Chapter 9: Life in Atlantis (3729 BC)
Morrigan's room, Atlantis, 3729 BC
It's been a few centuries since I arrived in Atlantis and while I would like to recount my time here as adventurous and glorious, other than learning and studying there's not much to do. This was mainly due to how long lived Atlanteans actually are. Usually when one possesses a magical core, their life expectancy is far higher than muggles', depending on the size of the core and the magical environment. The bigger the core is, and the more potent it is, the slower they will age after their magical maturation at 21 years of age. Similarly, if a wizard resides in a magically rich environment their aging decreases further. This little fact explains why Dumbledore stays at Hogwarts so much.
The Atlanteans, however, extend their lives differently. While they already live longer because of their power and the environment, they tend to live for over 10'000 years. This is because Atlantis is built on top of an extremely powerful ancient relic from the age of gods, a relic whose origin is lost to time, the fountain of youth. When the first king of Atlantis was able to power the wards. He had accidentally connected the fresh water spring to the fountain. Now, every day, people drink water with miniscule amount of holy water from the fountain of youth. The effect of the water is similar to that of the philosopher's stone. As long as you drink the water, you age much slower than usual. Coupled with their already impressive longevity, they now have an absurd life expectancy. I believe that Nicholas Flamel was able to transmute any liquid into the water of the fountain of youth which he called the elixir of life. It’s possible, but it would need something like a constantly recharging large battery of magic to be able create a few doses every day, which must be what the philosopher's stone is.
However, this raised the issue of overpopulation, so the first king decided to limit the number of newborns by casting an infertility ward around the entire island where it activates when the population exceeds 100'000 people. With how slowly people tend to die, when one person finally kicks the bucket, every couple decides to shack up for the chance of conceiving a child. So far, in my stay here, there have been 8 new children which averages up to a child every 80 years or so.
My first few years here were a bit awkward, people didn't know how to act around me and were a little suspicious. I didn't realize it at the time, but Atlantis exists on a different frequency than earth. Its location is technically in the Atlantic Ocean, but it cannot be seen or entered without permission. My arrival was an anomaly and something unexpected in their frankly monotone lives. Thankfully, the mellowed out over time and accepted me as one of their own.
In term of my magical training, I graduated from the academy with honors in only 26 years (it normally needs 60 years to complete) and was offered an apprenticeship with Atlan. We first had to learn the basics, from how to channel magic to how to create rituals and enchant an artifact. We learnt how to control dimensional energy or as they call it external magic. The study of sorcery was introduced by the first king who was a disciple of Agammotto, the first sorcerer supreme. We needed to learn how to harness the energy between dimensions without entering them as that was where the Elder Gods reside after they were banished by Agammotto. We were not allowed to use the power of any metaphysical being like gods and it’s powers (it's what they call cosmic entities) because they usually have an ulterior motive.
Another aspect we learnt was how to passively channel magic into our bodies to strengthen it. At first it was hard, I had to concentrate every time I wanted to absorb the excess magic into my body, but after time, it became like an instinct. I’m now stronger, faster, I have a much higher dexterity and my skin is very resistant to damage. My blood turned gold as it usually does after a century of physical magic, and it will turn silver after a thousand. Alas, my potential for physical magic is quite low, so I will never be able vaporize a mountain with a single punch. It occurred to me that the Argardians can also do that since their abilities resemble one of a physical magic user. They even have gold blood. But they seem unaware of what they're doing. They might be able to only passively absorb the magic inherit to Asgard, what they call the Odin Force. And since Odin has control over it, he can easily remove their 'divinity' when he wishes to. Like what he did to Thor. However, their lack of awareness about the truth of their 'divinity' somehow stops them from reaching their full potential and remain stuck with their golden blood. A side effect of physical magic is my total control over my metamorphmagus abilities. I can transform into any animal, but only physically, I cannot copy any magical property of anything I transform into because I can control every cell in my body. That also means I can heal from pretty much everything, I can even regrow limbs if I have enough magic. I can permanently remain the same age for a millennium. Even without the fountain of youth, I am almost immortal.
As Atlan told me, I sucked at healing magic. Well by the future's standing I have the same skill as an average magical healer in the future, but I cannot control mitosis like the healers here can. It's astounding what they can do, they can regrow organs, and while technically so can I, it takes hours to perform what they do in seconds. I also cannot deal with damages to the brain, it's simply beyond me. I still learned everything I could but there's a limit to what I can achieve without being talented in the field. I can say the same with holy magic which mainly revolves around destroying demons. I can use the magic but it takes a lot out of me for even the simple spells. Plus, I don't need Holy magic to kill demons, I can use anything. It's just that Holy magic is very effective against them.
