Mages of War
In the trenches of war magic appeared, people learned to control it through the war, but they did not just learn to control it they learned how to integrate it into their weapons creating weapons that seemed impossible, it even helped solve Nikola Tesla’s unfinished projects with the help of magic.
We head to the battlefield, gunshots and explosions everywhere, meanwhile in a trench on the English side a discussion of commanders take place, as the commanders talk an injured soldier barges saying
“Commanders! The enemies have a new type of weapon that has caused severe loses!” after hearing this, the commanders begin to worry, wondering what could possibly be causing all this death,
when one goes outside to check they see a machine fuelled by a large magical crystal, a soldier in the distance gets hit by the weapon bursting into flames that continue to burn even after the soldier's body has become completely ash,
seeing this, the commander is in shock before his expression becomes serious as he begins to channel the magic in the air creating a large formation of clouds above the weapon before striking it down with a large bolt of lightning at the crystal, the crystal explodes, creating a large crater across a large portion of no man's land
The dust from the explosion hung in the air, thick and choking, as the ground trembled from the force of the blast. The commander stood frozen, staring at the massive crater that had been created. The magical storm clouds above began to dissipate, leaving behind an eerie calm.
"Sir, we—" A soldier's voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned to see a young lieutenant approaching, wide-eyed with panic.
"Get the men ready," the commander ordered, his voice sharp, but with a slight tremor that betrayed his inner concern. "This fight has only just begun."
"But—what about that weapon? We can't—" the lieutenant stammered, glancing nervously toward the wreckage of the machine. "It destroyed everything in its path."
"That wasn’t just a weapon," the commander muttered, more to himself than to the lieutenant. "That was something else. Something... older." His mind raced with possibilities—ideas he wasn’t ready to voice aloud yet. Magic, integrated into technology, yes. But what kind of magic could make a weapon so destructive? And who was wielding it?
As the soldier hurried off to relay orders, the commander’s thoughts drifted. He had fought on this front for years, but now—now there was a different kind of war unfolding. One that would require more than just conventional tactics. Magic was no longer a mere tool. It was becoming a force unto itself.
A few miles behind the lines, in a makeshift laboratory hidden beneath an abandoned barn, Dr. Alina Voss stood before a chalkboard covered in intricate symbols and equations. Her fingers traced the glowing runes she had drawn earlier, each one a piece of a puzzle she wasn’t sure she could solve.
She had spent years working alongside the military, helping them harness the power of magic in weapons and machines, but what they had just witnessed on the battlefield was beyond anything she had imagined. The magic-fueled weapon, powered by the crystal, was something entirely new—something that had not been seen before.
“Doctor Voss.” A voice called from the door.
She didn’t turn. “I know. The report came in. The crystal weapon.” Her voice was tight, her mind racing with possibilities. “But it wasn’t just a weapon, was it? The way it burned… it’s like the magic itself was consuming the soldier’s body, not just destroying it.”
“That’s what we’re all thinking, ma’am,” her assistant said. “It doesn’t fit the traditional laws of magic.”
“I know.” She paused, finally turning to face him. “I need access to more research—Tesla’s notes. The ones he left before—before he disappeared. I think he was working on something like this.”
The assistant raised an eyebrow. “Tesla? His projects were... speculative at best.”
“Speculative? Or just ahead of his time?” Voss snapped, a spark of frustration in her voice. “I need everything on Tesla’s experiments with energy manipulation. I’m sure he was close to something—something that could explain this.”
Back on the front lines, as the dust settled and the aftermath of the battle began to reveal itself, the commander surveyed the damage. The soldiers were moving in, recovering bodies and salvaging what little they could from the wreckage. But a new dread loomed in the air. They had faced many weapons in this war, but nothing like this.
A voice suddenly called out from behind him. "Sir! The scouts report a strange glow—near the horizon. Another one of those crystals."
The commander’s blood ran cold. They had barely dealt with the first one, and already, the enemy had another weapon on the move. His grip tightened on his rifle. "Prepare the men. We move out in five minutes. And someone get me Dr. Voss. If anyone can help us understand these weapons, it’s her."Weeks passed. The front lines shifted. The magical weapons the enemy had wielded had been neutralized for now, but the world had learned a harsh lesson about the destructive potential of blending magic and technology.
