#pilum muralis

[junijupi]

Pilum Muralis 🩷

[tatianalisova]

Oh sorry, I was flipping through the Manga and suddenly thought about it haha))

[stardustintheabyss]

*The Ancient Magnus Bride*

Me: ooh this looks interesting...

My brain 5 episodes in: we a simp now for a mage with a cow skull for a head.

Me:...a'ight, can't argue with that logic.

[a-robin-among-thorns]

Request 4:Battle Wounds

Requested By @demonic-chaos

Word Count:1,750...I had a bit too much fun here ^^;

Content Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Despite what Renfred so often liked to accuse, Elias was not a violent person by choice. There were, of course, situations that forced his hand. Much like the one he found himself in now. He was unsure if there was ever a peaceful solution to be had when crossing paths with a territorial manticore, but he knew there was no chance he would find one today.

It had been pure bad luck that Elias had stumbled across the mismatched creature trouncing around the outskirts of the forest while he had been gathering components. He suspected it had somehow become misplaced from its Arabic homeland, perhaps in an even shadier than average auction transition. The church would have had him become involved sooner than later and he definitely did not want the man-eating beast lurking within a hundred miles of Chise.

But still, something of this nature is much easier to deal with when one is prepared, Elias thought as the beast’s swollen red stinger zoomed just past his shoulder.

The beast retracted its scorpion tail and reared back on its thick lion legs before landing down releasing a ghastly howl. Its face was human-like, as is someone had sawed off the face of an emaciated young man and sewn it to the neck of the lion body. Green strings of saliva hung from is cracked lips as it panted bodily.  

Elias sidestepped around the creature’s defensive position, slowly drawing his wand. No neighbors would come to his aid at this moment, he would have to draw on his power alone. The beast’s gold eyes, much too large for his human face, followed his every movement. Now or never.

He thrust his wand forward. "Nettle in the shadow. False hol-Ah!"

Heavy paws and claws crashed into his shoulders knocking aside his wand as he fell downward. Some instinctual fraction of good sense reminded him to raise his head slightly to prevent his horns from jamming and possibly cracking, into the soil. As luck would have it, that sense also moved his head in time to miss the stinger as it bolted forward and became deeply embedded into the earth.

Drops of stringy saliva brought the mage’s attention back to the beast hanging over him. Just in time to see its lips crack open across its face as it unhooked its jaw. Ah, so that was how this creature managed to swallow humans whole. Elias would just have to be bigger than a human then.

In an instant the liquid shadows that made up Elias’ body expanded, sprawling outward in jagged thorns and spikes. This didn’t stop the creature's trajectory resulting in its humanoid teeth clamping against the plumage and neck where Elias’ skull had been a second earlier. The teeth were blunt but the force behind them still threatened to knock the wind out Elias. He ignored the pain focusing on his thorns as they wound and spun around the beast prying its body of by an inch. Exactly enough for Elias to free his arms.

His right hand plunged into the beast’s side like a harpoon. Distantly, he noted the jaws of the creature unclamping from his shoulder while a sharper pain set in his external ribs. He ignored it, gripping his jaws around its neck and surging his hand into the beast’s hide deeper and deeper as it screeched and howled. Finally, his claws grasped the throbbing mass they had searched for and tugged. It fought furiously to free itself but the grip of Pilum Muralis was vice even against thick ropes of tendon and muscle.

Elias could feel muscles against his hand and tongue go limp as he ripped the beast’s heart free of its chest. A final hiss like a deflated balloon choked out of its mouth. With a definitive yank, Elias broke the organ free of the vessels connecting it. He was unlearned if the beast expressed healing capabilities but he did not wish to leave anything to chance.

Only after the heart ceased its residual beating did Elias finally release his grip, both on the creatures neck and disembodied organ. He made to sit on his haunches to inspect the damage...well damn. This could pose a problem.

----

The gathering basket fell to her feet in a clatter of herbs and vegetables. Her hands clasped over her mouth as Chise inspected the scene before her in horror. Her ring had alerted her the instant Elias had been injured and she had rushed to find him. She couldn’t have possibly imagined this.

Elias lay on his side, his body taking the huge form she had not seen since their first encounter with Cartaphilus. Blood seeped from his shoulder and coated his hand. Not an arm's length away laid the slain manticore, it’s open throat and chest already being scoured by mushroom-like fae. All of this was awful. But not quite as awful as the sight of the beasts stinger embedded in Elias’ external ribs.

She fell upon him in a flush, cupping her hands against the corners of his jaw. To her great relief, his eyes flickered at the contact opening up to meet her. “...Chise..?”

