24 Raid 2
- "Lord Rodrick" Said the servant inside the knight's quarter respectfully bowing to the lord.
Rodrick stood up from his desk and walked towards the window – "What is it Albert?"
- "We received a report that the assassins ceased to follow the boy." Informed the servant.
- "And why is that?" Rodrick asked turning towards the servant with an angry face.
- "They are demanding more money sir… they said that the contract was for the boy alone, but he is always surrounded by strong people… one of them the princess… they said that the price for handling a princess is much higher…."
- "What?!" Said the lord loudly, turning around facing the servant. His face was red and his eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, such was his sentiment towards the proposition.
- "The princess was given a royal seal my lord, she left with the boy to roam the city days ago… and now as you know, he is participating in the incursion with the army."
Rodrick punched his desk in anger. – "That gross, loamy bastard assured that the assassins would not fail… they not only failed, now they are even demanding more money!"
Rodrick faced the servant once again… calming himself down, then continuing - "How much more do they want?"
- "They said they want triple the initial payment" Answered the servant promptly and with a calm tone.
- "Outrageous! I already paid a fortune… and now they demanded triple that price?" The lord paused for a moment and sighed… - "Tell them to stand down for the moment… I will deal with the boy myself." added the Lord.
The servant bowed once again acknowledging the order.
- "Yes my lord. And regarding today's plan? Do you wish to proceed?" Questioned the servant in a calm voice.
- "No, the king changed his mind and put the first army in charge of protecting the royal wing… he is on to something, we may raise too much attention if I try anything now…"
Rodrick walked to a table by the wall and took a chalice and a bottle of wine from it, poured the wine in the chalice he began drinking slowly.
- "I will wait for the incursion to end and the dust to settle… It will be foolish to try to rush my plans… not now that Maximilian is finally gone, the boy is a mere pawn and can be dealt with later. It's only a matter of time…" Rodrick said taking another sip of his wine.
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The tingling sensation was still bothering him greatly, it was not something he could not withstand, but he still had to constantly remind himself that it was the spell's effects and control himself to not scratch his eyes furiously.
Riou dashed through the mine towards the corridor to the right, where the mages' groups split up, and the one he still needed to investigate. Once he arrived there he calmed down, with care he began to walk paying attention to his surroundings as more enemies could be lurking nearby.
He could see the mine very clearly with the spell active, and easily spotted footprints in the dust. Following them to the next opening, Riou noticed that the mine there just had natural rock formations which were commonly seen in the other parts of the mine, but this one had a very big natural structure at the very center of it, serving as a big central pillar, probably solely responsible for holding the ceiling.
The room was as big as the entrance. Riou was following the footprints in the dust and soon noticed that the straight line of steps which he followed since the beginning of the corridor suddenly became erratic and dispersed, as if a person turned to inspect his surroundings in search of something. Riou was not a tracker but he could clearly see several different shoe sizes that walked in that direction, which almost simultaneously began to do similar rotational movements on the same spot.
"The darkness haze spell was cast when they were here…" Guessed the boy… looking in front he also saw marks on the stones, on the ceiling and the ground… to the ceiling and nearby stalactites debris he saw a scorched surface, very similar to the ones Ursula's flames did, meaning it was a mage able to produce high temperature flame… and nearby there was a liquid substance on the ground… Riou approached it and touched it with his hand… it was cold and not sticky. "Cold water… Ice magic perhaps?" He guessed since there was no water sources nearby. He searched around and noticed strange transparent formations, erupting from the ground in a wide wall formation… he also touched it… "Cold… As I thought, Ice barriers…"
"They battled here… against an invisible enemy…" thought the boy looking at the footprints…
They were all over the place, and suddenly broke formation, four of them to one side… two ran to the other… And the remaining two ran together forwards, to the opposite end of where Riou came from…
"Did the shadows purposely force them to split up again? Or was it just panic?" Tried to figure out the situation while he followed the four that stuck together…
Riou walked towards the right wall, following the footprints that showed concern, because they were very near each other. It did not take long for the boy to see a pile of bodies… four soldiers dead, mutilated in a horrendous way. Blood spatters reached the ceiling which was very high, covering the wall and the rocks nearby. It was impossible to know which part of the body Riou was looking at, much less to which soldier it belonged to. Since no footprints came out of that place and by the sheer quantity of body pieces… He concluded that all four met their end here…
He quickly retraced his steps back to where all footprints came together… Following the footprints on the left side… he quickly after a few steps, noticed a woman's body impaled on the ceiling stalactites… he couldn't figure out who it was, due to the different shades he was seeing… but by the size of the body, he knew it was not Lilly's.
