Yet another blazing morning in the small town of Nogreni, though it was not actually hot. The Blaze was radiating quite brightly and that alone could make a person feel all warm inside. Well, until they lay eyes upon the horrifying scene at Opin Park.
A small army of rats. Tens of rats all squeaking and chittering together like they were throwing some sort of party or cultic gathering. In fact, a cult initiation was very much like the current situation as if one looked they would notice a girl standing proudly before the rats with a fishbowl beside her. She was giving a speech to them.
"Greetings vermin!" Alix called out loudly ensuring each rat heard her words. "I am Alix. You may also know me by the moniker of Pretty Giant from my translator Felix here." Next to her a small white rat began jumping up and down. "Hi, guys!" The rats began to squeak in what Alix understood was a response to Felix's greeting. She nodded and continued her speech.
"Now, all of those that gathered today must be thinking the same thing. Is this person really the one that made Felix so strong and gave him the name Felix?" Squeaks reverberated around the crowd seemingly affirming the girl's thought process. "Well, I am. And today I will prove that by granting a total of three more that very same privilege!" Alix held up three fingers as she said this.
A bit of discourse began to arise within the crowd. One bigger gray rat with wild fur approached Felix and told him something of which Felix relayed to Alix in what seemed to be his attempt to imitate the original rat's voice.
"This is outrageous! We's was told dat all of us would be receiving the blessing of the Pwetty Giant. But now ya tell us dat only thwee will?" Alix held her back her laughter at the normally high pitched squeaker Felix doing his best impression of a deep voice. It was utterly adorable to the girl. She cleared her throat and responded.
"This is all for the best of the vermin community and myself." The rats quieted down as their speaker continued. "You must understand, if all of you were suddenly imbued with great power then there would no longer be any hierarchy within the streets. It was my belief that you rats enjoyed having others around to lead you. Is that correct?" The rats looked amongst themselves before once again squeaking in affirmation, though the big gray rat did so reluctantly.
"Right, then it is in your best interest to limit the number of powerful rats to a group of four. A sort of...vermin council that can rule the backstreets of Nogreni whilst keeping the rest of the community safe. And it is better for me as I simply do not have the energy to grant all of you strength. It is simply a contract." The rats nodded agreeingly and even the heckler from earlier had completely come around.
"This is goin' over waaay better than I thought it was gonna go." Mo relented. Alix raised a brow inquisitively "Oh really?"
"Yea! I honestly thought that I was gonna have to drown the whole lot of them in the Abyssal Sea while they tried to eat ya thinkin' it was the way to gain power. But they're actually a lot more civilized than I thought!"
"Well I am glad that you have come around. Vermin can be surprisingly reasonable if you actually try to converse with them."
"Also helps that they're stupid." Mo stated flatly
"Well that too of course." Alix agreed. She looked out to her audience and nodded. "Now! I shall begin the selection process." Alix stuck out her index finger causing some confusion amongst the crowd. Then the air in front of her began to crack as she started to imprint what the rats could only comprehend as being strange ritualistic symbols. And they were not entirely wrong.
Alix began to trace a spell but it wasn't Omnia Nexus. You see, this was the perfect chance for her to check the effect of, what she decided to call, Spell-Script. After a full month without progress she had finally cracked the secret to it and it was all thanks to the Runic Clan.
During the Great Mortal War, GMW, for short, the Runic Clan was formed. Once they were united they found a sequence of old symbols that they decided to brand themselves with. It was a the fanatical groups way of showcasing they ambitions, the rune later became able to grant them power through the combination of a god's blessing and a unique branding process.
It was the process of branding that very rune that gave Alix the solution she was looking for. The wanted the Rune to always feel the pain of the engraving so they burned it into themselves using Null mana, otherwise known as nullified mana. Null mana is very dangerous to interact with as it does not function like normal mana.
To make use of null mana one has to forcible awaken it as it is normally in a dormant state. Once awakened it can be wielded like normal mana but also has some other effects which include intense volatility, extreme strain on the activator, and, to the girl's benefit, it could hold a solid form.
A mortal would be able to physically touch null mana once activated and that was what Alix needed. She used that null mana as her catalyst and with it being mana that catalyst was omniscient so it could be used with any sorcery spell.
However, this process drains Lis like a vacuum does sound and can result in a mortal being very vulnerable to the mana that is known to be deadly to them. This is the true reason that Alix decided to only use Omnia Nexus on three rats and also the reason the she was casting a different spell using the script.
'This will allow me to know if Omnia Nexus is just such a powerful spell that I lose consciousness from the Lis drain or if it is the spell-script itself.' Alix was hoping that it was the latter as were it the former then she would need to throw away the idea of using spell script at all.
Now, there was also one more reason that she was using Spell-Script with the specific spell that she was casting. She finished writing the spell's formula in the air and could not help but smirk in anticipation.
'Let's see just how much more powerful null mana can be!' Alix opened her hand causing several of the rats the begin to scramble. They did not know what was about to happen but they knew that they did not want to be here when the girl finished. Alix called out the name of the spell in a foreboding tone that could send shivers down the spine of even the most brave of heroes.
"Omina Smash." Alix's grin beamed as she called the name of one of the strongest sorcery spells that she had made. A pair of clasped hands materialized and crackled with energy. As soon as they materialized they flew down and slammed down on the ground hard. The ground in the park shook and dirt was sent flying into he air.
The panicked squeaks of the rats resounded as they tried to get away from the blast. Some did not make it as they were just too slow. They were lifted up and thrown by the aftershock of the blast.
Alix stood staring at the carnage that she had caused with a single spell. It was safe to say that she was thoroughly impressed. The effect had been at least twice as powerful as it would normally be and that was while she was trying to conserve Lis. Speaking of, this had also confirmed that it was in fact Omnia Nexus itself that was so draining for the girl to cast as of now.
"Looks like I'll have to work on the efficiency of the spell some more. But this has produced some great results." Alix nodded to herself. She was fully satisfied with her experiment. And the test had also been a success.
"Ya really are right Lexi! I guess I never gave vermin enough credit." Mo said thoughtfully as he gazed down from the bench. At the foot of the bench stood three rats, the big gray heckler, a soft, sultry looking black one, and a still haunted white one with gray patches. Alix smirked at the three rats.
"Looks like we found our leaders." The rats stared up at the girl inquisitively. Well, two of them did as the white one had been thoroughly traumatized.
"We should start with the names first."
...
Hidden out of the view of Alix stood a certain gray haired boy. The boy had watched the entire event and was thoroughly awestruck. He knew the girl was powerful but this was something that she had never displayed before. Yet she made such a showing just to enforce her dominance over a bunch of literal rats.
Cas's eyes shined with reverence deeper than before. 'This woman is my Mistress. She sees something great in me.' Cas smiled thinking about the woman's belief in him. He turned quietly to leave the park.
'I will redouble my efforts in not disappointing you, Mistress. And I will ensure that no filthy 'rats' dare attempt to stand against you either.' With that the boy returned to his home to get some rest.
He had some plans for the future.