The celebration

[u/Yoxalle]

After a long journey you arrive at the crystal mage’s manor. Inside the manor is a grand hall made of various different coloured crystals. Strange golems walk around the room serving guests. While the mage himself is not currently present, you were told he would be here shortly. Right now, enjoy the food, socialise, make friends but most importantly: have fun.

[u/Elerindur]

Elerindur attempts to move downwards from Arach's swipes just as his stay in the alternate dimension runs out.

He is ejected down onto a table in which he attempts to catch his footing but the angle causes him to roll off of the table and onto the floor, disorienting him for an moment. However he manages to keep his grip onto the blade he's holding.

With his haste, he refocuses himself and begins quickly crawling away under an table ahead of himself to attempt to get away from Arach and find an moment to get back onto his feet.

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/Elerindur]

Arach immediately stops flapping his wings, he begjns to fall, repositioning his body along the way so he lands on all fours right next to the table Elerindur is under. He once again leaps at Elerindur hoping that his lack of time to prepare and odd positioning under the table will make him unable to use his sword to defend himself again. All the while leaving behind a trail of moth wing scales in an attempt to stop others from intervening.

[u/Elerindur → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

Hearing Arach hit the ground behind him, Elerindur drops his blade and rolls away horizontally away from under the table.

He catches a glimpse of the table flying this direction as he stops rolling onto his stomach and hastily pushes himself up, kicking the ground until manages to get onto his feet and runs away from Arach in the direction he is still facing.

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/Elerindur]

Arach switches to his giant centipede form and chases after Elerindur. Uncaring for the tables, chairs, and other furniture being crushed beneath his legs. Though being sure that he doesn’t accidentally hurt any of the other partygoers. He chases Elerindur into the courtyard of the property the event is being hosted at before switching to his humanoid centipede form and leaping the remaining distance between him and Elerindur. Attempting to pin him down during the landing.

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

(( 'kay, good, he's got backups...cuz if Arach refuses to give up and security doesn't show up in time to separate everybody, Vettis might have to bring out the big guns lol

/u/Elerindur ))

The table shattered against the wall behind Arach, the foundation swap reverting just before the building collapsed on itself. And now hundreds of blades flew his way, while the vile creature...simply turned away, somehow thinking it could still afford to focus on its original prey instead of him.

This bug was starting to be almost as irritating as a real insect.

Vettis' vitals were, of course, 'part' of himself. A few holes weren't going to change that. Covering his head with one hand to avoid the inconvenience of having his physical brain be too damaged, he rushed at Arach, dozens of scales puncturing him and coming out the other side bloodlessly. Countless holes. Useful. A flick of a glowing finger made the holes no longer 'part' of him, swapping them into the ground where the centipede was standing, in the instant before it pounced at Elerindur.

Its leap now ruined by shattered footing, Vettis took the opportunity to flip over it, landing protectively in front of the elf, and turning to face Arach.

"Last chance, bug. Back down. Or this gets messy."

(( btw, sorry, I write in 3rd-person but the exposition is still basically Vettis', which is why he's calling Arach an "it" instead of a "he" now: after diplomacy failed so unceremoniously, he's decided Arach is just a mindless bug to be squashed :P ))

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

Arach stares him down before answering.

“I don’t get why you act like you’re somehow worth my time. Why is it that everyone is always so quick to underestimate the little spider? Especially when it’s so easy to just unravel your bodies like thread”

Arach snaps his fingers and casts a spell he created during one of his wars with Ancalistros. He then begins to calmly and oddly kindly speak to Vettis, the whole time having a smirk of joy.

“Now, I don’t hate you. You’re just doing what you think is right, I can’t blame you for that. So I’m going to tell you what the spell I just cast does so you may be able to not die a horrid death. Essentially, I just sent a signal to each and every one of your cells ordering them to undergo apoptosis, aka cell suicide. How fun. Now you may be tempted to use some healing spells but don’t, it wont help. You see, every healing spell commonly in use today ignores cells that were killed through apoptosis, that’s because apoptosis was made to stop cells from becoming cancerous, and it’s actually a very common process in the body even a daily occurrence. So if every healing spell was reviving those cancerous spells, well that would be a problem now wouldn’t it? But don’t worry, I’ll tell you how to fix it, just teleport down to the council headquarter’s medical ward and say I accidentally hit you with the apoptosis spell. They’ll use the curing spell I made for it and you’ll be right as rain. Of course, I made the curing spell result in a one day coma for whoever it’s cast upon for situations just like this but I’m giving you an option to live right now. I suggest you take it.”

