Overpowered Wizard

Magic, just like any art or science or philosophy, came with different specialities. Outside of traits, skills, and grimoires, other common magic studies were crafting, enchantments, and wards. Beyond that were the lesser known or rarer specialities: arrays, seals, rituals, blessings, and boons.

If a magician were to categorize some of those esoteric powers, wards and arrays fitted together as fixed machinations hinged on an area while not specifically affecting the area such as what enchantments and seals would do.

Arrays and wards differed based on their focuses, with arrays having no genuine focus than what a sorcerer would design and wards having a focus on defense. Arrays could do defensive warding, too, but they weren’t strongly suited for it.

Proper wards had an unwieldy and sturdy heaviness to them that required them to stay where they were made. Every time a ward moved, they needed to be updated.

Still, a solid and well-made ward could divert or block attacks at a fraction of the cost compared to an enchanted item without sacrificing much – Atlas showing his stuff earlier was the perfect example of that.

Ariana’s black fireball melted through three fire-defense wards and six destruction wards that Zarian had taken a long time to construct on himself yesterday.

He’d kept them updated almost every minute since then, taxing his mental acuity while ignoring the metaphysical weight that wanted to crush him from wearing dozens of wards for over twenty-four hours.

With each ward fizzing out or snapping like planes of glass from around his body, the runes unwinding from where he fixed them skin-close on paper-thin sheets of invisible aura, he felt a little lighter. He also had to hold in a frustrated shout at the losses.

Making wards wasn’t normal nor easy for him. They would’ve cost an egregious amount to keep updated if it wasn’t for his Aura Transcendence and over 1000 stats in Mysticism.

But once again, his relationship with Ruvaria the Sorceress Queen proved that there were myriad things he could learn and work on. After all, she had a thorough devotion to the craft of teaching, which brought up a few questions two months ago.

Why shouldn’t she teach him all the forms of magic specialities she knew? And why wouldn’t he learn?

Thus, here he was now, remaining untouched after taking a surprise fireball that would’ve destroyed his head and cost him a revival from his divine charm.

Para reared up as multiple blood red phantom serpents with over a hundred clawed hands floating in the air behind Zarian. All four grimoires appeared, orbiting, hovering, growling, and scuttling.

The wizard was still walking into the spatially widened temple that was as big as three stadiums on the inside, his boots thudding across a bone floor covered in blackened ash piles of willing sacrifices.

There was nobody else inside other than Ariana. Head Acolyte Evelyn was smart enough to wait outside the entrance, leaving the sibling Ultra Gods to hash things out.

“I’m not as simple a meat puppet as before,” Zarian growled. “I’m a refined meat puppet with decorum. And I carry with me a princess of parasites and phantoms who’ll back me up. So, are we done throwing a hissy fit, or must we work out our issues constructively, young lady?”

“You’ve changed.”

Zarian sighed, doing his best to hide his emotions and keep a strong front. But Ariana didn’t make it easy.

Her latest manifestation waited on top of an altar made of liquid black metal and screaming skeletons with charred bones.

She wasn’t a giant, scantily clad behemoth of a young girl anymore. Instead, she stood half a head shorter than him, while wearing a dark and frayed dress. She stood barefooted, with dark claws extended from her fingers and toes. A crown of horns topped her head, with wiry black hair twisted into braids that flowed down her back. Her Sunday best was far behind her, but at least she wasn’t so brazen as before.

Despite himself, Zarian was relieved to see her being more modest. Then he put aside his relief and tried to cast Void Domain and Void Parade to snuff out another destructive fireball aimed at his chest.

Ariana’s divine power came crashing down, flattening Zarian’s void powers, which he allowed to happen, not willing to put up a fuss just yet. Instead, he lost seven more wards and became even lighter.

“I’m angry with you,” Ariana said, arms crossed, black fireballs spiralling out of thin air around her. “Did you replace me with that lummox? That insanely stupid blonde? Is she your little sister now?”

Zarian caught the twinge of hurt in her voice. He also caught the twinge of ache in his heart and pushed it to the back, maintaining a strong but flexible front.

“She can’t replace you, Ariana, but Bianca is among my favorite people these days.”

Ariana snorted derisively. “Then there is only one course for us to redress the hurt I feel.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Oh, trust me, I hurt a lot, too.” Zarian kept walking across the immense atrium, leaving behind the exit where safety waited. “Let’s go, little sister. Show me a fraction of that power. Show me what killed one of my kiddos and let me redress that in turn.”

“Star System, do what you must,” Ariana ordered.

<Beware! The Dragoness is facing the Dark Emperor at the center of the Ride-or-Die Empire in the World of Castles and Caverns!>

The red notification flashed above their heads, urgent and deeply afraid. Zarian figured the same warning was appearing around the capital and in every major location on the World of Castles and Caverns.

“Hm, interesting, you’re warning all the Lesser Worlds,” Ariana said, sharpened eyes glaring up at the notification. “Your caution is pointless. I’m not interested in wholesale destruction right now. That will come later.”

“Let the Star System do what it must. We’ve traumatized the guy plenty enough, haven’t we?” said Zarian’s voice, sounding from the corner behind Ariana’s altar.