Honestly, my skill in blood magic surprised me, I took to it like fish to water. While it can be used for heinous things like bloodline curses and creating monsters from flesh, I even created a blood curse that explodes the victim and animates blood so that with every touch of another person, he will suffer the same fate. This is an army killer curse that I call the blood gorger. Blood magic is mainly used as a way to bind an artifact to a bloodline or to protect and even to create a new magical talent and bind it to your blood line. It is evident for me now that most magical creature in my time were created using blood magic. These creatures are mostly hybrids, like Hippogriffs, Pegasi and Griffins. It's still possible for one to take control of a person without any hope of resistance so each student has to perform a ritual that nullifies the magical properties of blood if it is taken without permission.
Soul magic is a very confusing and very obscure type of magic. It has many uses like the creation of a soul space, a place where you can store a small number of items inside your soul to be used later. It's mainly used in magical marriage by binding the souls of the spouses to make sure they will be together even in the afterlife and exorcising malevolent spirits. Soul magic operates differently to other types of magic. From my tests, the unforgivable is very crude imitation of soul magic which is why it goes through every type of magical shield. If I were to use a soul shield, they would not harm me. The killing curse severs the body's connection to the soul, the cruciatus vibrates the soul causing incredible pain and the imperious molds the soul to do the user's bidding. Soul magic is mainly used in combat against enemies that are not corporeal. As for phylacteries, it was developed as a way to make sure you don't die when doing a dangerous experiment by transferring the entire soul temporarily in a prepared object. From my studies, I can safely say that Horcruxes are abominations of magic. The mere idea of them would make any soul mage in Atlantis flinch in disgust. The inventor clearly didn't know the first thing about soul magic before creating them as by fragmenting your soul, you are fragmenting your very self and a piece of yourself and your emotions will be lost to you forever. However, should you die, Death would not allow you into her kingdom and into the cycle of reincarnation, you will forever stay in limbo, an eternal darkness, until you lose your sanity and your sense of self.
My elemental magic is also mastered and while my control over the elements is impressive, my control over shadows is by far the strongest ever seen. I can create shadows, animate them, give them shape and bend them to my will. I can use them to create illusions. I can sense the shadows of the entire British Isles, every single one without question. I can move in them, travel through them, they are extensions of my body, like an extra limb that I move with barely a thought. There are no other shadow elementals in Atlantis but that's kinda normal to have a unique element. I had a friend in the academy that had gold as an element.
As for my mind magic, it mainly involves the manipulation of psionic energy, meaning telepathy and telekinesis. Concerning telepathy, there was nothing new to be taught except control exercises and how I could extend my range. As for telekinesis, it came naturally to me without any issue.
As for transmutation, it was simple if I understand the molecular composition of an item and as long as it was not created magically, I can create a near perfect copy. The more I understand, the less magic I use. Magic kinda works as a shortcut for this field and compensates for the lack of knowledge of the item being created. This of course, doesn't work with any item that possesses a soul (Phylacteries, animals, plants…). For the magical artifact issue, I created a spell capable of scanning the item and analyzing its physical representation and the arithmetic equation of the enchantments on it. It helped immensely in artifact creation, which is created using a combination of different fields of magic. By the way, I figured out that transfiguration is a small branch of transmutation that deals with temporary transformation. You don't affect matter, you use your magic to temporary override the identity of the object but in a case of sentient life, the souls are not changed, meaning they keep their identity during their transformation. After the magic ends, the object always returns to its original shape. This is why one cannot heal using transfiguration, the damage would just reappear once the magic is used.
My studies in sorcery were quite brief. After learning how to manipulate external energies there wasn't much to do except learn a bunch of spells. The only interesting thing was the ability to create portals and trap fighters in certain dimensions. To be honest, I'm kinda disappointed, when I saw Dr. Strange fight against Thanos in the infinity war movie, I was impressed. However, now that I understand what happened, I am disappointed with how simplistic his spells he used were. Even then, he used them defensibly. I'm not one to judge considering he saw millions of timelines and he wanted to lose, but considering how talented he is supposed to be, he was barely using a fraction of his arsenal.
