Chapter 42 Lady Jane.

  Meeting the Demigoddess of Catastrophes was certainly interesting. Isaac wasn’t sure what her personality would be like, but upon meeting her, she really just seemed like a Fireball happy wizard given deific powers and cut loose into the world. He had no idea what path she had taken to arrive where she had, but she just seemed so unbelievably normal that it threw him off. Her hair color was brown like the bark of an ash tree and her skin was lightly tanned with a light splattering of freckles over her cheekbones. She was a few inches shorter than Isaac and Lenna and her hair was pulled back in a simple braid that had half come undone in the gale-force winds that her own spells were creating and wrangling in equal measure.

  The spells in question were breathtaking. The longer he stood next to her the more he could feel the way her mana held the entire geographical zone’s airspace in her grasp. The Typhoon of Celestia Tears was constantly begging to be let free, it almost seemed to rage against the cage of Control Weather that kept it from getting out of hand. The entire area that Jane had decided would be destroyed looked like it had been ripped out of a fairytale or a horror story. The tall grasses of the planes, where they met the steppes, were steaming as they melted away. Their verdant color was turned iridescent in all of the most sickly purples, unnaturally shiny greens, and dead browns. The two actual canyons that she had created were locking her prey into their own little hellscape. If that wasn’t enough, the lightning was literal disintegration magic. Isaac couldn’t even begin to understand how such a thing was possible. He wasn’t sure if the branches of reality destroying magics just avoided the clearly acidic rain or if the rain somehow didn’t cause them to activate early.

  Isaac watched on as Shamesh set up the tea table and locked the feet into the ground with tent spikes. There was no doubt in Isaac’s mind that the table would have gone flying otherwise. The winds were so severe that he was getting a chill just standing still in them. His cloak was trying to hold off the wind but his armor was still constantly cool to the touch, even on the inside. His eye caught a flicker of flames and he knew that Lenna was using her own aura to keep warm as her plate armor was no doubt also being cooled at an incredible rate. It was the beginning of spring so the temperatures were still low but no longer cold and that was before the gale-force winds.

  “Potion.” Jane interrupted Isaac’s inner thoughts with a demand for another potion from her companion. He immediately handed her another one and Isaac watched her discard the quickly emptied one into a pile of other such vials.

  “I’ve never felt so much mana come from someone else all at once before.” Isaac commented as he eyed the pile. “I can see that it is not sustainable.”

  “I only have around one and a half times the amount of mana as a normal twentieth level wizard.” Catastrophe explained. “Tenth level spells also require a qualitative leap in mana density as much as their quantitative leap in mana volume. As we are still bound, somewhat, by the Convention of Mortality limiting our use to ninth level spells, my tenth level spells require a bit over twice as much of my mana as my ninth level spells do. Technically, any nineteenth level wizard should be capable of casting one of my tenth level spells, the issue is that their mana pathways cannot handle the conversion and forcibly increased mana density that the spells require. They would die rather quickly, unless it was one of my faster spells, in which case they would at least be able to cast it before their mana pathways finished crumbling to magical dust.”

  “But you are also maintaining another spell at the same time.” Isaac thought aloud. “How are your mana pathways handling it?”

  “They are unbreakable.” Catastrophe replied. “I am a demigod and this is the power of my name and domain. It cannot hurt me while I use it. Now, if I dropped a meteor on myself, this body would still be destroyed, but I could power three ritual castings of that spell at the same time and take zero mana pathway damage.”

  “I see.” Isaac said absently and stared down at his own hand. His power used to be able to hurt him. It couldn’t now, but it did when he was first recreated on Primatia. He wasn’t sure what that meant about his potential demigodhood but it was something to think about.

  “Potion and a piece of bread.” Jane told her companion. “I feel like I’m gonna be sick.”

  Clark sighed and did as he was told. Jane began absently biting chunks out of a loaf of bread while she kept one hand in the air to help maintain her Control Weather.

  “Does she always… fight… like this?” Isaac asked Clark. He was very hesitant to call it fighting. It was really just her summoning the end of days over a target location and making her enemies or prey just deal with it. She was too far away and the spell had too large of an impact zone for any foe to do much against her. Especially if there was some kind of teleportation ban in place.

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  “Yes.” Clark sighed. “And she vomits used mana potions afterwards, every, single, time.”

  Isaac laughed and shook his head. Jane had a problem. Her commitment to destruction was admirable but if she wasn’t a demigod, he would have told her that she needed to deal with her addiction in a less self-destructive way. “How do you keep foes from teleporting over to you and stabbing you in the back while you are doing something like this?” Isaac asked Jane while her eyes stayed locked on her own destruction. Dozens of disintegration lightning strikes had turned the would-be combat zone into something resembling a cheese grater.

  “Oh she has her ways.” Clark cryptically replied. Jane didn’t bother answering as she was still trying to stuff her face with bread that would hopefully settle her stomach.

  Isaac, Lenna, and Clark watched on for a minute more of rampant destruction. Once Shamesh was done setting up the table and chairs, of which he also had to stake down, he looked at Isaac with obvious consternation. “How do I, how am I supposed to pour tea in this weather?”

