One could think of a Sigil as a function, and spells as alternative combinations and manifestations of that function. Hence, Sigils could exist without spells, but never spells without Sigils. If for instance, a person's Sigil is the creation of red flames, a spell he/she may develop is the creation of orange or pink flames instead.
Magic came to be understood in many ways, and learnt in several manners. Universally, there were 8 agreed Forms of Magic which are: Elemental, Mind, Body, Spiritual, Creation, Arcane, Time, and Space Magic.
The spatial cracks led to Lesser Earth (Also Known as Forbidden Earth) which was discovered years before man began to learn from gods. Legends say it is an inversion of our world, and that gods do tend to hide their hearts in select places there. However, if this was the only gain an explorer could stand to obtain, no one would bother risking their lives.
An inversion of Earth implied there were metals and resources in this world too. They were corrupted, but fortunately, they could be purified. Resources in Deadlands (which is what these 'places' are called) held a 1:1 value ratio with their kind on normal Earth. Hence, finding corrupted gold or diamond would certainly fatten one's pockets.
"Alright guys, remember our objective," Robin said.
"Survive!" The two echoed with a nod.
It wasn't their first time in a Deadland.
Learned in the art of cowardice, the three made sure to stick in the middle. This way, attacks from ahead and behind wouldn't reach them first. On the off chance they were surrounded, they would survive much longer than everyone else, giving them much time to escape.
Ronan had only average sword skills. Samuel either chips or breaks his blade, and Robin only cared about earning the most for the least work. Involving too much in the fight would definitely make them a liability.
Erta glanced at Ronan. "What do you intend to do with that blade?"
"To look dangerous, I guess."
She smiled.
The group treaded on dry, rocky soil under a sky that breathed ash and soot. The scenery all around them was the same as the red zone, but much worse. A proper imagery of Forsaken Earth.
Next to Ronan was Erta, whose black armour glistened under the dimmed sun. Its surface was sleek and streamlined for her figure. By her waist, an equally fancy-looking sword was fastened, a blade so flat and thin.
Ahead stood the captain, wielding an axe and cladded in heavy armour. Next to him was Jeff and Mathias, both holding large hammers. Josh was an archer so he walked somewhat behind, but not too far back.
The same formation as always.
"We'll be following Judas today," the captain announced. "He claims to have seen gold in his dreams."
Judas was a Seer.
The group let out audible gasps. Corrupted gold was difficult to purify, but that made it all the more valuable. Ronan licked his lips. Depending on how much gold was found, he could strike it rich by doing nothing.
I could get good armour with that, and still have change.
Erta glanced at him. "What was your sigil again?"
"I'm a natural hoarder," Ronan replied. "So it's just…"
"Keeping stuff?"
"Yeah."
She chuckled. "Like how much stuff?"
"Well…" he squinted. "I haven't trained much yet. So only a handful of sand for now. It's a pretty useless ability, really."
"Have you named it?"
"Not yet."
Hearing their convo, Judas glanced back and glared at Ronan.
"Your boyfriend seems upset," Ronan said.
"He does get pretty jealous at times. Are you afraid of him?"
"A bit," Ronan confessed. "I mean..he's quite huge."
Judas was the tallest of the group, towering very close to seven feet. He had sharp eyes, patches of scars streaked across his face, and peg-like piercings on his nose and ears.
"Ignore him," Erta advised. "Focus on yourself. Your sigil is part of your soul. Giving it an identity will definitely help you get stronger. With time, you will be able to branch out and cast spells too."
How nice of you.
"Why? Are you worried about me?"
Erta held in a laugh. "I think everyone is."
Robin and Samuel listened in from behind. Samuel emanated even more jealousy than Judas.
"Why is she always talking to him?" he asked in a whisper.
"Don't know. Don't care," Robin dismissed.
"Don't act like you don't like her."
"I do. But she's occupied."
"We're here!" The captain announced.
Right before them were a series of dark caves and large stones. In the midst of it all, there was a great red temple of tall, white pillars, which, unfortunately, was half-crushed by one, huge boulder.
Ronan wondered where the rocks came from as there were no mountains in the area.
Must have been a Playground brawl.