Now let's speak of the most overpowered and underrated field of magic called runes. It turns out all of the runes I know is a downgraded version of the originals. Even Odin's runes are but a pale shadow of the might of true runes. The man sacrificed his eye for knowledge. The truth is that all runes are imitations of the original celestial runes. When the one above all or God created the universe, he created seven celestial runes; the runes of power, space, time, reality, mind, soul and Kaleidoscope. They each affect a part of the universe. Mastering one of them is similar to using an infinity stone, the power of the rune depends on the strength of the user. The runes themselves are flexible and diverse and their use depends on the intent of the user. Somehow, my language talent applies to the runes but even then, it took me a century to master each rune. Of course, I cannot destroy planets and affect galaxies like the infinity stones but I am still decently powerful and I have still a long way to grow. There was only one person who was able to master two of the runes, being time and Kaleidoscope (dimensions), and that was Agamotto and he used it to banish the elder gods and contain the time stone. According to him, only humans have the potential to use all of them. Even angels could only use one at most, something that caused Lucifer's rebellion and his banishment to Hell. This is why no one, and I mean no one knows of my mastery of these runes. Not even Atlan.
Speaking of Atlan, he's been like father to me. He named me, taught me the customs of this place, and helped me with my studies even before my apprenticeship. He even makes sure I eat well and exercise efficiently. He took me into his home when I was basically a newborn to his eyes. After my graduation, he even helped me create my staff. A bone white, straight staff made from an elder tree and a shadow phoenix feather core that I alchemically bound its essence with the wood. Considering that's a ceremony usually between head and heir of a clan, I can safely say we are quite close. He was even present when I bonded with my familiar Erebus, the phoenix whose feather I used in my staff. Honestly, his presence alone makes me grateful for my accidental time travel.
As I was done pondering, I feel something happen. An intense cold swept over me. I felt my own breath catch in my chest. The cold went deeper than my skin. It was inside my chest, it was inside my very heart… Something terrible is happening, I feel the whole island shaking, I don't understand what is happening and yet I do. The people are screaming, some passed out from the pressure of the feeling. I don't know how I recognize what is causing this feeling. It must be something primal ingrained to every living being in every world in every dimension. It is Death. Death has come to Atlantis. Suddenly, the earth cracks in the middle of the city and Atlantis starts to sink.
Chapter 9: Life in Atlantis (3729 BC)
Morrigan's room, Atlantis, 3729 BC
It's been a few centuries since I arrived in Atlantis and while I would like to recount my time here as adventurous and glorious, other than learning and studying there's not much to do. This was mainly due to how long lived Atlanteans actually are. Usually when one possesses a magical core, their life expectancy is far higher than muggles', depending on the size of the core and the magical environment. The bigger the core is, and the more potent it is, the slower they will age after their magical maturation at 21 years of age. Similarly, if a wizard resides in a magically rich environment their aging decreases further. This little fact explains why Dumbledore stays at Hogwarts so much.
The Atlanteans, however, extend their lives differently. While they already live longer because of their power and the environment, they tend to live for over 10'000 years. This is because Atlantis is built on top of an extremely powerful ancient relic from the age of gods, a relic whose origin is lost to time, the fountain of youth. When the first king of Atlantis was able to power the wards. He had accidentally connected the fresh water spring to the fountain. Now, every day, people drink water with miniscule amount of holy water from the fountain of youth. The effect of the water is similar to that of the philosopher's stone. As long as you drink the water, you age much slower than usual. Coupled with their already impressive longevity, they now have an absurd life expectancy. I believe that Nicholas Flamel was able to transmute any liquid into the water of the fountain of youth which he called the elixir of life. It’s possible, but it would need something like a constantly recharging large battery of magic to be able create a few doses every day, which must be what the philosopher's stone is.
However, this raised the issue of overpopulation, so the first king decided to limit the number of newborns by casting an infertility ward around the entire island where it activates when the population exceeds 100'000 people. With how slowly people tend to die, when one person finally kicks the bucket, every couple decides to shack up for the chance of conceiving a child. So far, in my stay here, there have been 8 new children which averages up to a child every 80 years or so.
My first few years here were a bit awkward, people didn't know how to act around me and were a little suspicious. I didn't realize it at the time, but Atlantis exists on a different frequency than earth. Its location is technically in the Atlantic Ocean, but it cannot be seen or entered without permission. My arrival was an anomaly and something unexpected in their frankly monotone lives. Thankfully, the mellowed out over time and accepted me as one of their own.
