Chapter Thirteen: Summoning Fire From The Pits
HOWLS. HISS.
CRASH!
SHATTER!
BOOM!
The sounds of active combat sounded from seemingly all around Max's form, causing Max to jolt awake quicker than he would've had he had proper time of coming to. With that jolt came environmental awareness.
He was still in the attic of the Witch Burial Ground, alone, by himself. Nothing was out of place except for a bookshelf that fell over in the corner due to the trembling the entire cottage was experiencing, shattering a vase of long-dead flowers beneath its weight. No attack inside the house.
The realization should've made Max's racing heart calm down. Instead, it only caused it to beat even faster, before going cold with dread as another realization dawned on him. 'The inside of the cottage is safe. What about the outside?'
Eyes wide, Max rushed to the attic window. What he saw caused him dread: over 30+ vampires were attacking the cottage, and they must've been older vampires, because they were very strong. And the only reason why they hadn't destroyed the sacred grounds of the Bennett coven was because Bonnie, Kaleb, and Grams had projected a boundary spell around the grounds while Caroline, Stefan, Damon, Tyler, and Jeremy were combating the hostile vampires.
Tyler and Jeremy were in their werewolf forms, with Jeremy leading Tyler's mindless attacks away from the Salvatore brothers and toward the enemy. And Bonnie was chanting alongside Kaleb & Grams, blood coming from their noses as they kept any stray vamps from entering sacred ground. All the while Elena hid behind them, useless as ever.
'Seriously, outside of being the MC, she really is useless. At least with Damon, the bastard can fight. I mean, I can't stand the guy, he annoys me more than Elena does at times, but at least he isn't useless,' Max thought before his eyes began to take in the appearances of the two witches again, making note of their bleeding noses and their evidently exhuasted but determined forms. 'They need help. With me having assimilated the power of the 100 burned witches, I left this land vulnerable. But no more.'
Max stepped away from the window and got into a sitting position, hands on the floor. In his hands, he picked up a jar of Burial Ground soil he magically summoned from outside. A ball of strands of hair, magically taken from each of the 100 Bennetts off their corpses, using the Accio incantation. He grabbed an onyx focus stone lying on one of the attic shelves and a carton of salt he'd brought with him for his task back before his slumber, making a magic formation with 4 candles quartet at the cardinal points with a 5th in the center.
Max pulled out a bell and a silver needle. He began chanting, mildly noticing Kol's intrigued however slightly concerned, ghostly gaze on him, but he did his best to ignore him. He needed to focus.
'I was wrong to assimilate the 100 witches,' Max thought regretfully. 'I left my family's most sacred grounds unprotected. I may need the power, but there is a better way to get it. I'll re-bind the spirits to the grounds after the de-assimilation, copy their power through lobomancy, and then just assimilate what I copied while re-strengthening and re-invigorating these sacred grounds. Everybody wins. Everybody's happy.'
'Of course, I will need to be swift. The longer my three relatives down there keeping up the barrier, the greater the risks of death — even with Sheila's vitality replenished and enhanced, three witches against over 30 hostile vampires is still an uphill battle. Thankfully, Sabrina has just the incantation… Or the theories of one indirectly. Here goes nothing.'
Max began chanting, repeating his spell over and over again as he wove the ball of collected hairs around the onyx focus stone with the silver needle, forming a doll around the onyx rock.
"By the bones beneath the sycamores and by the blood that grew this root, I call the severed old-house magic back to shape and suit," Max dinged his bell, untwisting the jar of dirt and pouring it onto the ground.
"Unbind the weave that holds them close," he pricked his finger, dropping it onto the hair-covered onyx stone. "Unlace the knotted fold; let their power spill like winter rain, within this vessel hold." He began re-weaving the hair around the blooded onyx focus stone. "Transfer to me the gifts I choose, I take what I claim by right; root them now, return them deep to Mystic Falls this night."
He felt the power leave him— the power of a hundred dead witches —- transfering itself from his being and bleeding into a rough doll made of stone and hair. Then, copying that power, he absorbed the copy by casting lobomancy before returning to the originals.
"Soil, accept them. Stone, receive. Gravewind, seal and keep. Bind the hundred Bennetts to their burial sleep and protect this land once more. I Say, Bind The Hundred Bennetts To Their Burial Sleep And Protect This Land Once More. BIND THE HUNDRED BENNETTS TO THEIR BURIAL SLEEP AND PROTECT THIS LAND ONCE MORE!"
Dropping the doll with the pile of dirt, a flash of light seared as Max felt the power return to the grounds, the sound of whispers ushered upon the ground once more. And, as the phenomena calmed, and Max felt the spirits settle into their ancestral seat, Max spoke.
"Spirits, I will handle the vampire desecrators," Max said, hearing their whispers. "I am the cause that our sacred grounds became unprotected. I will take them out with my own magic."
The daring claim caused the whispers to pause, as even from the Other Side, the 100 witches of the Bennett Coven, and Kol Mikaelson and Qetsiyah both — who had been watching Max upon his awakening, intrigued and curious — watched the young warlock leave the attic, heading outside to combat the threat.