Surprisingly, her avatar looked behind her, falling for the displaced voice Zarian conjured with pure aura manipulation. She didn’t see the heavy bolt he made with Aura Mastery + Dark Affinity come for her head, taking one on the back of her dome.

An attack like that would’ve blown through the biggest and thickest walls protecting other nations outside of the Ride-or-Die Empire.

Ariana shook her head a little and turned to glare back at Zarian.

The wizard spread his hands, a smirk lighting up the dark shroud under the brim of his crooked wizard hat.

In the next instance, Ariana crossed the distance with one step and fused all the black fireballs into a sword held in her right hand. Every instinct Zarian and Para shared about danger blared, reshuffling their plans and falling back to the basics – survival.

Parasite Phantom and Lion Prince focused on buffing Zarian’s body, making him faster, stronger, and more mentally focused. His wizard hat buffed his aura powers and his mental speed. His free evil +7 pushed him mentally further.

He was still a hair too slow to dodge or defend as Ariana slashed the tip of her destruction sword through all of Zarian’s wards.

The wards made a screaming noise before unfurling in a haunting, twisted way that shouldn’t happen to wards. Their passing left him peeled open like an orange with no direct damage to the flesh.

Ariana’s next move promised some proper pain.

By the time Zarian tried to cast a counterattack, Ariana disappeared from in front of him. His aura perception found her avatar positioned behind him after moving far beyond the speed of sound, kicking up thick clouds of ash with her shockwave-inducing movements.

She thrust her sword at the back of his leg for a hamstringing injury.

And met the edge of the mythical Void Sword.

<Void Sword (Mythical): The exiled prince returned with a spell that combined nothingness and madness into a form that cannot cut, but cuts anyway, sharpening its edge on paradoxes. The costs are nearly impossible to pay for those in the Master Ranks and too heavy for those in the Champion Ranks. Scales triply with Wonder.>

The last spell of the Voidling Grimoire wiped out eighty percent of Zarian’s aura supply. There was no spell in his repertoire, not even the one for summoning the hell gator, as expensive as casting Void Sword.

Gripped by the strongest limb on Zarian’s body, his lion tail, a blade made from nothingness that cannot cut but cuts anyway held out when its edge met Ariana’s sword.

A keening scream that ripped and warped reality filled the temple with the song of destruction and paradoxes from the clash of swords.

Ears bleeding, Zarian flew off his feet, tumbling and rolling, as he tried to get Void Domain and Void Parade working again. He had an anchor in the shape of a blacker than black short sword held by the end of his tail, so by focusing on that, his other void spells should come to play.

Ariana was already stepping in front of him with a sword swing for his forearm. He didn’t bother using Wizard Body Conversion – he knew Ariana could cut through his void form and hurt him directly. Instead, he flicked his tail around to meet Ariana’s edge with a basic parry.

His sword missed, hitting air after falling for Ariana’s feint, forcing Zarian to throw himself through the void to dodge a sword strike by the skin of his teeth. When he came out of the void, Ariana was waiting for him, her blade thrusting at his thigh for another attempt.

Zarian’s new friend, Hugudeh, intervened because of a new spell from the Freaky Morphs grimoire.

<Eldritch Friendship (Mythical): Talk to eldritch creatures and make the abhorrent horrors of madness more understanding to your more human reality. They might take a liking to you or just tag along because you’re a tasty treat they wish to cherish slowly. Extremely high cost. Scales with Willpower and Wonder.>

Zarian’s aura supply dipped even further as Hugudeh came flying forth with dozens of attempts to hug his target, and each of those hugs didn’t necessarily lead to getting wrapped in arms.

Tentacles slapped and whipped about. Armless torsos stitched together from neck to waist and so forth stretched out in multiple thick trunks. Then there were the actual arms that looked human except for having too many joints and fingers that were also arms, and at the end of those little arms were more arms and more arms and more arms.

Either way, the hugging eldritch monster wasn’t something that belonged in a Lesser World, but its powers came out structured under the Star System anyway.

Zarian could feel the magic of insanity radiating from its form by peeling back his Floridian Mindset a little. He let his Willpower stand against the creature – and, yeah, this thing would twist and break most people below Level 100 fast.

How did the hugging eldritch do against Ariana?

The damn thing was wailing in its death throes only 2.3 seconds after coming out of the void. Unfurling black smoke and flames of the darkest destruction wafted off its charred pieces as Ariana turned her full attention back to Zarian.

The pressure from her divine temple clamped down further, restricting void abilities except for the Void Sword. The blade of nothingness and paradoxes was too badass to go out so easily here, which helped Zarian benefit from some of his key buffs.

On another positive note, those 2.3 seconds were enough for Zarian to finish unsealing Two Percent Darkness.

He also passed the Void Sword to one of Para’s ghostly hands, trusting her to keep him physically buffed while handling sword play better. She’d been learning from Bianca lately.

Zarian focused on magic casting and controlling his darkness, demanding all the shadows and darkened corners in Ariana’s temple to abide by his rule.

They didn’t budge.

Ariana reached out with her free hand. She drew all the shadows and darkened shades of her temple to her palm. She formed another sword, this one of pure darkness, with a weight and deadliness similar to Zarian’s Void Sword, or maybe even beyond that.