Looking around once again, he saw many broken stones and splintered stalactites at the floor, as if they were blown off. Someone put up a fight with powerful magic, really close to the woman's corpse… Powerful enough to destroy some of the rocks there
"They were near each other in pitch black darkness… She screamed… the other mage heard and shot all his spells in her direction…" Trying to make sense of the situation, the boy looked at the direction of the rock debris probably came from, while walking towards the most likely position of the other mage.
After a few rocks and shattered stalagmites, Riou saw a sword held by a hand… just a hand holding a sword, no body attached to it… and yet another trail of blood.
That trail led the boy to the rest of the hand's body… it was leaned against the wall, still pressing without strength against his wound with his left hand, in an attempt to stop the bleeding of where his right hand should be. It was Nolan… Riou rushed at him hoping he'd still be alive… but as he approached he noticed that there was no more blood gushing out and aside from the right hand, there was also 4 big puncture holes in his chest.
"Evil creatures… they torture and abuse their victims…" Thought the boy once again returning to follow the last footprints that let toward the center pillar. "Lilly and Serena…" concluded the boy.
Riou sped up as no sign of shadows could be seen nearby…
The footprints continued, they were in a hurry, the distance of the steps showed they were running and hit the pillar, cautiously going around it and towards the wall in the opposite side from where Riou came.
Many ice barriers and scorched marks were found in that trail, which told the boy they tried to prevent anything from following them as they tried to flee from that place.
Getting near it Riou noticed movement in that direction, near the wall…
3 shadows were lurking nearby a corridor entrance, contorting their bodies looking and analyzing the corridor, clearly trying to avoid something… since nothing happened, they suddenly and very quickly entered the corridor until they came back again a moment later … followed by a massive fire wave that raged outside the corridor near the shadows that leaned on the walls to escape it.
Riou stealthily got closer. He noticed that the shadow beings were not whole anymore. It seemed that many parts of their bodies have been hit by the intense fire… "Seems like fire can cause damage to them as well… to the point they fear a full hit of the spell, this is most likely Lilly's fire as she is a fire specialist" Realized the boy while watching as they tried to go in again … and contorting themselves as the wave repelled them once more.
Riou waited for the moment they went inside and quickly approached the entrance… As he noticed that another fire wave was coming, he quickly erected a mana barrier to prevent the shadow fiends to escape this time.
"This must be some tactic taught in the academy… or could it be just coincidence…." He thought unsure if it was a known tactic or plain survival instinct that led Ursula and Lilly to the same situation.
Suddenly the shadow fiends appeared at the barrier, unable to get out they contorted their bodies to find a gap at the edges of the barrier, but as it was made of mana, there was no gap for them to exploit. Riou could notice a hint of despair in the shadow fiend's erratic and fast movements. It did not take long for them to be hit by the flame…
And as soon as the shadow fiends were engulfed by the fire the dark haze immediately dissipated. Riou could see firsthand the effects of a high level fire spell on these shadow fiends as they contorted and launched themselves against the invisible barrier silently languishing. The 3 shadow figures died slowly as the remnants of the fire consumed their inexistent physical body until the shadows dissipated into oblivion.
Riou dispelled his mana barrier and his vision spell as well to his relief, it was a blessing to be rid of the sensation. Imagine yourself to be finally rid of an eyelash that got stuck inside your eye for a few hours… the moment it is removed is a blissful feeling of relief. That was how Riou felt as his vision returned to normal and he saw a gold colored flame finishing up the last parts of shadow fiends…
"Intelligent, this must be some kind of holy fire to be able to affect the shadow beings this much." Concluded the boy sneakily looking inside the corridor.
There was another opening to the outside to circulate the air inside the mine, and a faint light also came through it. He could see Lilly and Serena standing there watching the fiends being consumed… they looked tired, but not exhausted.
