't convinced, Ed's voice wasn't particularly convincing either. Panicked croaking between each promise. He wasn't really sure what would happen. He knew, at least partially, that the spell should heal. But would it be enough? Could he endure the cost? The sacrifice? He was sure. He calculated this. He knew, in the next few hours, she'd be discharged from the hospital and the two of them can scream at the sun in overwhelming triumph. That both their parents will celebrate all the work he put into those 10 years instead of finding a proper job. It was this moment. This was the day he'd triumph over nature. Spit god himself in the face for allowing such a cruel world to exist. It may not be anything significant compared to the source of his inspirations. The work he's read from that strange old cabin. The promises...the ideas. But its a step forward.
A hand was placed over her forehead. "Okay Edd, I'll let you do it one more time.." She relented with a huff, though it seemed to be more out of pity over his fruitless efforts to 'save' her. Arcane words would escape his mouth, following the motion of his hand, his old book held in his other hand as he read it out loud. Before, he'd say a litany of other odd phrases, failed spells with nothing but chirping crickets and a somber patient to accompany his failure. This time, was truly different. As her withered flesh slowly began to rejuvenate. Though it took her a moment to realize, her eyes widened upon realizing the sudden lift in her condition. But that joy was short lived, replaced by a concerned inquiry.
"Ed?" She repeated, as the sorcerer seemed stiff.
"Edd! Eddie!" She cried out, the sudden shift creating a myriad of emotions. A hole was burning over his chest, through his shirt; where his heart was. Only it wasn't on fire, it as smoldering and rotting rapidly to dust. And through the process, Edward was frozen; almost so. His eyes, started to move one last time as shock of the pain subsided briefly before his mortality came to a close. His mouth opening, he was about to say something. "See? You're all better now" "Just kidding!" "I'm sorry." "I love you." Words that she wanted to hear. What she wanted him to say. But instead what came out was what she feared. Nothing. Not even a whimper, just...silence. And then he fell, stiff as a board, along the hospital floor. Whatever he intended to say, she would never find out.
✦ Magic Branch Necromancy. ✦ Magic Edward has been fascinated in arcane research since he was young, despite the disapproval of family and friends; thus he is well experienced in basic spells and even implementing both written and spoken variations of his own work.
Spoken
A powerful spell that is derived from the philosophy of life and death being one cycle. By decaying an amount of organic matter, the spell will heal a near equivalent amount to another organic target, or take pieces from one part of the body to repair another. It is, in essence, a brute force method of healing derived from necromancy. Due to the unconventional and volatile nature of this spell, it is extremely difficult to use and causes fatigue, Thus the limit is once per day.
When speaking the spell, the caster must place a hand on the over the wound it wishes to regenerate and the target it is taking mass from. Limited to a flower’s worth of mass and currently can’t perform the spell consistently more then once a day. Due to the fatigue it places on Ed, it is inefficient to try and heal himself unless if it is to repair a critical injury. The healing can also re-attach limbs provided the limbs are mostly in tact. Fatal injuries can't be specified from targets, unless if it is delivered to Edward himself as a form of sacrificial healing.
Learned and mastered both written and spoken forms.
A reanimation spell that requires non-animate bone mass to function. As a written spell, Ed can create up to three skeletons from a sufficient amount of bone mass. (The bone mass does not need to be exact.) If the bones don't have an anatomy or are too destroyed, the spell will reform them as human skeletons by default. Animal skeletons can be revived in the same manner, but they can only be as large as a bear and only if the anatomy of the initial mass is still in tact; in theory Ed could attempt to make a custom anatomy, like a spider made of bones and a human skull; though this requires a lot of prep work and bone material to construct before casting the spell. Arthropod exoskeletons can be used in theory, but they are much harder to use then traditional bones and are more dependent on quality (and can't default to a human anatomy.) Fossils can be used, but are also difficult, usually those aren't efficient. (Though even old bones are reinforced after reanimation.)
Though the spell doesn't target flesh or other biomaterial, any flesh and organs still possessed on a corpse are animated with the skeleton and partially reinforced (Creating more of a 'zombie' if the corpse is relatively fresh), but aren't essential to the skeleton's general construction.
The reanimated function almost like puppets as they respond to ed's control; simple commands and motions need some focus, with complex movements or actions requiring complete focus. The spell's duration for this written form is roughly 24 hours, it can be re-casted before the duration ends to refresh that duration. Each time a skeleton is reanimated upon the magic strains its general composition, so that every cast risks destroying the skeleton.
After the skeleton is reanimated, the bones are reinforced by the dark magic that binds them, as well as connecting their joints. Though they are not hard to sever by those joints, they can be easily re-attached. However, they cannot repair the bones matter itself. The flesh and other body-parts that are apart of the reanimated body are also somewhat reinforced by magic, but not as much as the bones themselves and thus are the first to fall off when taking significant damage. Fleshy corpses can provide some additional, albeit temporary protection due to this.
