Tale of Kairu

Chapter 6, Enhancement

After walking for about an hour, the three reached the ruins. The ruins were much bigger than just a library, and Nova and Kami were surprised by this. Karlek had already guessed this would be the case, but that was to be expected, because she had been here when the first king of Sibaria, Amar the Swift, was still alive. Karlek lead them to which building was Amar's library, and Nova and Kami followed as they gazed around at the ruins of the lost capital of Sibaria. 

The library was a large tower, partially sunken into the sand. Kami was the first to enter the tower. After he gave the signal that it wasn't trapped, Karlek and Nova entered as well. It wasn't likely for there to be a trap in an ancient ruin of a library, but they wanted to be careful. Once all three of them had entered all the torches in the library suddenly lit up. Nova and Kami quickly grabbed their weapons as an angel descended from the second floor. 

"What's the meaning of this, Uireb?" Karlek asked the angel. 

"I cannot allow further entry into this library. Now that all three of you have entered, I will make sure you won't ever leave, and the whereabouts of these ruins can remain secret." Uireb answered. 

"What has gotten into you? You're the demi-god of knowledge, it's your divine duty to let us in! Besides, killing me won't keep this location hidden, I will simply reincarnate with memory of this place."

"Then I will have to keep you here instead. But the others must perish." She threw a fireball at Kami, and he was only just able to dodge it in time.

Nova charged at Uireb, ready to strike, when another fireball was shot, this time at Nova. She kept running and right before the fire reached her it dissapeared.

As Nova got closer to Uireb, Uireb felt the air getting colder. Nova had reached Uireb and slashed Uireb across the chest. Uireb flew backwards and screamed. Nova's blade was searing white from heat. Nova's expression was calm while holding the hot blade, surrounded by an aura of cold air. Kami and Karlek both observed the fight from a distance, though Kami didn't understand what was happening very well. 

"Nova is using her magic to absorb heat around her, and channel it into her blade. By doing that she uses up oxygen in the air around her to create fire within her blade, making the air cold." Karlek explained, astonished by the fact that Nova knew how to do that. 

"But how did she cancel Uireb's fire?" Kami still wondered. 

"Fire cannot exist without oxygen, the only air Nova isn't using for her magic, is the air she breathes. That's why she's staying calm. If she wouldn't, she'd run out of breath and choke, causing her magic to be cancelled. The lack of oxygen is also why the fire stopped. Even magic has to follow certain laws of nature, and for fire magic to work, there must be fuel, heat and oxygen."

While Karlek was explaining the use of magic in this fight, Uireb and Nova had continued fighting. Uireb had drawn her halberd and started focusing on defense over offense. Nova was having a hard time with this, as she needed to keep moving to new oxygen for her magic to work. Her magic wasn't strong enough to drain the whole room of oxygen, even if she tried, but if she would stop moving she would run out of breath. A tactic like hers was best suited for fighting enemies that were on the offense. After a couple of strikes against Uireb's halberd the handle, with which she had been blocking, broke. Nova had hoped for this to happen so when it did she engaged without doubt. She drove the blade of her dagger into Uireb's left wing, maker her lose balance and fall down. Nova made sure Uireb wouldn't be able to fly away but holding her down as she cancelled her magic.

It took a few minutes for Uireb's sudden anger to change into sudden crying. Kami and Karlek had joined Nova in the centre of the room as Uireb cried her apology.

"I never wanted to keep people away from here. I never wanted to attack you! it's all because of that damned demon kid's curse!" Uireb yelled. 

"Kid? Ton Veru was still a kid when he cursed you?" Karlek asked. 

Uireb was surprised Karlek knew Ton Veru was behind all of this, so Karlek explained how she was cursed as well, long after Uireb did apparently, and how some other divines were also missing or clearly cursed, like Kurime for example. 

Uireb explained how she was cursed to let no-one into the library, she destroyed all knowledge about the location of the library, and then moved there to kill any intruders. The curse was broken when she was defeated, and left without choice to allow people into the library. 

She thanked Nova for breaking her curse and lead them upstairs to where she gave them a map with a way out of the desert, and back if needed. She gave Kami a journal that explained all she knew about Gofos, Ton Veru and the curses Ton Veru made. 

Kami suddenly realised that he had never seen Nova use magic like that. It wasn't complicated magic, but neither was the kind students would learn early in their studies. Nova giggled and explained that she had a look inside of the Venturian book they delivered, and read about heat enhancement. She also explained how she wasn't actually aware of how Uireb's fireballs wouldn't work because of her spell, but that she was ready to attack while on fire instead. 

Everyone was quiet for a moment. 

Uireb broke the silence when she gave Nova a large book. 

"This is a spellbook older than Kairu itself, and older than any living Divine. Its been with M., my father, since he was born, but belonged to his father before that, The Father of the Incarnations. Not all magic in that book seems to work, but most of it does. Ive added notes to make it easier to see which spells do or don't work, but I would prefer if you won't edit it yourself. I want you to have this as a thanks for breaking my curse, and to aide you in helping the other divines, if you'd be so kind."

Nova happily accepted, and left the library with Kami and Karlek, towards Miridan city, to the north.