- "You got them Lilly!" Said Serena in a happy and relieved tone "Let's get out of here!" she added.
Lilly was still breathing heavily as she watched the shadows being consumed by her fire. She nodded to Serena – "Let's go, we need to see what happened to the others" Said Lilly beginning to move.
The mages were relieved when they saw the burning shadow fiends… and quickly began to retreat towards where Riou was…
It was a moment of decision… If he helped the mages back, he would be interrogated to how he survived… and would probably be prevented from going inside the mine again… The boy showed a grimace of disapproval. He leaned towards the wall concealing his presence…"The path behind me is clear, they won't have any trouble getting back… I have more pressing matters at hand" he thought to himself while he watched the two mages rush by, towards the direction of the exit…
Once they were gone from sight… Riou entered the corridor and followed it as the opening in the ceiling was enough to light his way through it.
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A small and simple fire was burning near the entrance… there was no fuel enough to create a fire to provide enough light to guard the entrance from the shadows that could come out of it.
- "Prepare to destroy the entrance pillars, get something to break or force them out! We must be ready to collapse this entrance if necessary!" – Shouted the knight commanding his men.
Suddenly all attention went towards the entrance as two figures emerged from the darkness inside.
Ursula's eyes widened and a relieved expression took over– "Lilly!" she shouted
Bhalrom and a few soldiers rushed towards them to help in case they were injured. But only Serena had a small cut on her arm, nothing threatening.
The two mages were out of breath as they rushed all the way back after casting strong spells for a long period of time. Bhalrom helped them moving towards Ursula who was far away from the entrance in an improvised bench. Ursula went to intercept them and embraced Lilly tightly who was still recovering from all that happened inside. When she released her Bhalrom quickly asked.
- "Tell us what happened" Said the knight to Serena
- "Shadow fiends… they lured us in and then attacked after they casted a darkness spell." Said Serena
Bhalrom nodded acknowledging that he already knew that much… and requested to keep going.
- "As the dark veil came I knew we were up against shadow fiends… If we stayed in the open part of the mine we would die. I shouted to everyone to search for cover… but I could not see where they were… our group got attacked so I grabbed Lilly's hand as she was still near me and ran… I kept using ice barriers and wind magic to try to find a safer place… luckily we reached a corridor, we stood our ground there and began retaliating. I knew they would try to get to us and so we kept changing the intervals of the spells to try to catch them off-guard. It took a while but Lilly's flame wave was finally able to catch them." She said putting her hand on Lilly's shoulder…
- "She killed 3 Shadow Fiends on that corridor and the darkness dissipated, allowing us to come back here."
Ursula looked proudly at Lilly who faintly smiled back, clearly shaken from what she experienced moments ago…
- "The others?" asked Bhalrom already knowing the answer…
Lilly was holding back her tears, as Serena sadly shook her head…
Bhalrom sighed… and returned to the topic at hand…
- "You said three Shadow Fiends? Are you sure?" Asked the knight inquisitively.
"Yes" Answered Serena with absolute certainty.
- "It took a high mage of Argos with great knowledge of death magic to summon one of these creatures… to be able to summon three… it's unheard of… and if the dark spell was dispelled we have reason to believe that the mine is free of the fiends…" The knight said thinking out loud.
Ursula nodded in agreement to his theory.
Bhalrom looked once again to the two mages… with very serious eyes
- "Did you see the boy… or his body on your way out?" he asked to the surprise of the two mages…
Lilly blinked a few times as if waking up from a lucid dream.
- "When did he enter the mine?"
Asked Lilly trying to understand what happened.
- "He went in after none of you reported back… he rushed in and brought back Ursula with him… then before we knew it, he went back inside… probably looking for your group." Answered the knight.
Lilly looked towards Ursula unable to believe what she just heard.
- "No, we didn't see him" Answered Serena confidently. While Lilly couldn't help herself and looked towards Ursula and Bhalrom.
- "What do you mean by brought back?" She asked still trying to make sense of that affirmation.
Ursula looked down – "Somehow he was able to bring me back outside… as my whole group suffered the same fate as yours and the dark haze was still covering the mine" She said with a sad voice and face.
