Chapter Fifteen: Meeting Literal Elementals
Max
Max's consciousness was neither on the Other Side nor on the side of the living — At least, not in the typical sense. He wasn't even in the collective unconscious of this world like he had been in his more recent coma spell.
No, Max found himself in a tranquil forest that radiated immense and otherworldly power. Vast as the Earth itself, this forest held a quiet humming of a power — much too thick to be anything Earth can produce, but much too unfamiliar for Max to discern where exactly he was. There was a lake 400 feet to his right, the clean scent of fresh water wafting to his nose alongside the earthy scent of the forest around him. The sky was cloudless and night, the stars forming an unfamiliar set of constellations, dotting the sky of a canvas like spots dotting a dress.
And, before Max, stood 7 mysterious figures, each radiating a formidable but distinct power. All of them had auras that held their own atmosphere. Just being near them had Max's magic power feeling augmented. They were all spirits, Max could sense, but they were all still immensely powerful.
The first figure was of a woman who held an immense aura of elemental/nature magic — Just being near her, Max felt like he could perform some borderline impossible feats using elemental magic alone. She was a green spirit, transparent but beautiful, with green hair and green eyes and a serene vibe. She wore no shoes beneath a green dress.
[Elemental/Nature Magic Elemental Spirit Visual Aid:
The next being was also a woman, only she was not elemental in nature. Transparent with a crimson tint, this woman had blood red hair, a transparent but crimson red tint to her, crimson red eyes and elongated fangs. She had a passive blood red aura, but Max sensed she wasn't necessarily a vampire, but something definitely similar.
[Blood Magic Elemental Spirit Visual Aid:
Third, was a white spirit, blurry and radiating immense ancestral/spiritual magic. Being near her, Max could swear he felt a connection to every Bennett and Westphall witch who's ever lived(and died) before him — All at once. She was also transparent with a white-grey tint, and dressed in a simple white dress. She had white eyes and an aged face.
[Spiritual/Ancestral Magic Elemental Spirit Visual Aid:
Fourth, the transparent figure had an almost silver, grey tint — And it was a man. His aura felt…intuitive, so Max deduced him to be some spiritual manifestation of psychic energy like the mental magic or ancestral magic. He had grey eyes, a mature face and naturally grey hair. He seemed young, maybe 30? but, also, immensely powerful. He wore no shirt above plain pants and no footwear. He was quite fit, not too muscular but not too lean either. He had a light stubble, too, with a fierce aura, immense more so around the head, likely representing his psychic capabilities.
[Psychic Elemental Spirit Visual Aid:
The fifth figure was a figure shrouded in darkness — Literally. It was transparent, wearing a cloak of pure darkness, malicious and malignant. It's aura was pure dark magic and malice was its fuel. It's face was covered by its hood, so Max couldn't tell if it was male or female, but it was definitely the manifestation of dark magic, or what he assumed to be its manifestation.
[Dark Magic Elemental Spirit Visual Aid:
The sixth was a woman who radiated an endless hunger. No, that's not quite right. She was theconsumer. Of all things magic. She was magic's channeler, absorber and redirector. She was transparent with a brown tint, brown hair and brown eyes and dressed in a brown dress. Her mere presence seemed to draw in the magic in the air around her, its suction like a blackhole, great and endless. Being near her, Max instinctively wanted not to be.
[Siphon Magic Elemental Spirit Visual Aid:
The final person was a man, dressed in a late 60s lab coat, radiating a slight pale yellow aura. Objects of power floated around him like planets to a sun — A ring radiating elemental magic, an ancient looking metallic pen radiating dark magic, a teddy bear containing a witch's magic in full and more. He had blond hair, blue eyes and an athletic build. He was also transparent and just being near him caused Max's mind to feel overwhelmed with comprehension. His head began hurting.
[Ritual/Occultic Craft Elemental Spirit Visual AId:
Max processed their appearances and presences in the pico of a second before his instinct practically yelled at him to look away, that looking at them as they are right then was dangerous. Unfortunately, as higher beings taking on the form even simplified as they were, that pico of a second was all their true forms needed to melt his eyes out.
"Agh!" he groaned.
Falling to his knees, even in soul form, Max groaned, clutching hs skull, which was throbbing in pain. He felt his eyes melt from their sockets, though he still couldn't decide if they were melted or burned — The pain was harrowing nonetheless.