The group grew much more alert than they had previously been. They had enjoyed a peaceful trip for a good length of time. A disturbing length in fact. Nevertheless, one thing was common knowledge among explorers.
Wherever there were caves, there were…
"Goblins!" The captain yelled. "Prepare for battle!"
One. Then, two. Then, three.
A good number of goblins rushed out of the caves, wielding spiky bats, slingshots, and sharp rocks. It started out as numerous heads emerging from the depth below, and in the next moment, they were pouring out of their hiding places. Rolling out like a stream, the goblins doubled several times and charged straight at them.
"Menie! Meeniee! Prey is Mine!"
Instantly, the group sprang into action. Robin, Samuel, and Ronan made sure to avoid the tide. The captain moved first. With one, huge leap, he cleaved down at the oncoming wave. A silvery light followed the trajectory of his weapon, and spiritual energy blazed off its sides.
Splatter!
Black blood scattered about, and ten goblins fell at once. Matthias and Jeff smashed the brains out of the disgustingly large-headed creatures, swinging out as they plunged into the crowd. The battle drive was set. The entire group now followed.
Five arrows whistled past the frontliners and sank into green flesh. Josh gathered spiritual energy in the palm of his hands, created arrows and fired rapidly. Erta wasn't idle herself. She singlehandedly handled the defense of the right flank, cutting down anything that came too close. Ronan 'supported' by protecting himself. And so did Robin and Samuel.
At the very least they weren't dead weight.
"To your left!" Judas warned, co-ordinating the movements of every fighter. His sigil <
Erta took in a deep breath before unleashing a spell.
In a heartbeat, three goblins fell. Her blade shook strangely, its form appearing, and disappearing, fading and revealing, and its movements became much more difficult to discern. She made one untraceable slash, decimating the advancing goblins. Heads went flying before those who owned them could realise that they died.
No one underperformed. Five Preachers chanted in one accord, summoning the power of the Fiery Phoenix, and establishing magic formations. As this happened, melee fighters clashed aggressively with the goblins—tankers leading the charge right behind the three ahead.
"Fall!" The Preachers cried. "Burning Birds!"
Countless fiery birds swooped down the sky, bombarding the goblins. Depressions appeared where a goblin once stood, and ash, where one fought. Pillars of smoke and steam rose from the scenery, connecting the dark skies and the broken earth.
One mage slapped the ground, using earth magic to destabilise the soil. The ground folded underneath their feet, and before one knew it, it was chaos. Larger goblins trampled the smaller ones to death in their mindless crave, and the fat ones kept tumbling and rolling till the unlucky ones were flattened into some green-black slop.
One rolled underneath Jeff's feet.
"..!"
Quickly, he made a 180 horizontal swing, bashing its little head into black mush. But then four or five goblins yelled and leaped at him from behind.
Jeff's heart skipped a beat, but his movements did not. With a long raise, he slammed the hammer onto the ground, immediately releasing a burst of spiritual energy. At once, the goblins exploded into green mist.
But he had underestimated the cunning of these little devils.
"Oh no!"
Out of the green splash, eight more goblins emerged in a crazed leap. Four wielded bats, two barehanded with quite sturdy arms, and the last two small but quick on their feet. Before he could raise his weapon to clash, they were already inches from his face.
While he managed to stop one, the rest jumped at his face, pummeled him, and wrestled him to the ground. A goblin bit off his ear, while others drew blood from his neck. He kicked, struggled and fought, but the weight of his own weapon was used against him, pressing into his chest and cracking open his armour. Three goblins sat above the hammer, dropping drools on his face with a terrible heat in their eyes.
The absence of one affected the other two frontliners.
Immediately, the numbers doubled upon them, just as if they were awaiting this moment. The captain and Matthias were being pushed back. Captain hurried to save Jeff, but failed to spot a little green leaping towards him. First, he was divided between saving himself and saving Jeff, but in the next moment, he knew that he would not survive if he didn't focus on himself.
Slash!
Three more violent goblins were divided—torso from legs, following a sharp silvery wave of light. More spiritual energy boomed from his figure, and soon he began to dance and bathe himself in goblin blood.
Not that he attacked, but they kept throwing themselves at him. The numbers amassed upon him like surging waves of a roaring ocean, but also like an entire colony of ants storming from their hideout.
