12 [Arcadia]
Fate/Defiance
Chapter 11 [Arcadia]
By theMadLad
As Icarus laid on his hammock after a tiring and life-changing day, he could feel the fatigue in his muscles slowly heal from the effects Athena added to his bounded field. But… he just couldn't sleep, regardless of his body and mind's exhaustion.
Earlier he had given Hestia the last of his meal to finish up his offering and then headed to sleep. The hammock he rested in was stretched high above the forest and in-between two trees, with its overt size allowing him to lay his head on his hands while stretching out his elbows.
The dark night sky was absolutely beautiful, being littered with thousands of stars that were all so clear to see, alongside the moon that was shining brightly in front of them, lighting up the forest with its glow.
It was a sight he was never able to see in his past life. He had always lived in cities with rampant light pollution, where the dark skies at night may have had few stars littered about, but were mostly filled with just dark gradients of gray smeared up in the sky overhead.
He remembered when he first saw the night sky in this world, it was a breathtaking experience and one that helped him get through the early listlessness and depression he felt when he was reborn and first became aware of his situation in this life.
But now, he felt something different when looking at it.
Seeing each star littered about, with an uncountable number of them coalescing together into a milky swirl of light that dotted a mosaic of wonder and mystery across the heavens made him smile.
He first started this journey to become a heroic spirit and somehow bullshit his way back to the future. But now… he thinks his goals may have changed. He still wanted to eventually go back to his own time period, but not nearly as bad anymore.
Staring at the night sky had once again given him that same introspective he had years prior, but instead of it being of resolve and desperation, it was one of hope and acceptance instead.
He realized that had been in denial all these years, with the pressure from his sudden reincarnation and hostile domestic situation having been drowning him in stress. In order to escape that stress, he had convinced himself into idealizing his past life and time where that aforementioned stress was nonexistent.
Where he still had family and friends, topics and hobbies that he loved pursuing and talking about, and most importantly people to relate to.
The future was so much better, not because it was actually better, but because it wasn't here—this lonely and foreign place.
With the revelation of not only being in traditional Greek Mythology, but also the Greek Mythology of a fictional world, only further compounding onto his psyche. It also didn't help that he was powerless in an absurdly dangerous fictional world that left him with no semblance of security to comfort himself with.
But today's events changed that. He was finally able to take charge in his life, finally able to do something. It had allowed him to accept reality, and escape that denial—to become self-aware of it, and move past it. He no longer wanted to return to his time with such desperation, now he simply wanted to live life however he wanted and explore this one.
That burden of stress was no longer there, he was free from it. He no longer needed to delude himself into how much better 'the future' was or how much he needed to get back.
So what if he was in the past, or in some fictional world?
—Who else had this kind of opportunity?
He would never be able to explore the wonders of the world or uncover mysteries hidden in the past without this happening—shit he could learn magic!
How cool was that?!
He was too busy stressing about life, and not living it.
Well, now he was going to live it to the fullest.
—Or die trying.
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Icarus continued to move through the forest. He would have stayed in his camp to practice his item crafting and archery, but he couldn't.
He had no water, so he had to move on.
He was taking things slow, enjoying the things he would find along the way while also keeping in mind to stay cautious. The trails he followed were game trails, traveled by all kinds of animals and creatures that wandered the forest.
He bent over part of the trail as he stuffed another piece of the smoked boar from his leftover meat into his mouth. There were some new tracks on the trail that he had not noticed prior, differing from those of the usual fox or deer prints—these were ones belonging to a horse.
A very large horse.
—No, Two very large horses.
There were two sets of tracks, seemingly side by side. This was unnatural as horses don't travel in such dense forest, it was simply too difficult for them to move in such terrain.
Icarus reached into his backpack, pulling out another one of the items he had swiped from Daedalus' workshop.
A map.
Specifically a map that covered a decently large portion of what would become Greece, including some inaccurate measurements of distance between the various city-states.
Luckily, he had gotten a good view from above and was rather easily able to trace where he was by comparing the places he traveled to the map, as well as using the various clues he found in the terrain to locate himself based on his escape from Athens.
He traced his finger over the distance he believed to have traveled using the cardinal directions labeled on the map, as well as his memory of the sun's location at the time.
His finger stopped at the crude drawing of a massive forest that was home to a small kingdom southwest of Athens. The forest was the location where he currently resided and also shared the same name as the kingdom.