If the spell's effect ends on a skeleton whether by duration, failed reanimation, or damage, their bone mass will completely disintegrate to dust; preventing further use. There can only ever be three reanimated under the written spell's control, recasting the spell with new targets will cause any excess reanimated over the amount to be destroyed as well. Additionally, any reanimated that is larger then a human skeleton will count as three summons due to strain of maintaining such mass.
If the spell is spoken, it will instead imbue a target with a temporary burst of life. Due to its lack of permeance, the spell doesn't interfere with the written summon limit, though it can only target one mass per cast. Doing so will cause the bone mass to animate and move in a specific direction by the caster within a span of 10 seconds. During this animation the mass can opt a new shape instead of defaulting into a stable skeletal anatomy, such as a spike made of bones emerging from the pile, a bone wall, or otherwise launching them as an unconventional projectile as some examples. Due to the brief nature of the spoken version, it won't automatically cause the bone mass to disintegrate afterwards, though if used frequently on the same pile within a close timeframe will cause the strain to destroy them.
Learned and mastered both written and spoken forms.
This spell conjures up to four blades composed of spectral blades made of blood and ghostly fire. In its spoken form, the swords take a temporary form, hovering either just above Edward himself or directly out from the palm of his hand, and can be launched outward to chase a target with a limited homing precision (general effective range of 60 feet.) Upon hitting their target, the blade will burst and inflict a necrotic curse in which the wounded target's senses are blurred and generally have a harder time moving for a duration of one minute.
In its written form, the swords are persistent but lose their ability to be launched. In their inert state, they will continue to hover around Edward and can move within a space of 5 feet. With proper concentration and reaction, he can will those swords to move, attack, or block as basic actions. they can also be 'discarded' to lose their autonomy (Discarded phantom swords can't regain autonomy once done without recasting the spell) and instead be wielded as a weapon. In doing so, the weapon can persist away from Edward up to a distance of 100 feet (if the range limit is exceeded the sword will vanish.) In the written state, the curse can only be applied once per sword. Instead of inflicting immediately on injury, the caster has to manually trigger the curse (even if they aren't wielding it) on a target that has a wound from a corresponding sword (The curse can only be inflicted in this manner during the spell's initial duration, and not after its ended or re-casted.)
The duration of its written form lasts for one hour, two minutes in its spoken form.
Spoken only.
The spell conjures a spectral white hand that mimics the motions of Edward's left hand, only it also can move within a range of 15 feet from the left hand's point. The spectral hand can generally function as an additional hand and can also retract entirely into his left hand to easily fetch items. It can also effectively punch, grab, lift, etc with reasonable force though upon taking significant damage will cause the spell to fade.
Extra: For general spell knowledge, Edward keeps a trusty tome with his general research all recorded down, as well as notes, observations, ramblings and blank pages towards the back in case he needs to prepare written spells.
He is very possessive and secretive of that spellbook.
For most of his written spell use, he prefers to use paper talismans that are relatively cheap and easy to prepare, and versatile enough to be thrown when needed.
He carries three bags filled with general bones (usually animal bones) for his craft, as well as two smaller 'reserve' bone bags. As well as additional useless trinkets, inks, and curiosities stored within a satchel that he often has around a belt.
Edward has practiced some degree of flight, but can really only levitate, hover, and drift at a somewhat slow pace and currently isn't able to maintain it consistently.
He's also on the lower end of average in physical prowess when it comes to reapers, relying on his spells to do the heavy work for him and keeping a distance in combat.
✦ Edward Bennigan ✦ 29 ✦ Male ✦ Appearance: Edward is a somewhat tall, pale man with a light physique and raven black hair. His eyes are a dark brown, and his cheeks and nose are tinged slightly red; vaguely appearing as if he were sick. He often sports some fancy, and rather, nerdy blue loose fitting cloak as if to embrace the stereotypically nerdy side of a dungeons and dragons dork embracing the arts of wizardry. In a more casual setting he prefers loose t-shirts, hoodies, and sweatpants or shorts. ✦ Weapon: A simple black wooden staff with a purple orb embedded at the top, which harnesses electricity. The staff can unleash a discharge of electrical currents up to 30 feet away. In addition to its scorching power, the electricity has enough kick to potentially push targets back. The discharge can last for about 10 seconds.
Its core form rests on a gold ring.
Time was running out. It was never enough time; A spell like this, he should have tried to work on first. What good was making a dead dog move anyway? What good was making a cool sword? Magic was, as he had protested to his family, a solution to their problems. And yet, why did he wait until the first sign that she wasn't okay?
Anne...