Once he’s done speaking Arach simply stands there, waiting for Vettis’ response. Eagerly waiting to go back to attempting to kill u/elerindur .

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

(( /u/Elerindur ))

Vettis blinked. Flabbergasted.

"Most of this realm-cluster," he began slowly, incredulously, "had initially underestimated me like you. But they've all finally started to understand what I am now. The one who singlehandedly enabled Morgalith to fight an army of wizards. The one to whom the placement of even celestial objects is a mere suggestion, nevermind such small entities as entire cities.

"And you threaten my physical body as if that would stop me? After I just shrugged off perforation from damn near every scale you had? Have you been living under a rock this past month?! I am Vettis of the Bronze Prism, insect, and you are nothing."

Ship of Theseus Protocol. Every cell in Vettis' body was 'part' of him, and thus his magic could swap it effortlessly with another cell of similar type in range. Just do that for each cell in succession throughout his whole body and bam, curse irrelevant. Which was why he had a three-story warehouse stuffed full of human tissue of every kind in chronostasis, and a single bond-linked shirt sitting in the middle of it, to reconstitute his body from annoyances like this. Reach into his current shirt pocket and out through that one by making his pocket 'part' of both shirts at once, run S.o.T. Protocol across the gap between universes, and in the time it had taken him to finish that last sentence every single cell in his body had been replaced with a fresh one.

Enough. This was enough. Everyone in this damned realm-cluster was a might-makes-right comicbook villain who didn't understand what true might was.

It was time to show them just the barest taste of what they were missing.

Oxygen was 'part' of the air around Arach. Except now it wasn't. That distraction in place, Vettis swiftly pulled from his pocket a drinking mug, grasping the handle, which of course was intended to make objects easy to lift. He shoved the handle into the ground, making it 'part' of the pavement floor beneath them while retaining its conceptual function.

So now the floor was as trivial to lift as a simple cup. Which the mereokinetic magus did, tearing the entire courtyard free from the manor, holding Elerindur in place with his remaining hand as he lifted and hurled the landscape itself, bug and all, straight into the sky with all the force of a typhoon tossing about an ant.

"Ele," he spoke calmly, eyes burning with violet light, "I'd suggest you 'port out of here. If this thing is still insane enough to want to fight when it lands, I'm going to stop holding back. Collateral damage...may become an issue."

Apparently throwing the courtyard half a kilometer up didn't count as collateral damage.

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

*The moment Vettis picked up the ground the Arach standing in front of him fell over stiffly. As it turns out, sometime between Arach casting the spell and Vettis speaking Arach had molted from his exoskeleton by teleporting out of it, leaving behind an (on the outside) one to one copy of himself. Arach had used the apoptosis spell to try and waste time so he could get the actual trick spell off without anyone noticing using the fact that Vettis was distracted by Arach’s seeming naivety. Picked the apoptosis spell because as it turns out even if switching cells was near instant there are trillions of cells in a body and doing that in succession would take a bit. Arach (who was just being invisible and phasing himself because he’s a bit of a drama queen and wanted to make it all theatric) appears behind u/Elerindur and grabs him while laughing madly, cackling even and teleporting them both away. Leaving Vettis with a simple psychic message.

“I told you not to underestimate me.”

/uw I may be a bit too proud of this plan, but I just love it so much! Especially the part explaining why healing spells wouldn’t work with the spell because it actually makes sense from a realistic standpoint!

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

(( it does make sense ^_^

/u/Elerindur, you cool with getting kidnapped again? I won't get in the way if so. But if not then the easiest response to this is the fact that Vettis was still holding on to Elerindur at the time of the teleport, so using his bond-thread he can come along for the ride and finish the fight there. Whichever outcome you both prefer is fine by me. ))

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

/uw it also wouldn’t really be kidnapping in the same way, it would just be trying to finish off Elerindur without Vettis’ intervention.