Arcadia.
He put the map back in his bag before searching through it for another book he remembered taking, an animal encyclopedia pertaining to both mundane and magical creatures. The book was full of notes regarding animals throughout Greece, including things such as habitat and abilities, but mostly effects used in crafting.
It belonged to Daedalus afterall.
He pulled out the book and began flipping through the pages until he eventually came to what he was looking for.
Centaurs.
A phantasmal species with the lower body of a horse and upper body of a man. They are known for being savages who would unhesitatingly pillage anything, as well as being fierce hunters. They are usually avoided due to this, with many steering clear of their territory in fear of their barbaric and lustful nature.
The notes on them were not very comprehensive as it seemed they did not have much use in item crafting other than their hides, which had a plethora of superior alternatives. This caused Daedalus to not have much interest in them, hence the lack of information.
But, he did have some labels about their habitat and location. They mainly resided in Mount Pelion, under the supervision of Chiron, the 'civilized' centaur. However, they can also be seen in Mount Parthenion, which borders Arcadia.
This made the probability that those tracks belonged to the centaurs rise much higher from this information.
Icarus would have to be cautious.
He was not familiar with this forest, nor was he powerful. Just a single well placed kick from a regular horse was enough to kill him, never mind a magical horse—and add in human-like intelligence and heavy amounts of practice with weaponry, it came together into a deadly combination that could quite easily take his life.
Icarus read enough stories and had seen enough movies to know that he should never underestimate an opponent, he should always head into battle with the expectation that it might be his last. Especially in a world belonging to the Nasuverse, where even a village boy like Sasaki Kojirou could practice endlessly on his own to the point of cutting through space itself three times in a single stroke.
A feat that entrenched itself in the realm of true magic through sheer skill alone.
He didn't fucking dare underestimate anyone.
He needed more means of protection. His magic was mostly esoteric and lacked offensive capabilities, leaving only his bow and precious books to learn from, and considering that one of them was his only weapon, and the other something that would take time to learn from—things didn't look so hot.
…Not to mention that his bow was weaker.
After he left Athens, the 'weight' of his bow had dropped quite a bit and although still rather powerful, it was no longer to the point of creating a sonic boom from its sheer might. This along with his poor skill in archery no longer being compensated by the clairvoyance granted while within Athens made his bow not nearly as deadly as it could be.
He needed practice, lots of it.
But that would take time and guidance, time and guidance he did not have.
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He once again had set up a bounded field around his new camp, but this time, he had found water in the area. Because of this, he was now able to stay in a single area and make a temporary home without a need for frequent travel.
Because he was unsure if the bounded field was able to hide even from magic creatures like the centaur, he decided to put in the effort to set up a crude yet effective bounded field layered on top of the usual one that was specialized in stealth instead, hiding things such as noise and scent as well as having some minor illusion abilities.
While there was likely a reason he was set on this path by Zeus. Icarus, while gratified with his newfound psychological freedom—was still too cautious to take unnecessary risks.
It was better to lay low and practice.
He was not a demigod with divine strength or special abilities, he was a mostly normal person and as such, he had to compensate for that lack of ability through knowledge, wisdom, and strategy.
Icarus' main issue was that he lacked information, whether that be in general knowledge, magic, or martial arts. He needed to make up for this, and while he had the books to learn from—they would take too long in the short term, leaving the only way to do so being through his current strongest skill set.
Invention.
…also to practice with Promachos, as he really needed to get better with it. So, with this ambition in mind, Icarus quickly got to it—-and the days passed quickly.
With Icarus staying in relative safety behind the protective bounded field and having the leftover smoked meat and an available water source as well, he didn't need to worry about resources, and could instead use his time to put in enough practice with his bow to the point that he could at least be able to accurately and consistently aim with his scope.
Meanwhile, with his research on Daedalus' books giving him inspiration—his invention ideas which had been in work were then put into development. He had a plethora of ideas but the one which he would put into use would consist of borrowing concepts that pertained to a collective belief.
He also remembered something that commonly happened when aiding Daedalus in his inventions—that being when purifying glass with his spell, it worked better for him than with Daedalus.
This gave him a hint towards what his personal 'element' affinity could possibly be. With the ability to purify things being capable of great application towards his inventions.