  Isaac chuckled and shook his head. “I know it might seem sacrilegious, but just fill the bottom half of a tankard for each of us. Otherwise we are going to spill most of it.” He told his retainer. “You are going to have to hand everyone their treats individually though.”

  Shamesh nodded in understanding and resignation at having to use a tankard for tea. He did just as he was instructed, however, without complaint. “Th-thank you.” Clark said with a deep nod of his head as he accepted the beverage from the man made of bones with eyes of death itself.

  “Of course, Magus Kristenson, it is my pleasure.” Shamesh told him and moved on to offer Jane a tankard.

  Jane glanced at him and the tea for only a brief moment before she returned her eyes to her task at hand. So far, the storm had been raging for a full five minutes. She was drinking a potion every thirty seconds just to maintain the pair of spells and looked queasy at just the thought of drinking something else.

  “It is ginger tea, Lady Catastrophe.” Shamesh explained. “It will help you feel warm and will help ease your stomach.”

  Jane handed him her almost completely eaten piece of bread and took the offered tea. “Thank you.”

  “Of course, Lady Catastrophe, it is my pleasure.” Shamesh repeated what he had said to Clark but this time with a bow instead of just a deep nod of his head.

  “Just Jane.” She told him after a sip of tea. “This is good.”

  “I am glad that it suits your preferences, Lady Jane.” Shamesh told her and watched as her eye twitched. Shamesh’s laugh was almost a perfect copy of Isaac’s but not nearly as long. “I apologize, Jane.” He said with another bow.

  Isaac couldn’t hide his own amusement at the interaction. Shamesh was definitely his own person by now. He had come so far from the jerry-rigged soul-shadow bone-creature that he was a few days after his creation. His emotional state had actually devolved in the following days after he had originally been made as he settled but then over time he rebuilt himself into truly his own being. It had been a marvel and a treat to witness and be a part of and it brought a warm feeling to both his and Lenna’s chests. A mix of joy and pride if Isaac was understanding his own emotions properly.

  “Tea man, are you bound by the Convention of Mortality?” She asked him out of the blue.

  “I am unaware as to what exactly that is.” Shamesh stated what Isaac had been thinking. There were other things on his mind the last time that she had said it, so he hadn’t asked, but now Shamesh had the perfect opportunity to get Jane to clear up the information gap in their magical knowledge.

  “It is why mortals' power density caps out where it does and why mortals can only use up to ninth level spells.” Jane explained. “It was supposed to be how Mannen and the rest of the divinities kept us grounded. It did little but slow us down in the end. After all, I exist and am casting tenth level spells anyway aren’t I?”

  “I have the same mana density as any other twentieth level mage, if that is what you are asking, but my mana capacity is around ten percent higher than it otherwise should be, if that matters.” Shamesh replied.

  Jane seemed a little lost in thought for a long moment until she was forced to ask for another potion. She made Clark hold her tea while she chugged another vial of the shining blue liquid. “You might be able to cast one of my spells.” Jane eventually told him. “But if you try it and you can’t, your mana pathways are probably going to break apart in a matter of seconds.”

  “I can rebuild his mana pathways.” Isaac chimed in. “It still won’t be a pleasant experience.” He reminded his retainer but left the offer out in the open. If Shamesh wanted to try to learn one of Catastrophe’s tenth level destruction spells then Isaac was going to be the last person to try and stop him.

  Jane hummed in thought for a moment before her more fickle nature showed itself. “I already have one apprentice. I don’t think I could remember two of you.”

  Clark’s hand met his face in a clap before he just shook his head. Her first apprentice apparently had no words to describe his bafflement and disappointment in his master. Isaac wouldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t a little disappointed but he was also glad that Shamesh wouldn’t be spending the next unknown amount of time following the Catastrophe. Shamesh was a bit more disappointed however and Isaac could feel it through their bond. Isaac gave him a consoling smile but it was Lenna’s words that really brought Shamesh back to the present: “You are still learning swordsmanship, Shamesh, maybe she will be done teaching Clark by the time you are ready to move on to a different combat art.”

  Shamesh bowed to his mistress. “You are as wise as always, my Lady, I will not think of such a thing again until I am in a proper position to do so.”

  Lenna gave him a warm smile, only the bottom half of her face was visible as her faceplate was open to allow her to drink his tea, and she nodded in acceptance of his praise and statement. She then turned back to the battlefield. “Jane, I’m not sure how much more your spell is going to help at this point.” She told the Demigoddess of Catastrophes.

  “I am inclined to agree.” Jane commented and they all felt her stop feeding power to the Typhoon of Celestial Tears. Instead, she bent more of her will and power towards her Control Weather and the winds near them started to die down. It took a moment for those present to realize that the reason the winds near them had started to die down was because the wind’s speed and power were being consolidated towards the center of her target area. She had already rent the ground in twain, caused the skies to spill tears of acid and cry out disintegration, it was time to make the air itself howl in fury.