In term of my magical training, I graduated from the academy with honors in only 26 years (it normally needs 60 years to complete) and was offered an apprenticeship with Atlan. We first had to learn the basics, from how to channel magic to how to create rituals and enchant an artifact. We learnt how to control dimensional energy or as they call it external magic. The study of sorcery was introduced by the first king who was a disciple of Agammotto, the first sorcerer supreme. We needed to learn how to harness the energy between dimensions without entering them as that was where the Elder Gods reside after they were banished by Agammotto. We were not allowed to use the power of any metaphysical being like gods and it’s powers (it's what they call cosmic entities) because they usually have an ulterior motive.
Another aspect we learnt was how to passively channel magic into our bodies to strengthen it. At first it was hard, I had to concentrate every time I wanted to absorb the excess magic into my body, but after time, it became like an instinct. I’m now stronger, faster, I have a much higher dexterity and my skin is very resistant to damage. My blood turned gold as it usually does after a century of physical magic, and it will turn silver after a thousand. Alas, my potential for physical magic is quite low, so I will never be able vaporize a mountain with a single punch. It occurred to me that the Argardians can also do that since their abilities resemble one of a physical magic user. They even have gold blood. But they seem unaware of what they're doing. They might be able to only passively absorb the magic inherit to Asgard, what they call the Odin Force. And since Odin has control over it, he can easily remove their 'divinity' when he wishes to. Like what he did to Thor. However, their lack of awareness about the truth of their 'divinity' somehow stops them from reaching their full potential and remain stuck with their golden blood. A side effect of physical magic is my total control over my metamorphmagus abilities. I can transform into any animal, but only physically, I cannot copy any magical property of anything I transform into because I can control every cell in my body. That also means I can heal from pretty much everything, I can even regrow limbs if I have enough magic. I can permanently remain the same age for a millennium. Even without the fountain of youth, I am almost immortal.
As Atlan told me, I sucked at healing magic. Well by the future's standing I have the same skill as an average magical healer in the future, but I cannot control mitosis like the healers here can. It's astounding what they can do, they can regrow organs, and while technically so can I, it takes hours to perform what they do in seconds. I also cannot deal with damages to the brain, it's simply beyond me. I still learned everything I could but there's a limit to what I can achieve without being talented in the field. I can say the same with holy magic which mainly revolves around destroying demons. I can use the magic but it takes a lot out of me for even the simple spells. Plus, I don't need Holy magic to kill demons, I can use anything. It's just that Holy magic is very effective against them.
Honestly, my skill in blood magic surprised me, I took to it like fish to water. While it can be used for heinous things like bloodline curses and creating monsters from flesh, I even created a blood curse that explodes the victim and animates blood so that with every touch of another person, he will suffer the same fate. This is an army killer curse that I call the blood gorger. Blood magic is mainly used as a way to bind an artifact to a bloodline or to protect and even to create a new magical talent and bind it to your blood line. It is evident for me now that most magical creature in my time were created using blood magic. These creatures are mostly hybrids, like Hippogriffs, Pegasi and Griffins. It's still possible for one to take control of a person without any hope of resistance so each student has to perform a ritual that nullifies the magical properties of blood if it is taken without permission.
Soul magic is a very confusing and very obscure type of magic. It has many uses like the creation of a soul space, a place where you can store a small number of items inside your soul to be used later. It's mainly used in magical marriage by binding the souls of the spouses to make sure they will be together even in the afterlife and exorcising malevolent spirits. Soul magic operates differently to other types of magic. From my tests, the unforgivable is very crude imitation of soul magic which is why it goes through every type of magical shield. If I were to use a soul shield, they would not harm me. The killing curse severs the body's connection to the soul, the cruciatus vibrates the soul causing incredible pain and the imperious molds the soul to do the user's bidding. Soul magic is mainly used in combat against enemies that are not corporeal. As for phylacteries, it was developed as a way to make sure you don't die when doing a dangerous experiment by transferring the entire soul temporarily in a prepared object. From my studies, I can safely say that Horcruxes are abominations of magic. The mere idea of them would make any soul mage in Atlantis flinch in disgust. The inventor clearly didn't know the first thing about soul magic before creating them as by fragmenting your soul, you are fragmenting your very self and a piece of yourself and your emotions will be lost to you forever. However, should you die, Death would not allow you into her kingdom and into the cycle of reincarnation, you will forever stay in limbo, an eternal darkness, until you lose your sanity and your sense of self.