This in combination with his modern knowledge, would allow him to easily and cheaply create powerful and convenient magical items that he would be unable to make otherwise. So as such, he made two items using these ideas. To create these items, he first altered some metal he found on the ground and within rocks into thin metal sheets by using his magic.
He then took those thin metal sheets and carved symbols of the moon onto their backside, these symbols consisted of four of the moon's eight phases, that were ordered from the new moon, then waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, until finally ending on the full moon.
These symbols of the moon represented multiple things tied to the different concepts belonging to the moon, with these concepts being used in the creation of his invention to either become part of it or aid in creating it.
The first use of these borrowed concepts was through Greek Alchemy, which used the symbol of the moon as a representation of silver.
Silver was the material he needed for his invention, and as such, he borrowed the moon's concepts and symbolization with silver to magically transmute the thin metal sheets into silver over the course of 15 days—an entire half cycle of the moon's phases from the new moon to the full moon.
Meanwhile, he created Isinglass from the bladders of fish taken from the local stream, then based on Daedalus' example, he used his affinity with the purification spell to further purify the Isinglass until it was completely transparent.
He also used his purification spell on the newly transmuted silver, making the thin sheet polished enough to perfectly reflect anything facing it. The reflective shine of the metal was superior to any other mirror makers of this era, using magic and silver to ellipse any mortal creation made through bronze and polished by rottenstone.
This was also magically empowered by borrowing more concepts from the moon, specifically in regards to reflection. This correlated with both the current Age of the Gods and the future Age of Men, with the moon representing the night, a reflection and opposite of day in multiple ways.
Currently, in the Age of the Gods, in contrast to the Sun, which was currently seen as the Sun God Helios being dragged by his own chariot, the Moon was also seen as a Goddess named Selene, who was dragged across the sky through her own chariot at night—which further emphasized it's concepts of reflection and opposites in correlation with Helios.
The Sun and the Moon also had ties together through the twins Apollo and Artemis, who represented the Sun and Moon respectively—which once again, further emphasized reflection and opposites with their similar domains of Archery and the Hunt, along with their contrasting domains of the arts and the wilderness, with one representing the pursuits of man, and the other, the pursuits of animals.
While in the modern era, the Age of Men, it was well known that moonlight was the moon reflecting the sunlight from the sun that struck its surface, and shone onto the Earth instead. It was also shown to be an opposite of the Sun in regards to the Earth by being Geocentric instead of Heliocentric, with the moon orbiting the Earth itself instead of the Sun like the Earth does.
Icarus couldn't help but smack his lips at his own ingenuity, he could already feel the 'mystery' on his newest invention begin to stack up like a double XP weekend on his favorite video game.
Icarus then overlaid the transparent Isinglass over the perfectly reflective silver metal sheet, making the first modern silver-glass mirror thousands of years before it would be originally created.
He then altered its shape to fit on a forearm guard that he could attach to his arm, and while glass might be a very strange material to make armor parts from, Icarus was not yet finished.
He finally added one last part to his invention, a small bounded field that used an illusion to flip the mirror's perspective into the correct correlation instead of its reflected appearance that was in reverse.
This allowed a so-called 'perfect' reflection, one which might as well have been a portal—and that's exactly what his invention was, a portal created through a mirror's perfect reflection.
A foreguard of armor that was as much a defense as it was an offense. Anything that hit the foreguard's mirror would physically reflect back where it came from.
So, if someone were to shoot a spell or arrow through the mirror, it would go through it as if nothing was there to stop it and travel into the reflection, but since it was a perfect reflection, instead of going through some sort of hypothetical 'mirror world' it would instead return to the real world, right back where it came from.
Metaphysically, physically, and literally reflecting an object or spell rather than reflecting an appearance instead, like a normal mirror.
Icarus smiled at his accomplishment in pride, happy to have succeeded in borrowing the power of concepts and applying them to his inventions. He felt as if he had reached a higher level of skill towards invention than he was prior.
So, as he turned to face the direction where the sudden chirping of a bird interrupted his thought, a bold idea sprouted in his brain.
…an idea that would truly allow him to represent and embody the name of Icarus.
(Here's a cool image of this chapter.)
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Author's Notes
Chapter done! Hope you enjoyed it, please leave feedback whether it be comments, suggestions, or reviews! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!
This chapter is for Icarus to kind of build up more of an arsenal to help with his next fight, hope you enjoyed how he made the item and my ideas towards them.
Leave some powerstones if you liked the chapter!
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