Dr. Voss, having recovered, continued her research, but now with a deeper understanding of the dangers that lay ahead. She and the commander formed a fragile alliance, one that held together out of necessity more than trust. They began searching for more information, more ways to combat the growing threat, but the more they dug, the more they realized they were facing an enemy that didn’t just want to win a war—they wanted to reshape the very fabric of reality.
Dr. Voss’s lab was full of notes now—notes on Tesla’s research, fragments of ancient texts she had unearthed, and her own discoveries on magic’s interaction with life force. The crystal weapon had been the first of many, and if they didn’t act quickly, the consequences would be catastrophic.
One night, as the commander stood watch over the field outside, he saw it—a faint glow in the distance. A light that shouldn’t be there, flickering in the shadows.
His hand gripped the hilt of his sword as he turned to look at Voss, who was standing at the edge of the doorway, her eyes following his gaze. She didn’t need to say anything. They both knew.
With each passing day, the lines between magic and technology blurred further, and the world began to realize that this war would not be fought with guns and tanks alone. It would be fought with something far more dangerous—and far more unpredictable.
The air was thick with the scent of burnt ozone as the commander, now joined by a small group of soldiers, advanced toward the newly reported glow on the horizon. The landscape before them was scarred, the earth blackened from the earlier blast. The sky above, still heavy with the remnants of the magical storm, cast an unnatural light over the scene—sullen and ominous.
They moved cautiously, the ground crunching beneath their boots, every step taken with the knowledge that they were walking into a storm of unknown proportions. The soldiers’ faces were grim, their expressions hollowed by what they had witnessed. The horror of the previous battle had left an indelible mark on them.
The commander’s eyes narrowed as they neared the source of the glow. In the distance, a second machine, even larger than the first, stood looming against the horizon. It was like a grotesque monument to war, its dark metal framework pulsating with an eerie, rhythmic light. At its core, a massive crystal, glowing with an internal fire that seemed to throb in time with the distant beats of a drum.
"This… this doesn’t feel right, sir," Lieutenant Dalton said, his voice shaky. "It’s like the whole machine is alive."
The commander nodded. He could feel it too—a strange, oppressive presence in the air. Whatever this new weapon was, it wasn’t just a tool of destruction. It was something more. Something that had been born of magic, not technology.
The tension in the air was palpable as they approached. It was clear the enemy had already begun preparations. The machine hummed with energy, its crystalline core flickering and sparking. They had to act quickly.
"Ready the spellcaster," the commander ordered. He turned to his unit’s mage, a young woman named Lira, who had been trained in the arcane arts since childhood.
"Yes, sir." Lira took a deep breath, her fingers brushing the sigils on her wrist as she channeled the magic around them. Her eyes glowed faintly as the air seemed to hum with the energy she summoned.
But just as Lira prepared to cast her spell, a sudden flash of light erupted from the machine. A beam of raw magical energy shot into the sky, a deadly streak of light that seemed to carve the air itself. It was too fast—too powerful.
"Lira! Now!" the commander shouted, his voice urgent.
Lira’s hands moved in a blur of motion, weaving the spell into a complex formation. But even as she cast, she knew it might not be enough.
The beam of light shot downward toward them, a spear of energy that seemed to hum with a malevolent intent. Lira’s spell barely deflected the blast, causing it to veer off course and explode in the distance. The force of the explosion sent shockwaves through the ground, knocking several soldiers off their feet.
"Fall back! Fall back!" the commander yelled, grabbing Lira’s arm and pulling her toward cover.
The soldiers scrambled to retreat, but the machine was relentless. Another blast of magic streaked through the air, tearing apart a nearby trench with terrifying precision. The enemy had perfected their weapon, and now it was showing its true power.
Back at the command post, Dr. Voss was deep in thought, her fingers dancing over the fragile papers scattered across the table. She had been researching Tesla’s notes for hours, piecing together fragments of his work. There were references to energy manipulation, transmutation of elements, and even mentions of powerful artifacts—things that had never seen the light of day, not even in the darkest corners of the world.
One particular line caught her attention:
"The key to unlocking the full potential of energy lies not in its control, but in its symbiosis with life itself."
Voss frowned. Symbiosis? Life itself? What did that mean? Was Tesla onto something that connected magic to the essence of living beings? Could the weapons on the front line be using something more than just raw magic?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a frantic knock on the door.
"Doctor, you need to see this," her assistant said, eyes wide with panic. "There’s been another attack. It's not just the enemy’s machine—there’s something else. Something… unnatural."