My elemental magic is also mastered and while my control over the elements is impressive, my control over shadows is by far the strongest ever seen. I can create shadows, animate them, give them shape and bend them to my will. I can use them to create illusions. I can sense the shadows of the entire British Isles, every single one without question. I can move in them, travel through them, they are extensions of my body, like an extra limb that I move with barely a thought. There are no other shadow elementals in Atlantis but that's kinda normal to have a unique element. I had a friend in the academy that had gold as an element.
As for my mind magic, it mainly involves the manipulation of psionic energy, meaning telepathy and telekinesis. Concerning telepathy, there was nothing new to be taught except control exercises and how I could extend my range. As for telekinesis, it came naturally to me without any issue.
As for transmutation, it was simple if I understand the molecular composition of an item and as long as it was not created magically, I can create a near perfect copy. The more I understand, the less magic I use. Magic kinda works as a shortcut for this field and compensates for the lack of knowledge of the item being created. This of course, doesn't work with any item that possesses a soul (Phylacteries, animals, plants…). For the magical artifact issue, I created a spell capable of scanning the item and analyzing its physical representation and the arithmetic equation of the enchantments on it. It helped immensely in artifact creation, which is created using a combination of different fields of magic. By the way, I figured out that transfiguration is a small branch of transmutation that deals with temporary transformation. You don't affect matter, you use your magic to temporary override the identity of the object but in a case of sentient life, the souls are not changed, meaning they keep their identity during their transformation. After the magic ends, the object always returns to its original shape. This is why one cannot heal using transfiguration, the damage would just reappear once the magic is used.
My studies in sorcery were quite brief. After learning how to manipulate external energies there wasn't much to do except learn a bunch of spells. The only interesting thing was the ability to create portals and trap fighters in certain dimensions. To be honest, I'm kinda disappointed, when I saw Dr. Strange fight against Thanos in the infinity war movie, I was impressed. However, now that I understand what happened, I am disappointed with how simplistic his spells he used were. Even then, he used them defensibly. I'm not one to judge considering he saw millions of timelines and he wanted to lose, but considering how talented he is supposed to be, he was barely using a fraction of his arsenal.
Now let's speak of the most overpowered and underrated field of magic called runes. It turns out all of the runes I know is a downgraded version of the originals. Even Odin's runes are but a pale shadow of the might of true runes. The man sacrificed his eye for knowledge. The truth is that all runes are imitations of the original celestial runes. When the one above all or God created the universe, he created seven celestial runes; the runes of power, space, time, reality, mind, soul and Kaleidoscope. They each affect a part of the universe. Mastering one of them is similar to using an infinity stone, the power of the rune depends on the strength of the user. The runes themselves are flexible and diverse and their use depends on the intent of the user. Somehow, my language talent applies to the runes but even then, it took me a century to master each rune. Of course, I cannot destroy planets and affect galaxies like the infinity stones but I am still decently powerful and I have still a long way to grow. There was only one person who was able to master two of the runes, being time and Kaleidoscope (dimensions), and that was Agamotto and he used it to banish the elder gods and contain the time stone. According to him, only humans have the potential to use all of them. Even angels could only use one at most, something that caused Lucifer's rebellion and his banishment to Hell. This is why no one, and I mean no one knows of my mastery of these runes. Not even Atlan.
Speaking of Atlan, he's been like father to me. He named me, taught me the customs of this place, and helped me with my studies even before my apprenticeship. He even makes sure I eat well and exercise efficiently. He took me into his home when I was basically a newborn to his eyes. After my graduation, he even helped me create my staff. A bone white, straight staff made from an elder tree and a shadow phoenix feather core that I alchemically bound its essence with the wood. Considering that's a ceremony usually between head and heir of a clan, I can safely say we are quite close. He was even present when I bonded with my familiar Erebus, the phoenix whose feather I used in my staff. Honestly, his presence alone makes me grateful for my accidental time travel.
As I was done pondering, I feel something happen. An intense cold swept over me. I felt my own breath catch in my chest. The cold went deeper than my skin. It was inside my chest, it was inside my very heart… Something terrible is happening, I feel the whole island shaking, I don't understand what is happening and yet I do. The people are screaming, some passed out from the pressure of the feeling. I don't know how I recognize what is causing this feeling. It must be something primal ingrained to every living being in every world in every dimension. It is Death. Death has come to Atlantis. Suddenly, the earth cracks in the middle of the city and Atlantis starts to sink.