Kol
As Kol and Qetsiyah led the 100 witches to follow Max outside, Kol couldn't help but worry — a foreign and long-forgotten, annoying emotion he thought he'd long lost the ability to feel. And one he seemed to suffer from in perpetuity now that he's gone and gotten himself attached to a minx of a little warlock of a troublemaker.
'This bratty little minx of a troublemaker has only just awakened from a 9 month, magically induced coma, and has separated a 100 witches from his soul, re-bound them to his covens' sacred lands and is already trying to challenge over 30+ hostile vampires sent by my own brother', Kol thought in frustration, following Max out the attic and down the stairs. 'And this ancient witch is as mute as ever, even while she's intrigued.'
Kol turned to his right, to the witch in question: Qetsiyah, following Max beside himself. She noticed Kol staring, locked eyes, before choosing to say silent and continued watching Max. Nothing else to do, Kol did the same.
The two had been spending quite a few unwanted time together since meeting Max — Kol personally preferred Max's bratty, snarky company. He was a silent but mischievous little witch and, admittedly, Kol has grown attached watching over the boy, even in slumber.
As he stepped out the door, Kol couldn't help but remember why the vampires had decided to attack.
They were after the moonstone. When it was revealed that no one in Mystic Falls possessed it, it was declared that someone must've had taken it. This was further cemented by the Lockwood's Well security camera that had been hidden and recording the day Max had taken it from the well. It showed how Max had snuck back onto the property, retrieved the stone from the well, and combated a vampire before vanishing from sight.
And, after compelling the information out of Matt Donovan of all people(Seriously, of all people Kol wants to kill most right now, that stubborn blonde 'Wont Die' Bastard of a human tops the cake…Behind Niklaus, of course), the vampiric group — ordered by Klaus to find the moonstone, set their sights on Max's place of long slumber.
"Thankfully, his friends figured out the target of their attack before they could launch it, otherwise, Max could've died before he even woke," Kol muttered to himself. 'This little witch is way too much of a trouble magnet, even compared to my own self. The thrill of the thought of what we could be when I'm back alive and free to cause chaos with him, together, elicits such a buzzing feeling beneath the skin. I'm honestly not sure if I want to strangle him or fuck him, while the world is burning down around us. Dammit! My magnet of trouble, my little minx of a warlock — You better not die today. I still need to be un-daggered!'
Max
As Max stepped out the door of the cottage, he was greeted by a pause of battle, as all eyes shot to him—30+ hostile vampires, three exhausted witches, two shifted werewolves, a whiny useless girl. A broody sorta hot Salvatore brother that Max actually respected and a dark haired vampirically snarky Salvatore brother that he whole-heartedly couldn't stand — All eyes fixed on him.
"This is an…unexpected surprise," Max's voice reverberated along the surrounding forests effortlessly. "An attack on my family's most sacred grounds? During my slumber? Disrespectful. Shameful. Inconceivable. Retributionable… That last one might not be a word, by the way."
Silence.
And then, from the hostile vampires, a female vamp spoke. "You are the witch with the stone. I recognize you from the security footage. You're younger than I thought you'd be," she began, her eyes suddenly harddenning. "Give me the stone. Now. or you will die and we'll take it from your corpse."
Neither side moved as Max fixed his gaze on the vampire and her band of vamps.
Max did speak, though,
"You are in Bennett witch territory, trying to command a Bennett to give you something you have no right wanting — All in my family's coven place of power?" Max's voice was amplified by the wrath of the spirits, silencing the hostile vampiric lady and her band of besieging vamps. Max took a deep breath, smirk plastered on his face arrogantly. "No matter. It won't be Bennett magic that harms you these days, leeches. It'll be something much worse."
Max's words caused chills to run down everyone's spines. Both friend and foe alike. Even Qetsiyah, Kol, and the spirits on the Other Side had his attention — or rather, he had theirs. And he wasted no time utilizing it.
"I, Maximus Bennett-Westphall, son of Marcus Bennett and Christina Westphall, child of the Night," Maximus' chants echoed across the forest as everyone's hairs stood on end. They had the mild sense that danger was in the air. "Call forth Fire from the Pit!"
The effect was immediate. A blue glow seemed to ignite from the hand of the vampire lady, before the others also had such a glow upon their arms, indigo matching flames beginning to consume their arms and hands, travelling up their bodies, as they desperately (and quite uselessly) attempted to fling it off them to no avail. With the panic came the screaming — like a speaker sounding forth the screaming souls of Hell itself upon the land.
All the while, Max chanted: "Ater Ignus, fusce flamme. Te evoco ut potentium tuam monstres. Cupidibus flammis hic veni. Caelo sub isto, harc arborem consumo. Lucem tenebrasque tuas monstra. Impetuum tuum evoco ad devorandum. Hanc arborem ac omnes hospitas devora."
