Last of The Fae

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With flask in hand, Thane's mana poured out of his body, but this time, he directed the magical energy down towards the mithril rod which held the mana-producing seed. 

The moment Thane's mana grazed the metallic rod, it was immediately absorbed. At first, there was no visual difference, but as Thane continuously channeled mana into the rod, it began to glow with a cyan light. 

Then a switch seemed to flip as Thane felt the rod actively pull mana from his reserves, even from several feet below him. But that was what Thane wanted. Without having to direct his mana into the mithril rod, Thane moved on to the next phase of the ritual. 

Holding out his hand, Thane watched as the bloody gash across his palm began to bleed profusely. But instead of the blood pooling in his hand, it streamed through the air in a crimson river, bending and swirling until it funneled directly into the seed. 

In a morbid sight, Thane poured his lifeblood into the seed, but it had seemingly no effect. Liter after liter vanished into the seed, but instead of stopping, Thane held the flask of blood restorative draught to his lips and started to drink from the glass bottle. 

The heavy medicinal taste, due to the high alchemical efficiency, was nauseating, but Thane had no choice. After a second, He achieved a form of balance by regenerating as much blood as he was losing. But Thane only had a limited amount of potion and could only hope he had gotten the amount right. 

Thane continued to pour his mana and blood into the ritual while observing the seed and mithril for any sign of something going wrong. 

But the procedure was surprisingly anti-climatic, with little of anything happening besides the mithril rod glowing a bit brighter every few minutes. 

That all changed, however, when Thane's reserves reached fifty percent. By that point, the mithril rod was glowing like a miniature sun, and there was a slight charge to the air around it. 

Thane forcefully cut his mana off from the piece of mithril before it could siphon anymore and focused as he manifested his remaining mana. However, Thane shaped it as he utilized his intrinsic magic instead of letting it flow freely from his body. 

After a second, two streams of magical energy poured from Thane, one a dark brown, almost black, with a metallic sheen while the other was a shimmering green with silver flecks dispered through out. 

Both streams of magic reach the mithril and seed at the same time and Thane watched as everything was set into motion. 

With the intense surge of life attributed mana, the seed sprouted with an audible crack as the shell spit and stark white wood started to grow over the mithril rod. 

At the same time, the earth attributed mana poured into the mithril which started to grow crystal like branches. 

Sweat beaded up on Thane's brow as he found his focus split in multiple directions as he poured his blood, life, and earth mana into the ritual. Then scrapping together every remaining shred of his willpower Thane activated the formation inscribed into the ground. 

The metal runes glowed with a blinding light as a stifling presence descended on the area isolating everything inside from the surroundings. Which of course included Thane, his blood, mana, and the wooden metal amalgamation growing beneath him. 

With the stifling pressure, the massive amount of mana floating through the air found itself restricted unable to move freely. 

Thane breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the massive mental toll of controlling his mana so precisely lessen significantly. 

Reaching out Thane connected himself to the formation and winced as his mind experienced a sensory overload. He could feel every single mote of mana and Thane knew that he could control them. 

With a heavy exhale Thane began to shape the mass of wood and mithril ignoring the stabbing pain that seemed to grow in intensity with each passing second.

At first, there was no noticeable change but slowly, ever so slowly the metal and wood started to fuse. Not only in appearance but in attributes as well. 

The rigid mithril became more supple and flexible, while the softwood hardened and became more dense. 

The transformation was painfully slow but eventually, Thane lost himself in the details as he moved each individual mote of mana mixing the life and earth-attributed energies into one homogenous blend all while his blood and mana continued to pour into the ritual. 

Thane didn't know how much time his passed when he felt his mana reserve run dry, but he had finished the last of the blood restorative draught what seemed like eons ago. 

Thane was in a bad state, physically mentally, and magically. All of his resources were in the red and just staying conscious proved to be a struggle. But his efforts had been worth it. 

Thane smiled as he stared down at the fruits of his labors. A gnarled wooden staff hovered in the middle of the formation circle, the previously stark white wood had turned a dark brown almost black hue with streaks of glowing green sap visible across the uneven surface. 

But as startling as the staff's appearance was, its sheer size was also awe-worthy. The length of wood was nearly seven feet tall, with the bottom ending in a sharp point while the top was a curved hook. Even more impressive however was the magical aspects of the staff that only those with experience crafting magical artifacts could appreciate. 

'Living elder wood for the base, a core of perfectly forged mithril, and my blood as a magical catalyst.' Thane ran through all the magical logistics in his head. Each component had its nature and strengths so making them work in tandem was the accomplishment of a lifetime. 

'Only one more thing to do,' Thane muttered with an exhausted smile as he pulled the flaming silver vapor still contained in a shell of his mana. 

Taking the shell within his hand Thane lowered himself to the ground and stood for the first time in what felt like days. 

Placing his hand on either side of the shell it only took a slight extortion of pressure for the mana to crack. 

The moment the shell's integrity was compromised the silver vapor ignited into an inferno of silver flames that engulfed Thane and the magical staff. 

Of course, Thane wasn't affected but his own flames, but the same couldn't be said about the staff. 

The wood ignited like dry tinder but instead of being reduced to ash, the staff absorbed the flames gaining silver glowing streaks in addition to the green sap. 

In a matter of seconds the flames vanished leaving behind the staff that Thane finally reached out and wrapped his hand around. 

The moment Thane's hand came into contact with the staff a surge of mana flowed into him, slightly replenishing his drained reserves, "Oh yeah that's the good stuff." 

After a moment the surge stemmed off into more of a trickle, but only because Thane's reserves were absolutely monstrous. Had anyone else his age tried to hold the staff it would have been the equivalent of grabbing onto live wire. Not that they were capable of using the magical artifact after Thane bound it to him by blood. A necessary precaution, due to the immense power the staff could grant its wielder. 