On the front lines, the commander and his men regrouped in a nearby ravine, their faces pale and covered in dirt. The energy from the enemy’s machine had torn through their defences, and they were losing ground quickly.
"Lira," the commander said, his voice low but filled with resolve. "Can you keep up with their attacks?"
She nodded, though her expression was one of exhaustion. "I’ll do my best. But whatever this weapon is, it’s beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I’ve never felt magic like this before. It’s... corrupt. Like it's feeding on something."
The commander’s mind raced as he processed her words. If the weapon was drawing its power from some deeper, unknown source, it could only mean one thing: the enemy was tapping into an ancient force, one that even they might not fully understand.
"We need Dr. Voss," he said quietly. "She’s the only one who can help us understand this. If this weapon is connected to something... something alive, she’ll know."
Back in the barn, Dr. Voss paced, her mind whirling with the pieces of the puzzle. The more she studied Tesla’s notes, the more she realized how much of his work had been lost to time. But what was in her hands now? A blueprint for something that shouldn’t exist.
Her assistant returned, breathless, eyes wild. "Doctor… it’s worse than we thought. The enemy’s weapon—it’s not just a machine. It's feeding. It's feeding on the life force of the soldiers it kills."
Dr. Voss felt the room spin for a moment. "Feeding on life force? Are you certain?"
"Absolutely," he said. "We found traces of it in the bodies—something was… siphoning their essence. Like, the crystal is acting as a conduit. The more it kills, the stronger it becomes."
The implications of this were staggering. Tesla’s notes had mentioned such power—ancient rituals tied to energy manipulation that could transcend the boundaries of science. What if they weren’t just dealing with a weapon? What if they were dealing with something... alive?
Voss turned to her assistant with new resolve. "We need to get to the front. Now. I think I know how we can stop it."
The battlefield fell silent.
For a moment, the only sound was the soft crackling of magic fading into the distance, the last remnants of the crystal's energy dissipating into the sky. The glowing shards of the shattered crystal fell like slow-moving stars, each one dissolving into nothing before it hit the ground.
The colossal machine, now lifeless, staggered and fell, its once menacing hum replaced by an eerie quiet. The soldiers, still reeling from the explosion and the aftermath, stood frozen, staring at the broken machine. The earth beneath them seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Dr. Voss, panting and exhausted, lowered her hands. Her eyes were wide with the immense toll the ritual had taken on her. The arcane words she had invoked were ancient—ones that had never been spoken by living lips for centuries. They had taken something from her, draining her energy in ways she couldn’t fully comprehend.
The commander approached her cautiously. "Doctor, you did it," he said, his voice filled with awe. "You stopped it."
Voss didn't answer at first. She looked at the fallen machine, the destruction it had wrought, and then her eyes drifted to the horizon. A sense of sorrow crossed her features, mingling with her exhaustion.
"Yes," she said quietly, her voice hoarse. "But at what cost?"
The commander didn’t ask her what she meant. He could see the weight in her eyes. The battlefield was littered with the bodies of men, both soldiers and civilians, those caught in the crossfire. The magic they had fought against had been insatiable, but the cost of using such power was clear. And the war was far from over.
"Let’s get you out of here," he said, offering her his hand.
She shook her head, her gaze still distant. "No," she said. "The work is not done. This was only one weapon. They have others—darker ones, I fear. This war… it’s just beginning."
Weeks passed. The front lines shifted. The magical weapons the enemy had wielded had been neutralized for now, but the world had learned a harsh lesson about the destructive potential of blending magic and technology.
Dr. Voss, having recovered, continued her research, but now with a deeper understanding of the dangers that lay ahead. She and the commander formed a fragile alliance, one that held together out of necessity more than trust. They began searching for more information, more ways to combat the growing threat, but the more they dug, the more they realized they were facing an enemy that didn’t just want to win a war—they wanted to reshape the very fabric of reality.
Dr. Voss’s lab was full of notes now—notes on Tesla’s research, fragments of ancient texts she had unearthed, and her own discoveries on magic’s interaction with life force. The crystal weapon had been the first of many, and if they didn’t act quickly, the consequences would be catastrophic.
One night, as the commander stood watch over the field outside, he saw it—a faint glow in the distance. A light that shouldn’t be there, flickering in the shadows.
His hand gripped the hilt of his sword as he turned to look at Voss, who was standing at the edge of the doorway, her eyes following his gaze. She didn’t need to say anything. They both knew.
The war was far from over. And the bodies will build up