As the vampires screamed in agony, everyone else (be they human, Salvatore, witch, werewolf, or spirit) watched on in horror as the indigo flame consumed all the vampires alike, reducing them near instantly to ashes. Max purposely, however, left one alive, who, thinking they were spared accidentally, vanished away to tell the tale, of what happened to Klaus, leaving silence in their wake.
As silence reigned, all eyes shot to Max, on both sides of the veil. The witches present were silent. The werewolves (now in human forms) and vampires, too — They were all silent. The spirits themselves seemed to be silently contemplating the scene they had just bared witness to. No one spoke.
Max did minutely take in Tyler's situation. 'Bonnie must've given him the serum I concocted to allow him to summon forth his wolf form,' Max realised. 'He still hasn't a 100% control over the form yet, considering Jeremy had to guide him away from harming Stefan and Damon during the fight and all, but the fact that he was able to call forth his wolf at all without a full moon shows progress. Perhaps I should resurrect Mason and give both of them my bite? I always did think Tyler's Uncle was kind of hot. I'll have to work on his resurrection soon.'
What stumped Max was the fact that this event hadn't occurred in canon. In fact, to his knowledge, this was an entirely original event. A story arc that diverged off the show's canon.
'This many vampires looking for the moonstone? Was it because I took it before anyone in the main story could have gotten it? Is my own actions truly altering canon?' Max pondered to himself before widening his eyes in realization. 'Or is an outside power spicing up his favorite show? Making my life harder than it needs to be…That damn R.O.B. Fucking hell!'
"What kind of flames were those that you summoned?" Grams' voice shook Max from his thoughts, bring him back to the present. "They felt… otherworldly. And that incantation… wasn't your typical invocation. It didn't follow any known speaking patterns I'm familiar with, nor is a spell I can I've had privilege of witnessing myself before today. It felt…well, otherworldly."
"That's because it was…Otherworldly. I mean," Max answered his aunt, startling the old witch, "Hellish flames that feed off souls and physical matter until one is but dust and ash. They are…other dimensional flames by nature, and dangerous to summon. I reckon I'm the first person in the world to have done so, though I wasn't sure if they'd have worked on vampires—Now that they did, it's suffice to say, vampires really do have souls, after all."
'What a terrifying spell,' Sheila thought to herself after hearing her nephew's answer.
"What would have happened if the spell's wording were off? Or you made a mistake with the intentions?" Bonnie asked curiously.
"I'd probably be consumed by existential erasing flames… Or worse," Max shrugged. "But I have contingencies in place for such instances."
'Lies!' Max thought to himself. 'At most, I have concepts of contingencies—But they don't need to know that.'
As everyone began leaving, Max promised Tyler he'd come by later that evening to talk to him, but he wasn't sure if he really heard Max as the guy was basically eye-fucking Jeremy the whole time.
Max did resurrect Mason Lockwood that night, when he was alone for nights, where he called forth the werewolf's soul from the Other Side, binding it to the re-invorated and upgraded body. It was essentially a 25 year old version of Taylor Kinney, not quite as rugged as he was when he played Mason Lockwood, but definitely still rugged and built similarly. He had given this Mason the bite after resurrecting him in this body, upgrading his physical abilities even as far as werewolves were concerned.
Unknowingly to Max, the moment the wolf's soul had awakened in the body, and Mason Lockwood had gasped awake, the 27 year old had imprinted on him.
What Max did know, however, was that during the process, he had felt the ominous arrival of Klaus Mikaelson in the body of Alaric Saltzman the moment he entered Mystic Falls city limits.
'The vampire that got away had already spoken to him about what happened,' he thought,privately, while he caught Mason up to date on what's happened during his brief time dead. He did grin to himself though, as mason constantly eyed him with those puppy dog eyes of his that Max swears must've become even more imploring upon setting sights on him.
Shaking the thought away for later contemplation, Max focused on the observing Klaus plot from afar. 'Good. Now Klaus will probably be interested in me, rather than Bonnie. Hopefully, that steer clears his need to kill her. If not, I can always resurrect her.' Max thought after glancing at the soon-to-be hybrid vampire, before returning to his physical body its complete motor functions.
"It's April 13th, 2011. A meteor shower will occur on the 22nd. A full moon too. I'll use both to undagger, free and upgrade Kol," Max murmured, while, on the Other Side, Kol was ecstatic with anticipation. "Hopefully nothing goes wrong in the meantime."
Meanwhile, in the CAOS's universe, a certain Lucifer Morningstar, Celestial Fallen Archangel and True Ruler of Hell, sneered an unearthly grin. He sensed the unauthorized use of his hellfire in a universe not his own, by hands he never blessed. Upon investigation, he found himself seeing Max. "What an interesting warlock. Perhaps I can use him to further my plans of invading the mortal realm. What harm can turning such a warlock into a pawn do to me?"
As Lucifer Morningstar released the most diabolical of laughter, Maximus Bennett didn't know that forces from beyond even his world had been garnered by Max their attention. And this one was not one that would fall for him. No, this one would stop at nothing to claim his soul for himself…Or obliterate Max in the attempt.