Everywhere, it was green. He could no longer see anyone but himself. He began to swing wildly, loosely, but strongly. The world stretched and blended into a green-black blur, and he immediately taught himself to stop thinking.
Just keep swinging!
Then he heard a scream. Jeff's scream.
For a moment, his muscles stiffened, perhaps in fear or shock, and a goblin managed to clutch itself around his neck. Quickly, three, four goblins stabbed at his legs and crawled up to his back to continue their assault. The captain stumbled, his own armour and the weight of several goblins forcing him off his feet.
The captain did fight—oh yes he did—but in a battle like this, one moment of hesitation was no different from a suicidal attempt.
In five seconds, two men had been terribly brutalised by the goblins.
"We must retreat!" Matthias cried. His muscles ached badly, and his feet shook. Goblins overwhelmed him with numbers, and slowly, he started sinking to death.
"Judas! Judas! What is this?!" Erta screamed. "Why haven't you spoken since?"
Judas ignored her.
"Keep fighting!" he commanded.
Only now did the group realise.
"The numbers are unending!"
"How are they this much?!!!"
Suddenly, goblins started to appear…in unexpected places.
Robin spotted a little green dash by his waist, but he assumed he hallucinated it. After all, this was the safest spot in the group. There was no way those creatures could get so close with no one realising.
"Beneath! Our foes strike from underneath our feet!"
The captain's warning was loud and clear, but the group reacted too late.
"We've lost ten percent!"
Mathias and Jeff had died. Because the group responded a bit too slowly, three more lives were claimed.
Small magic circles appeared on the ground, and three or so goblins would spawn from nowhere. The adversaries rose up against the team, and began to tear them down from within.
"How are goblins wielding magic?!"
Erta became very stressed. Sweat beaded on her forehead, fatigue laying its claws upon her. The mages and Preachers were the first to suffer from the onslaught. Having vulnerabilities in their defences, the goblins pried at their safe zones and culled them before they could rise. Some mages tried to unleash fireballs at the goblins, but the attack did more damage to the team than to the goblins. Josh had to give up on protecting them, and moved as far away as he possibly could from the group, in order to fire more accurately.
On the other hand, Judas continued to push the team to death, without fighting himself.
"Ronan!" Erta called. "We must run! Something is off!"
"Eh? Me?"
Ronan was already on the verge of pissing himself. For the first time, the three cowards could not find an escape route.
"Retreat!" Erta screamed. "I'll clear the path."
"Advance!" Judas retorted. "Do you not believe my dreams?! We will get gold, but only ten of us!"
Robin bit his lip. Samuel rubbed his palms together.
"Sicko!" Erta cursed. "Was this your plan all along? To kill us all off and hoard all the gold?"
The group now numbered thirteen. All the mages and preachers had been killed.
Josh was too terrified to care. At once, he abandoned his position and sprinted off. However, he didn't get very far before he got violated and murdered by goblins.
Oh shoot.
One person turned and killed his brother.
"Gold! Gold!"...was the last thing he said, as he too was killed shortly after.
It quickly grew chaotic.
"I love money," Ronan said. "But I'm outta here!"
Robin and Samuel thought otherwise. Quickly, they ran to Judas's side, and stuck with him. Perhaps, they hoped they would be safe around him or something..
"What are you doing?" Erta screamed. "Follow me!"
Regardless, those hopes were dashed when a goblin ran a long sharp stone through his side. Judas's eyes stiffened in shock, and he looked down to see the anomaly that he hadn't seen in his dreams.
"Im..Impossible…I..I found it! I found it!! I found gold!!!"
Blood spread like ink on his clothes, and a sharp pain shot through his body, nearly making him bleed from his eyes. He could feel it! The life slowly slipping out of him.
Samuel and Robin backed away very quickly. Unfortunately, an escapade proved to be much more difficult than last time. The goblins seemed to be growing wiser and larger each second.
Robin imbued spiritual energy into his sword, and activated his sigil <
Undoubtedly, Robin was the best fighter among the three friends. But, even he had pathetic stamina, already huffing and puffing after three minutes.
Judas still couldn't accept the situation.