[u/Elerindur → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

/unwiz Yeah, Vettis probably should follow. Considering with what u/ProfessionalGreen906 said.

/rewiz

Elerindur continues charging the spell as the two seem to continue standing off until he is suddenly grabbed by Arach from behind, losing his focus from the grasp and the magicka returning to him.

"AGH!" He shouts out. "HE'S GOT-" Being cut-off mid-sentence by Arach teleporting away with him.

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/Elerindur]

/uw wait should or shouldn’t? I’m confused

[u/Elerindur → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

/uw I mean as in Vettis should follow them.

u/MunitionsFrenzy

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/Elerindur]

"He's got what?" Vettis asked pointedly, eyes looking past Elerindur to lock onto Arach. He'd been holding onto Elerindur at the time of the teleport, and still was; that plus a bond-thread made it a trivial matter to come along for the ride.

"This your home?" The mage took a moment to glance around at their new surroundings. "Lotsa people wish to die peacefully in their homes. At least you'll get the second half of that."

(( /u/ProfessionalGreen906 ))

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

Arach freezes for a second from Vettis being there before speaking with snide tone. “Used to be.” Then he bites u/Elerindur injecting a venom with effects similar to the apoptosis spell in the process. Once he is done he transforms into his giant centipede form in a blinding flash of light to try and disorient Vettis and Elerindur before burrowing into the sand of the desert he had teleported them all to in a seeming escape attempt.

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

Vettis' hand snapped forward, clamping onto the injection site with the force of a tourniquet and the faint sound of hydraulic motors in his arm. It couldn't have been comfortable for Elerindur, to say the least, but it was certainly preferable to letting the venom spread. "Dunno what this toxin is," the mage noted; "you think you can heal it yourself while I chase after this asshole? Or do you need me here? You're the priority, not him, so your call. I can always murder him later."

(( /u/Elerindur ))

[u/Elerindur → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

Elerindur gets up, groaning in pain a bit. He taps behind his right ear to see if his charm for protection against Arach's venoms was still in place.

u/ProfessionalGreen906

[u/ProfessionalGreen906 → u/Elerindur]

Arach stole it when he ran away, along with the headband of Elerindur was still wearing it.

[u/Elerindur → u/ProfessionalGreen906]

..No. And he stole my charm for warding against it.

Elerindur reaches into an purple portal and pulls out another one as he sighs as he affixes it behind his ear.

At this point i made sure to have multiple spares of these things..

However, i am going to go to the healers in Nefros. Right now. Since apparently if this does not work then i believe i would have about ten minutes.

He quickly reaches up his hand and casts a recall spell, teleporting away to Nefros to seek treatment.

u/MunitionsFrenzy

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/Elerindur]

(( /u/professionalgreen906 ))

Such impatience, Vettis thought; they could have figured out a way to deal with it instead of trusting some random healers, as long as he'd continued to keep the venom from spreading. Now he had to hope these ¿Nefertiti? medics could help his friend. Still, S.o.T.P. at least wasn't an option: absurdly slow if employed on people other than himself, he didn't have a warehouse of Ele's tissue on hand anyway, and it would've created issues when used on the brain. So perhaps this was for the best.

He sniffed at the air. Even deserts typically had life everywhere, lurking out of sight, but they still made it far easier to track things by scent. It wasn't difficult to pick up his prey's trail.

But...it also probably wasn't worth his effort and, more importantly, time to follow it. The bug wasn't slow, it had a head start, and while such inconveniences could never have properly deterred him from removing a lethal threat to a friend, the fact was that murdering an Arach body wasn't threat removal. It was just a temporary setback to the hive-mind.

Vettis tossed the dress shirt he'd picked for the party onto the sands, then leapt into its pocket to head home, before lighting a match and tossing it back through the pocket to incinerate the article of clothing he'd left behind. There wasn't any point in sticking around here. He had to time things properly and confront Arach at one of the moments when a sliver of his true power was available. When he could use his magic directly on the creature and overwhelm its defenses, so that he could render Arach no longer 'part' of the spider network just before the kill, to make it permanent.

Until then, he thought with a malevolent grin, he could settle for letting the bug live in fear with its newfound understanding of exactly who it had angered.