Chise felt a mountain lift from her shoulders. “Elias, thank god you’re alive.” She leaned her forehead against his own, grateful beyond words to feel his rumbling breath tickle her belly. She finally pulled away, still cupping his jaw, to look him in the eyes. “What happened here?”

“Lots of things,” he answered as he slowly propped his long arms to sit upright, “but mostly I was very unlucky today.” Chise was not pleased with the answer but her attention was quickly drawn to the heavy thud of Elias’ body collapsing back to the ground. A pained hiss slipped between his grinding teeth.

She shuffled to where the stinger, still attached to the beast’s tail was lodged into the lowest and smallest of Elias’ external ribs. An inch lower and it would have sunken into his belly, she thought with a shiver. She didn't know how potent the venom of a manticore was but bone should, in theory, spread it slower than blood. She hoped.

With steely resolve, she looked back to his eyes. “What do I need to do?”

��You’ll need to remove it without touching the venom." He rumbled in answer. "Try not to let it break off if you can.”

She fished her gardening gloves from her apron pockets and hurriedly put them on. Placing her right hand against his stomach for purchase, she felt him tense as she cautiously closed her dragon cursed hand round the bit of stinger closest to the embedment. Using the ancient strength of dragons made her nervous. One slip of concentration would render the stinger to keratinous shards.

She took a deep breath and slowly pulled. Inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter the stinger was removed from the bone. With a jerk, it unhooked from the bone leaving a dent filled with a shallow pocket of a troubling thin yellow liquid. But thankfully no blood.

Elias rose to look at her work and made to give her the next instructions. To his surprise, Chise was already at work pulling basil leaves from her bag of holding in one hand and her wand in the other. She peered around the treetops til stopping at one. “Will you help me?” She called offering up her palm. A gentle tinkling sounded as a Hawthorn spirit landed in her palm. Its eyes crinkled in a smile. They were often pleased to help their dear sleigh beggy.

Chise crushed the basil between her fingers and sprinkled it in the dent of bone. A spicy herbal scent filled the air as the powdered leaves fizzled in contact with the pooled venom. Holding her wand and the fae aloft she began to chant.

Seep and burn herbs of the earth.

Run deep and work the bezoar’s deed.

The magic of the queen bee sparkled and fizzed through the air landing on the specks of basil leaves. The herbal smell grew stronger as the fizzling leaves burned in bright yellow streaks. The light spread along the bone in spiderweb patterns followed by smoke like an incense burner. In a few minutes, the last of the smoke dissipated out of the bone leaving not a trace of venom.

The crease between Chise’s forehead smoothed as she sighed. “Thank you, friend.” The hawthorn squeaked happily and disappeared is a flash of sparkles.

Elias rose again in a smooth unhurried motion. “Well done Chise, I am very impressed at your progress.” He looked her over with a proud glimmer in his eyes. “And your ingenuity.”

Chise blushed, tucking a wild tuff of her bangs behind her ear. “I had made something similar for mother up the hill whose son was stung by a scorpion. I was worried it wouldn’t work without the rest of the catalysts or it just wouldn’t be strong enough for monster poison.”

Elias tilted his head, pondering. “If a normal mage would have attempted it, it may have not worked. Also calling on a forest fae was a smart decision.”

Chise would have basked in the praise a moment longer were it not for the spots of blood dripping from Elias’ neck. She reached into her bag once more and secured the gauze and cleaning agent she kept on her desk drawer. She walked to where he had lain his head earlier. “Can you lie back down on your stomach so I can patch up your neck?” He complied as Chise set to work on her knees.

Despite the second set of horns making the maneuvering somewhat awkward, Chise made quick work of the wounds. Once finished she removed her gloves and stuffed them in the apron pocket. She would have to remember to wash the whole kit later. “How does that feel?”

Elias experimentally twisted his neck here and there. “Much better. Thank you Chise.”

She smiled again as she sat criss-cross. “I don’t suppose you can change back yet?”

He haunched somewhat sheepishly. “Not yet, I don’t think.”

Chise held her hands out urging. He accepted the invitation without hesitation, settling his chin in her lap. “That's fine. I’ll stay here till you can.” His eyes muted pleasantly as she began stroking the top of his skull.

“Thank you Chise.” He said as his clean hand wrapped around her.

“And you can explain why you didn’t call me when you saw the manticore.” She teased.

“Urk!...Alright.”

[peach-artblog]

[monstercu]

The REAL reason why the Church decided to keep an eye on Elias

The Pilum Muralis arriving at the French port, (colourized):

Based off this chat with @merlioning :

[nrg511]

Day 26: Pilum Muralis aka Elias Ainsworth

[kdazrael]

Remaining tamb mysteries that demand at least 3 more series of the anime:

What the fuck is Elias, exactly?

What acts of badassery did Elias get up to when he was Pilum Muralis?