"Oh, look, sister, the new guy cannot even look at us in these forms," a female voice sounded like it came from the blood lady's direction.
"He's supposed to be the newest of us?" came the multitude of evil voices that belonged to the hooded figure's direction. "I am…unimpressed."
"Now, now, siblings. It is rude to talk about our newest elemental brother that way," the middle age man's voice sounded. The psychic. "Even if he had tried to make use of my magic without my approval."
That last part was muttered, but, even hurt and spirit form, Max was still part wolf; he picked up on it. He chose to ignore it.
"She we help him?" sounded the worried voice of the Elemental nature spirit magic. "He's not healing. I really think we should help him."
"If he cannot handle these forms, is he truly worthy to being our sibling?" asked the blood lady.
"Blood. We talked about this. You cannot judge a book by its cover. Plus, it is not we who decide who ascends," the Spirit magic's voice sounded.
"I would also like to point out that we are literally higher forms of existence," the Occultic guy pointed out. "Just seeing these forms would vaporize lesser, more average mortals into dust upon sight."
"Yes," the sound of the psychic guy said, speaking once more. "The fact that it was only his eys that burnt themselves away means he's instinctively protecting his soul."
"Facinating…," the occultic guy sounded.
"So long as he ain't weak," shot the blood lady.
'Seriously, what is her problem?' thought Max on some level of consciousness even despite the pain. 'It's whatever. I need to heal myself and figure out where exactly I am.'
Max needed to heal his eyes. He focussed his were-direwolf shifter healing. The fac that he had both the werewolf of TVD healing factor and the wolf shifter healing factor from Twilight merged together meant his healing factor were even greater than their individual parts. Growing back an eye from nothing was do-able, just incredibly unpleasant.
As the feeling his eyes growing back in physical world was felt in his soul, his soul was healing itself as well. It felt like worms crawling in his sockets but, eventually, both forms were completely healed, and Max could see again. His physical body was healed even though he physically hadn't woken up yet. In the mere moments it took to heal, Max had managed to stand up once more, in spirit form.
"Would you look at that? He isn't totally useles after all!" the blood spirit said, but Max ignored her.
"What am I doing here? What is this place? And what do you want?" Max squinted in suspicion. "Where am I?"
"You are before the 7 Elemental Magic spirits that the witches and warlocks of this world draw their powers from," the Psychic guy said. "We are the manifestation of all witch magic of this world."
"All witches draw their powers from us," the Occultic Craft spirit said. "I am Occultic. The redhead is Blood. Green lady is Nature, while the guy in grey is Psi. hooded spirit is Darhk, the lady in brown is Siphon and the blurry old woman in white is the Ancestor."
"We are, in majority, the manifestations of mortal magic. The very first users of each form of magic" Ancestor said with pride. "Influenced in ways by the present, we've evolved and shifted forms countless times. Now, however, we take in our newest member: You."
"Me?" Max questioned.
"Are you not the first user of what you call 'Logomancy?'" the Nature spirit asked, curious. When Max nodded absentmindedly, she merely giggled. "Yes, thought so. You are a progenitor of an entirely new form of magic, thus an elemental."
"What?" Max was surprised.
"If you think this is surprising, I can't wait to tell you about our sleeping father, the god magic progenitor, Ken," Blood giggled in mischief. "After all, since you are on your way to becoming a higher being and elemental, you must know that we will have to fight him one day soon when he awakens."
'WHAT?!' It wasn't the fact that Max had to fight Ken that surprised him. He was already planning on doing that eventually. Maybe he'll bring the god back as a wolf… who knows? No, it was that Ken had more kids than just the gods that had. 'This guy's basically Zeus!'
Max's vision was gaining blackspots. He felt himself beginning to black out… Er, wake up? Honestly, that's the least confusing thing right now to think about.
"Oh, look, you're waking up," Nature sounded cheerful. "We'll meet again next time you access the Mystic Plane, no doubt. Goodbye."
"Do get stronger before the gods wake up," Blood taunted in belittlement. "Otherwise, you won' survive the encounter."
"I took the liberty to tweak the effects of your eye-opener spell, little brother," Psi said. "Don't worry, though, it's still quite effective."
"Try not die, won't you," Darhk said, sounding amused. "Your suffering will be entertaining."
"Ignore them, please," Occultic sympathized with Max. "But, yeah, please survive. It wouldn't do to lose someone with elemental-reaching potential."