"I fucking found it!!" he bellowed. "I found gold!!! This can't be! This can never be!!!"
Judas continued to scream in agony, staggering backwards in a futile attempt to escape, only for more goblins to jump at him, tearing cloth, clawing armour, and eating skin. These monsters loved to abuse and eat a human raw, and they did so in groups.
"How? How can the future change?!!!"
One 'dead' mage stood from the ground, and dusted his arms.
"A premeditated future can be changed."
Judas's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
"Cain!"
Cain smiled.
"You betrayed me!" Judas screamed. "You bastard!!!"
At once, the goblins halted. They no longer attacked Judas, but their hungry eyes were dead-set on him, like triggers awaiting release.
What happened?
Did they stop because of Cain?
Erta could finally have a moment of peace. However, neither did she, nor Samuel, nor Robin, nor Ronan dare think of escaping. No one aside from Cain and Judas knew exactly what was going on, but everyone had a good idea.
To think two people would betray us at the same time. And they betrayed each other too.
Ronan's pale face hardened. He was very much willing to live through this, regardless of what it was.
I can't die here anyway. I haven't enslaved the world yet.
"You shouldn't have told me your plan," Cain said. "I had already switched sides before you did."
"Who is it?!" Judas yelled. "Who is backing you up?!"
"You don't need to know that. But, thanks for the information. Turns out there is much more gold than you saw in your visions."
"ANSWER ME! WHO IS I-!"
Bang!
Judas's head was flattened to mush.
All four survivors froze in shock.
Standing above Judas's corpse was one who wielded a hammer. A foreigner to the group, who, from his appearance, could be judged as a person of great abilities. He had finer armour than everyone else, was a stout man of greater frame than even the captain, and boasted much spiritual energy than everyone else.
You see, the stronger a person is, the better they can sense these things. In this situation, the one who felt the most fear was Erta. To her, the air had grown suffocating since his arrival, so much that the goblins felt less threatening to her.
Blood rained from the man's weapon, and a grin played on his face.
"Ohoho! there's the beauty you talked about, Cain!" he whistled, resting his weapon on his shoulder.
Erta took a step back.
There wasn't just one visitor. There were four more. Even Ronan could sense four lifeforms gazing from the temple ahead.
They were relaxed.
Everything makes sense now.
Cain's ability is short-distance teleportation. So he was the one creating the magic circles while posing dead. That means there is one more person who was using Illusion magic to control the goblins.
It has to be one of those four.
Regardless, they all seem to be much stronger than Erta.
This is bad.
The man took slow, gallant strides as he advanced against the small group of four. Cain moved out of the way, allowing him to do as he pleased.
"So, I'll be keeping the woman." the man declared. "Any objections?!"
Erta bit her lip in disgust. She hated to be treated as property. This was why she fought to begin with. She hated her father's domineering hold on her, and her entire family.
Ever since the world fell, patriarchy sharply went on the rise. Men learnt magic from gods, and developed their bodies and souls, but women were naturally weaker than men. Regardless of how much training they did, men would still treat them as possessions.
After all, gods did the same.
Ronan sighed.
Well, you were a nice woman, Erta. But I'm selfish, you see.
"No objections!" Ronan declared, taking a step back.
Erta trembled, slightly.
Even Robin, the money-grubber, was shocked.
"Well," Robin's voice cracked. "Wha-What about migold-! I mean, the gold?"
"You tuck tail and run." The man declared. "Nothing happened here, you hear me?"
Robin licked his lips.
He thought about living. He would get to see a new day, a new sun, a new opportunity to risk his life, and of course, a new reawakening to a cold reality: The oppression of the gods.
He thought about gold.
'Gold is better,' he concluded.
Samuel had one mind with Robin. Now that he was absolutely sure that there was gold, his suicidal drive overtook him. He would do anything to claim that treasure.
Samuel was a big dreamer. Robin was a greedy lunatic.
Ronan was…..who was Ronan again?
"New objective!" Robin declared.
"Survive!!"
Arthur grinned, an overwhelming amount of spiritual energy exploding from his figure.
"SO BE IT!"
******
AN: In case you didn't realise..
<<>> : Sigil
<>: Spell