Why doesn’t Elias have a familiar? Is he HIS OWN familiar?

Where did he get the name ‘Ainsworth’ from?

What did Elias do to make the Catholic Church send their most handsome agent (Simon) to keep tabs on him?

Does Cartaphilus have to apologise to Jesus in person?

Why did Chise’s da leave? Why did he seem to think about bringing her and then reconsider?

Where are da and bro Hatori now? Will Chise ever meet them again?

Is the dragon’s curse really irreversible?

Will Ashen Eye ever get a hobby and stop being such an annoying edgelord?

What is the deal with that axolotl-ass fairy thing that lives in Elias’ house?

Why is Silky so into Victorian cosplay? 

Did she, like, totally miss banshee training day or...?

Will Lindel ever work out that Adolf is embarrassingly in love with him?

Will Redcurrant ever put on a damn sweater or something, jeez!

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 

[elias-ainsworth]

Now that the Anime covered this bit in Chapter 10, I would like to call to attention what Rahab said about Elias. “But no. This is actually more like the opposite.” A botched dark spell that became partly human? Who is the caster then. And what was the spell for? We can surmise that this was a spell cast upon a fae or spirit based on the fact it’s mentioned Elias is either partly fae/Spirit, but neither are mentioned in the dark spell/human equation. And who do we know is doing tests on fae and humans alike? Joseph. Aka Cartaphilus. Aka the wandering Jew. But for what? Let’s also bring up “Pilum Muralis” This is a Roman term (yet another connection. Cartaphilus is a Roman name. Albiet, a small and rather non-discriminate detail) for a type of wooden spear-like fence which could be used to defend an area when placed like a wall, or attack when thrown. Essentially it’s a weapon. Now, let’s bring up something Joseph says to Elias in Episode 7.... “But you know better than to get close to a human.” It’s rather familial of him. It’s as if they’d known each other. Additionally, it applies more mystery. Had Elias gotten close to humans before?? We know from what Oberon says in Episode 6 that Elias was pressured into eating humans due to “humanity’s sin.” This, interestingly, also came with some slight evidence that Elias may have been fae before all that happened to him. Humanity’s sin could be that something that the human/human’s that were close to Elias did caused the poor guy to lose it. The thing that disproves this bit is the fact he shows some tendencies to hunger for human, as seen both in episode 10 when he is first found by Lindel in his flashback, and Episode 9 when he leans down, mouth open to seemingly eat Chise while she is asleep when he finds it difficult to control himself. Then again... feed any meat-eating predator human meat and they may end up craving it. But still... Humanity’s sin could also refer to the sin Joseph/Cartaphilus made by using dark magic on a fae in an attempt to make them human... Maybe he got close to a human and fell in love with them, came to Joseph, an Alchemist who may have been quite powerful at the time or perhaps not so well known, to become human. When this was achieved and he became a monster they feared, or perhaps he ate them because he lost control over himself, the trauma of it caused him to forget and he simply ran. And walked and walked and walked until he ran into Lindel. As to why Joseph would do such a thing? For his own gain, of course. Pitiful though he acts, he seems to have a selfish intent for everything. Anyways, this is my theory based on what is currently known. There are some holes of course but yea... I had to wait to post such a theory because I didn’t want to spoil the episode with Rahab so directly.

[sserenami]

Pilum muralis by ChooHee

[hollowdirge]

Pilum Muralis by Abz-J-Harding

[tatianalisova]

[closetowatch]

manga: Mahou Tsukai no Yome/ THe Ancient Magus Bride- Pilum Muralis by Abz-J-Harding.deviantart.com on @DeviantArt http://ift.tt/2GMSAKW

[a-robin-among-thorns]

Request 6: Night Terror

Requested by Anonymous

Word Count: 689

Content Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence aka me having edgy bitch syndrome lol

Chise was falling. Her body plummeted, completely at the mercy of the wind as she battered around in the air. She fought desperately to right herself, looking anywhere to grab a hold. But there was nothing in the gaping chasm she fell closer to. She looked upward once again, finding a mass of blackness snaking along the chasm walls in furious desperation toward her. The child of thorns’ hand emerged from the blackness as the mage took form and lept off the walls. Hands and thorny vines reached toward her to pluck her from the air. She reached for him, her fingertips only just coming-

A sickening crack echoed as her tiny body slammed into the rock bed.

Ringing silence filled the air. Blood pooled into the ground creating a puddle of ruddy dark mud against his feet, splashing dully as his knees gave out their strength. His hand slowly hovered over her arms, bent at staggering angles where bones could be seen splintering out of skin and clothes alike. His fingers clawed into the ground in futile vengeance.

He could hear nothing, yet he knew that the cursed sorcerer was approaching.