"Ba-bye," Siphon waved.
And, with that, Max found himself jolting awake to a bizarre mix of witches, mid-chant: Bonnie, Grams, Mother, Miss Aubrey, Father and Kaleb — All mid-chant, all looking worriedly at Max.
"Mother?" Max asked, scrunching a brow, perplexed. "What is this? Why are you all here? Where am I? What happened?"
"Maximus!" Christina embraced Max into a suffocating embrace. "Oh, thank the gods. I came as soon as I heard."
"What?" Max was confused.
"Max, you were unconscious for two entire days," Bonnie began, brow furrowed in concern. "And, for at least half of the first day, your eyes were burned from their sockets before growing back."
"An entire two days…?" Max's heartbeat quickenned. 'That means today's the 20th. The full moon to bring Kol back is tomorrow. And Klaus also arrives in his true form tomorrow. Shit.'
"And Max…there's something else," Kaleb began, garnering Max's attention. He lifted a handheld mirror. "About your eyes…".
"What…?" Max began. "What about them?"
Tentatively, Max took the mirror, lifted it to his face, and saw…a grey glowing tattoo, etched into the skin around his right eye. It was peculiar and unfamiliar, and glowed a faint vibrant grey before dimming out into black.
[Image]:
'I took the liberty to tweak the effects of your eye-openner spell, little brother,' Psi had said.
'He meant literally,' Makes frowned, before letting go of the mirror. 'It doesn't matter. I need to assemble a coven of my own anyway. Who should I recruit frist?'
As if in answer to his unsaid question, Max's tattoo suddenly glowed a vibrant silver, and he found himself viewing Vincent's story, and the warlock's time before he was fated to becoming Finn's vessel. He saw his time with the Tremé Coven, and how he had become disillusioned with them. He saw how he was now, and how his wife had succumbed to the temptation of dark magic, attempting to sacrifice 9 witch children to further her own powers. Max saw him try to stop her and her capture, and, in his attempt, the killing of his unborn child.
Next, Max saw Luka Martin and his sister. How she went with Klaus willingly, and wasn't captured. He saw that Luka and their father paid the price, enlisting the aid of Elijah, giving themselves to the Original to free their sister who they thought were captured by Kluas. Luka even befriended Bonnie to get the stone for Elijah, messed up as that was. Then he saw Luka's death.
Finally, Max saw Kai's story once more, and everything he had seen in the Collective Unconscious. 'Those Gemini witches are truly a clueless bunch, huh?' he thought. 'Still, they just don't know what they have. I do, though.'
Ironically, Max also saw the story of the twins Olivia and Lucas Parker. 'Am I to recruit both Kai Parker andOlivia and Lucas Parker? Seriously?' Max was incredulous about how twisted the universe truly was. 'That's gotta be the tailend of some kind of joke, right?'
Max saw Davina Claire in New Orleans and her story. And honestly? He was kind of iffy about recruiting her. 'In the original storyline, she was Kol's love interest. I want Kol for myself. It's unbelievably self-ish, I know, but I never said I was a saint,' Max thought. 'That said, she is powerful and she will still need a coven. Perhaps I'll recruit after I' m sure Kol's mine…?'
Max saw Josie and Lizzie and their stories to-be. He saw Eva Sinclaire's story, too, which he found interesting. 'I could probably cure her of her madness and connection to dark magic and bring back their baby, thereby ensuring Vincent's and Eva's loyalty in the coven,' Max thought. 'Either way, all these options are powerful and do-able. The most difficult option would be getting Kai and the Gemini twins to get along, but Lucas won't be a problem. He's gay and I'm one hella fine specimen. Adding him to my harem is a must.'
"Max!" Bonnie's voice knocked Max from his thoughts.
"What?"
"You been smiling like you're plotting something," Bonnie exclaimed, making Max realised that he was, indeed, smiling like he was plotting something. "You look like a devil scheming. Top it, cuz."
"Apologies," Max smirked. "I was…. Contemplating my next actions."
"Your next actons? You just went into a coma! You need rest!" mother tried.
"No, no, I'm part werewolf. I'm fine," Max said, completely ignoring his family's concern. "I have things to do before tomorrow night, so I'm going out. Thank you all for your aid. Now, if you'd excuse. Teleportatus!"
"Dammit, Maximus! Wait—," Christina yelled after him.
But Max was already gone.