Its been 10 years, watching her slowly decay. The doctors said she wouldn't make 5, yet here she was; sticking it out to the end. She was always stubborn like that, not that she expected to get any better.
"Not that stupid book again." Protested the pale figure on the bed, a hint of playful sarcasm peering out from an otherwise withered voice. Her eyes barely open but was all too familiar of the routine. "I have it this time, Anne, really! I promise, you're going to get better."
"The doctor said you shouldn't be bringing that in here. Honestly, Edd..." Despite the wheezing and coughing, her voice still had hints of that warm fire that she used to sound like. Despite her condition, she hasn't really changed. She never believed in me. Its always been like that.
Since I first showed her, moving a dead frog on its own. It was funny how it freaked her out at the time but..She never saw how it could help. No one did. Not his family, not his school friends, his teachers. The whole town were either apathetic or scornful of such practices. An affront to nature, some would say. A waste of time from others. To hell with them, but it won't be Anne's time now.
"I finally figured it out, Anne. Its been 10 years but I can fix you! I-And you're still here despite what they said. Don't you see? Its- its like destiny!" Anne wasn't convinced, Ed's voice wasn't particularly convincing either. Panicked croaking between each promise. He wasn't really sure what would happen. He knew, at least partially, that the spell should heal. But would it be enough? Could he endure the cost? The sacrifice? He was sure. He calculated this. He knew, in the next few hours, she'd be discharged from the hospital and the two of them can scream at the sun in overwhelming triumph. That both their parents will celebrate all the work he put into those 10 years instead of finding a proper job. It was this moment. This was the day he'd triumph over nature. Spit god himself in the face for allowing such a cruel world to exist. It may not be anything significant compared to the source of his inspirations. The work he's read from that strange old cabin. The promises...the ideas. But its a step forward.
A hand was placed over her forehead. "Okay Edd, I'll let you do it one more time.." She relented with a huff, though it seemed to be more out of pity over his fruitless efforts to 'save' her. Arcane words would escape his mouth, following the motion of his hand, his old book held in his other hand as he read it out loud. Before, he'd say a litany of other odd phrases, failed spells with nothing but chirping crickets and a somber patient to accompany his failure. This time, was truly different. As her withered flesh slowly began to rejuvenate. Though it took her a moment to realize, her eyes widened upon realizing the sudden lift in her condition. But that joy was short lived, replaced by a concerned inquiry.
"Ed?" She repeated, as the sorcerer seemed stiff.
"Edd! Eddie!" She cried out, the sudden shift creating a myriad of emotions. A hole was burning over his chest, through his shirt; where his heart was. Only it wasn't on fire, it as smoldering and rotting rapidly to dust. And through the process, Edward was frozen; almost so. His eyes, started to move one last time as shock of the pain subsided briefly before his mortality came to a close. His mouth opening, he was about to say something. "See? You're all better now" "Just kidding!" "I'm sorry." "I love you." Words that she wanted to hear. What she wanted him to say. But instead what came out was what she feared. Nothing. Not even a whimper, just...silence. And then he fell, stiff as a board, along the hospital floor. Whatever he intended to say, she would never find out.
✦ Magic Branch Necromancy. ✦ Magic Edward has been fascinated in arcane research since he was young, despite the disapproval of family and friends; thus he is well experienced in basic spells and even implementing both written and spoken variations of his own work.
Spoken
A powerful spell that is derived from the philosophy of life and death being one cycle. By decaying an amount of organic matter, the spell will heal a near equivalent amount to another organic target, or take pieces from one part of the body to repair another. It is, in essence, a brute force method of healing derived from necromancy. Due to the unconventional and volatile nature of this spell, it is extremely difficult to use and causes fatigue, Thus the limit is once per day.
When speaking the spell, the caster must place a hand on the over the wound it wishes to regenerate and the target it is taking mass from. Limited to a flower’s worth of mass and currently can’t perform the spell consistently more then once a day. Due to the fatigue it places on Ed, it is inefficient to try and heal himself unless if it is to repair a critical injury. The healing can also re-attach limbs provided the limbs are mostly in tact. Fatal injuries can't be specified from targets, unless if it is delivered to Edward himself as a form of sacrificial healing.
Learned and mastered both written and spoken forms.
A reanimation spell that requires non-animate bone mass to function. As a written spell, Ed can create up to three skeletons from a sufficient amount of bone mass. (The bone mass does not need to be exact.) If the bones don't have an anatomy or are too destroyed, the spell will reform them as human skeletons by default. Animal skeletons can be revived in the same manner, but they can only be as large as a bear and only if the anatomy of the initial mass is still in tact; in theory Ed could attempt to make a custom anatomy, like a spider made of bones and a human skull; though this requires a lot of prep work and bone material to construct before casting the spell. Arthropod exoskeletons can be used in theory, but they are much harder to use then traditional bones and are more dependent on quality (and can't default to a human anatomy.) Fossils can be used, but are also difficult, usually those aren't efficient. (Though even old bones are reinforced after reanimation.)