“Oh boo. You’re going to have trouble finding another sleigh beggy to observe.” The child who wasn’t a child grinned, “You really should have taken better care of this one.” He shrugged, “Ah well, you don’t mind if I use what’s left, do you? I’ve never gotten the chance to work with the materials of a genuine sleigh beggy. I’ll bet there’s still magic residing in the remains.”

Whether or not the mage heard him was unclear as he showed no reaction to any of the sorcerer’s words.

“You know I would have thought you’d be at least a little happy." He flipped his silvery locks behind his ear and scoffed pointedly. "I mean sure, she’s dead, but you didn’t kill her, at least, not directly. I thought you would have lost control and eaten her long before now!”

Pilum Muralis lunged its inky black body into the immortal sorcerer pinning him to the ground in an instant. It rose over the minuscule sorcerer before driving its head into his neck. Teeth like knives snapped down through muscle and bone, crushing any breath that lingered. With its jaw still locked onto the tiny human’s neck, Thorn glanced at the recipient of its wrath.

Green eyes glanced back. ---

Elias bolted upward and found his hand clenching his chest furiously. His breath came in sharp gasps causing pain instead of relief. He looked in every direction of the darkness of his room like an injured animal. His eyes froze on the mass of bright red splayed atop the pillow next to him.

A sleepy groan mumbled as Chise stirred and rose slowly. Elias felt his sense return to him registering the red mass as hair and not…

“Elias?” Chise rose to one arm, taking in his sudden awakening with half asleep eyes. “Is something wrong?”

He swallowed harshly in an attempt to control his breathing. “I...had a nightmare, I’m sorry I woke you.”

“It's ok,” she soothed offering her hand which he gratefully took. He met her halfway as she leaned forward, pressing their faces together in a tender nuzzle. After a moment of comforting silence, Chise peaked through half-lidded eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?” He flinched.

The phosphorus embers in his sockets flitted downward in misplaced guilt, unable to meet her green eyes. “I don’t think I can.” he conceded dejectedly. His free hand cautiously cupped her cheek before sliding to her shoulder, consciously avoiding her neck in baseless fear.  

Chise sighed knowingly and gently tugged her husband back onto the bed. She brought the comforter over his back before settling into the crook of his arm. Mirroring his posture, her hand came to his back tracing idle patterns. Once his breathing calmed completely, she whispered, “Don’t worry I’m here.”

“And for that I am grateful.” His arm enveloped her firmly, taking comfort in her steady breath and pulse. Once her eyes had sealed and her snoring resumed Elias whispered, “...more than you know.”

[peach-artblog]

[takethekeyandlockherup]

Ok-

I started watching Ancient Magus Bride- 

and wow.

I have always loved the idea of a series that explores the old British faerie lore- and everything people purported to me to encapsulate that never has-

It was always Norse, or Greek, or Bastardized frilly Victoriana with little happy winged girls, or fricking Grimm’s fairytales for the hundredth time, or just a sad rehash of poorly researched medieval fantasy crap involving terrible historical, theological, cultural inaccuracies.

and fricking Japan did it. They sat down, they researched- they understood the tone variants, the ambiguous morality, and they actually address the whole Christian/Pre-Christian shit- something that English speaking media has constantly shied away from since Faeries are ‘for children’ and as such to avoid controversy we have to pretend that there is not conflict of distinction between Christianity and old english folklore, and that ‘GOD’ with a capital G is still in charge. And they aren’t beating you over the head with that conflict like most witch trial type dramas- they are representing some of the vagueness that overlapping pagan/christian traditions struck up on an everyday small village level to keep things copacetic. 

and they are using real names, terms, and rules of the Fae- without stopping to explain it. (I bet lots of people just sweep over this as side dialog, but calling a faerie by it’s name can offend them, they prefer to be called the good neighbors, the house Brownie/Boggart/Silky is carefully not given ‘gifts’).

And Characters that they are choosing to take creative liberties on, or leave mysterious- they are giving pre-existent obscure terms from history to symbolically outline their nature.

example: the Magus (who seems to be a Demi Urge/Fae) is referred to as Pilum Muralis- this is an artifact of ancient War equipment that we still don’t fully understand, two sided spikes driven into the ground as a protective Barricade- also long held to be individual weapons for combat- but we don’t know if/how they could actually be utilized as a weapon. That there is damned clever.

(also- from what I can tell the Magus character who’s main appeal is that they are non-human, so far doesn’t have the bullshit take-backsies of turning out to be a flippin human with just some bullshit revelation backstory like a crappy twist-ending by  Edgar Rice Burroughs.)

It’s also damned nice to see Shamanistic heroes, who are more caretakers of the Fae balance, rather than self righteous militant asshole monster hunters.