Like all magical foci, the staff amplified the effect of any spell channeled through it. Thane had also imbued the artifact with all three of his magical affinities, life, earth, and fire allowing him to use the foci when casting intrinsic magic. 

But what truly made Thane's staff stand out, was the fact that unlike other foci it was truly living. While some wands possessed quasi-sentient qualities such as choosing their master or performing certain schools of magic, Thane's staff was a living growing organism. 

The elder tree seed Thane had used in the ritual hadn't died, the pure life mana Thane had poured into the seed allowed the plant to not only survive but thrive as it was transformed by the various other magical forces imbued into it. Over time the seed would continue to grow, in ways that not even Thane fully understood but at the very least its ability to generate mana would increase significantly with each year. It was the reason why Thane had to use mithril as a core, it was the only magical material capable of storing the immense amount of mana the elder staff would generate over its lifetime. 

Tightening his grip around the staff Thane braced himself before dismissing the mana keeping the foci aloft. The moment gravity took effect Thane's eyes widened and an involuntary grunt escaped his lips as the full weight of the staff hit him like a truck. 

It was only thanks to Thane's enhanced strength that he managed to keep the staff aloft with one hand, but after a view second Thane's veins stood out against his skin. Eventually, Thane lowered the staff to the ground, and the pointed end rang like a tuning fork as it tapped against the stone floor. 

While the staff may have appeared to be made of solid wood, the earth-attributed mana Thane channeled into ritual had changed its composition, making it incredibly resistant to physical blows and nearly indestructible. Which was vital for Thane's fighting style as a spellblade. 

Taking his staff in both hands Thane settled into a fighting stance before he slowly moved through one of the various fighting forms drilled into him by Elara. Going at half speed Thane spun his staff through the air carving wide arcs through the air powered by his unusual footwork. Instead of lifting his feet, Thane glided across the ground as he channeled his mana into the earth. 

Despite his almost painfully slow swings Thane's staff whistled as it passed through the air and bending as he twirled it around his body. Each strike carried tremendous force enough to shatter solid stone. When executed properly Thane would be an unstoppable force walking down his opponents whose only option was to dodge or test their luck trying to block or parry his staff. 

There were no feints or evasive moments in the martial form, only pure overwhelming strength that would only cease when everything in Thane's way was crushed to dust. 

Reaching the final movement of the form Thane swung his staff down in a slow overhead slam. Despite Thane's staff moving at a snail's pace the ground buckled and cratered as Thane channeled his intrinsic mana through the staff amplifying its potency. 

Grinning at the shattered earth Thane grinned as he stood upright and let go of his staff which moved to hover by his side, 'One, down three more to go. Hopefully, I can get them all done by Christmas.' 

---

"Thank you again for having me over for the holidays Mr. Lovegood," Rose said politely as she addressed Luna's father Xenophilius Lovegood, an eccentric-looking man with shoulder-length white hair the texture of candyfloss. He was slightly cross-eyed, but his silver orbs shone with burning intelligence. 

"It's no problem at all Rose, my dear," Xenophilius replied with a beaming smile, "I'm just glad that my Luna made such a wonderful friend, and I only hope that you take my gift as a token of appreciation." 

"Y-you really didn't have to get me a gift," Rose stammered. 

"Oh I could always take it back then-" 

"W-what no!" Rose exclaimed as she grabbed the heavy tome titled, 'History of Magical Shinobi' resting on the table in front of her and clutched it to her chest. 

Only when Luna and her father started laughing did Rose realize they were playing with her and she couldn't help but blush heavily. 

"Forgive me my dear I could resist," Xenophilius apologized. 

"Bad dad!" Luna chastised waving her finger at her father even though she was laughing as well. 

Xenophilius held up his hands in surrender, "Alright, how about I apologize by cleaning up in here while you girls go enjoy the rest of Christmas." 

Rose and Luna nodded as they both moved to stand but before they could get up there was a sharp knock on the window and everyone in the room looked over to see a large owl pecking at the glass. 

"That's odd who could that be from." Xenophilius thought out loud as he moved over and opened the window letting the owl fly inside before depositing two parcels wrapped in colorful paper with bows on top onto the center table. The moment the two parcels hit the table they suddenly grew in size as the shrinking charm cast on them broke. 

"They're from Thane!" Luna announced excitedly as she leaned over and read the tags attached to each gift, "This one is for you Rose." 

"And this one is for you," Rose replied as well offering Luna's gift to her and vice versa. Both girls eagerly tore open their gifts and both their eyes widened as they gazed at what lay inside. 

Luna took her's out first, revealing a slim scepter made out of a cream-like metal with golden accents and a large shard of crystal set into the very end. 

Rose was right behind her and couldn't suppress the smile that spread across her face as she stared at the twin blades that rested in her hands. One looked awfully familiar with a straight narrow blade while the other had a slight curve and ended in a hook like a bird's talon. 

At the same time across the countryside, Daphne rested in her room tired after hosting her family's annual Christmas Ball. As always it had been a draining affair, but more so than usual as Daphne had to fend off multiple suitors and their parents trying to court her. Unfortunately for them, Daphne's standards were far too high and only one man was capable of meeting and exceeding them. 

Daphne sighed as she thought of Thane from what must have been the hundredth time that night, only for her thoughts to get interrupted by a peck at her window. 

Less than a few moments later Daphne was blushing as she stared at the elegant polearm sat across her lap made out of a teal-ish tinted metal with swirling silver accents that looked like gusts of wind, "Oh Thane, you really know the way to a woman's heart."