Though the spell doesn't target flesh or other biomaterial, any flesh and organs still possessed on a corpse are animated with the skeleton and partially reinforced (Creating more of a 'zombie' if the corpse is relatively fresh), but aren't essential to the skeleton's general construction.
The reanimated function almost like puppets as they respond to ed's control; simple commands and motions need some focus, with complex movements or actions requiring complete focus. The spell's duration for this written form is roughly 24 hours, it can be re-casted before the duration ends to refresh that duration. Each time a skeleton is reanimated upon the magic strains its general composition, so that every cast risks destroying the skeleton.
After the skeleton is reanimated, the bones are reinforced by the dark magic that binds them, as well as connecting their joints. Though they are not hard to sever by those joints, they can be easily re-attached. However, they cannot repair the bones matter itself. The flesh and other body-parts that are apart of the reanimated body are also somewhat reinforced by magic, but not as much as the bones themselves and thus are the first to fall off when taking significant damage. Fleshy corpses can provide some additional, albeit temporary protection due to this.
If the spell's effect ends on a skeleton whether by duration, failed reanimation, or damage, their bone mass will completely disintegrate to dust; preventing further use. There can only ever be three reanimated under the written spell's control, recasting the spell with new targets will cause any excess reanimated over the amount to be destroyed as well. Additionally, any reanimated that is larger then a human skeleton will count as three summons due to strain of maintaining such mass.
If the spell is spoken, it will instead imbue a target with a temporary burst of life. Due to its lack of permeance, the spell doesn't interfere with the written summon limit, though it can only target one mass per cast. Doing so will cause the bone mass to animate and move in a specific direction by the caster within a span of 10 seconds. During this animation the mass can opt a new shape instead of defaulting into a stable skeletal anatomy, such as a spike made of bones emerging from the pile, a bone wall, or otherwise launching them as an unconventional projectile as some examples. Due to the brief nature of the spoken version, it won't automatically cause the bone mass to disintegrate afterwards, though if used frequently on the same pile within a close timeframe will cause the strain to destroy them.
Learned and mastered both written and spoken forms.
This spell conjures up to four blades composed of spectral blades made of blood and ghostly fire. In its spoken form, the swords take a temporary form, hovering either just above Edward himself or directly out from the palm of his hand, and can be launched outward to chase a target with a limited homing precision (general effective range of 60 feet.) Upon hitting their target, the blade will burst and inflict a necrotic curse in which the wounded target's senses are blurred and generally have a harder time moving for a duration of one minute.
In its written form, the swords are persistent but lose their ability to be launched. In their inert state, they will continue to hover around Edward and can move within a space of 5 feet. With proper concentration and reaction, he can will those swords to move, attack, or block as basic actions. they can also be 'discarded' to lose their autonomy (Discarded phantom swords can't regain autonomy once done without recasting the spell) and instead be wielded as a weapon. In doing so, the weapon can persist away from Edward up to a distance of 100 feet (if the range limit is exceeded the sword will vanish.) In the written state, the curse can only be applied once per sword. Instead of inflicting immediately on injury, the caster has to manually trigger the curse (even if they aren't wielding it) on a target that has a wound from a corresponding sword (The curse can only be inflicted in this manner during the spell's initial duration, and not after its ended or re-casted.)
The duration of its written form lasts for one hour, two minutes in its spoken form.
Spoken only.
The spell conjures a spectral white hand that mimics the motions of Edward's left hand, only it also can move within a range of 15 feet from the left hand's point. The spectral hand can generally function as an additional hand and can also retract entirely into his left hand to easily fetch items. It can also effectively punch, grab, lift, etc with reasonable force though upon taking significant damage will cause the spell to fade.
Extra: For general spell knowledge, Edward keeps a trusty tome with his general research all recorded down, as well as notes, observations, ramblings and blank pages towards the back in case he needs to prepare written spells.
He is very possessive and secretive of that spellbook.
For most of his written spell use, he prefers to use paper talismans that are relatively cheap and easy to prepare, and versatile enough to be thrown when needed.
He carries three bags filled with general bones (usually animal bones) for his craft, as well as two smaller 'reserve' bone bags. As well as additional useless trinkets, inks, and curiosities stored within a satchel that he often has around a belt.
Edward has practiced some degree of flight, but can really only levitate, hover, and drift at a somewhat slow pace and currently isn't able to maintain it consistently.
He's also on the lower end of average in physical prowess when it comes to reapers, relying on his spells to do the heavy work for him and keeping a distance in combat.
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