That was hard for Lilly to believe… she had come to terms that the boy was not as weak as she first assumed, but to be able to throw himself against that kind of situation and still live… the only way that would happen in her mind was if the monsters had all converged towards Lilly's group after Ursula was alone… that was the only way she could see how he would survive, but it still wouldn't explain how he was able to blindly roam effectively through the mine carrying her.
Bhalrom looked up to the sky once more… the night was approaching fast… he had to make a decision. And so he looked towards the 3 mages…
- "I know this is a lot to ask… but we will not be able to come back down before nightfall. I will give you a few moments to recover… and then we will storm the mine once again. If 3 shadow fiends were involved there are enemy mages inside… we will need your help to defeat them." Said the knight with a serious tone.
Ursula and Serena with a serious and determined expression nodded in agreement, followed by Lilly who also nodded a moment after them.
- "Prepare torches… I want 10 men to follow me and the Mages into the mine once again, we will put an end to the enemy and avenge our brothers!" Shouted the knight to the first army soldiers who shouted back in unison- "Ahh!"- They shouted, fearless and confident in their victory.
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After following the corridor for a while it ended abruptly with collapsed rocks and dirt… Riou casted another white light on his hand to better see his surroundings…
The rocks seemed recently moved, as the older dust on the floor was moved away from the location that the rocks fell, it was not uniformly distributed anymore. Riou estimated that it was a day, maybe two since it collapsed.
"So there is more to this mine… now, how to pass through this without collapsing the whole tunnel?" He though bringing his hand to his chin and looking towards the rocks and dirt in front of him…
As if deciding the method, he moved his head from side to side, stretching his neck and back muscles… bringing both his hands to his sides near his body, he began to fill the tunnel with his mana, enveloping everything around him in a layer of his magic power… once everything in the tunnel was secure he began to bring his hands up towards the ceiling, slowly but steadily…. With his hands, the rocks in front of him began to tremble… shaking until they finally went up, floating slowly towards the ceiling, from where they came from… as the rocks and dirt moved, gaps began to form and as soon as they formed, the magic mantle Riou formed instantly penetrated through the gaps. It quickly stabilized the rocks and dirt… the mantle went upwards through the ceiling penetrating the rocks above as well.
He moved everything as a single body, bringing all up simultaneously in a slow movement. Quickly a passage formed. He passed by once it was big enough, and he did so very quickly while holding everything up in the air.
The collapsed area was a few steps wide inside the corridor, and once Riou traversed it he slowly began to bring the massive body of rocks back down, calmly and slowly, avoiding any more pressure than was necessary…
Once everything was in place once again, Riou could move forward inside that mine.
The corridor went on and reached another open area full of old mining equipment, crates, mining carts and pickaxes… there were many old stools and improvised beds near rests of fire pits and pots used for cooking. They were all old, rusty and with a big layer of dust. In the ceiling he could barely see another breathing hole.
That room in the mine was not nearly as big as the others and was completely made by the miners as it was a square like room with another corridor on its end.
Riou imagined that since this was the last rest place the miners had, the last chamber in the mine should be near.
Riou approached the other corridor entrance and heard something on the other end. He quickly put down his light as he reached the wall in front of the corridor entrance, he quickly looked through it.
The corridor was not long, and at its end he could see a room. An oscillating light, flickering as if a big fire was its source illuminated everything there.
Voices echoed from the room.
- "Is the crystal ready?" a man's voice asked
- "Almost…" a man replied
- "Quickly then, all the summoned shadows were taken out, we need to get out before they reach us" yet another men's voice echoed.
- "Don't fret, for as powerful as the enemy mages are, they will take a couple hours to safely cross the collapsed corridor, by then we will be long gone…" the first voice replied.
- "But still, I can't believe they were able to win against 6 shadow fiends inside a dark mine… the court mages are not to be underestimated"
- "Yes, but I don't believe they did so unscathed… probably a few died in the process…" one of the voices said with a tone of satisfaction.
Riou quickly and silently rushed through the corridor avoiding detection, he reached the last room in the mine.
It was a round room, with marks of excavation to the walls, it was not very big with no other exit or tunnel other than the one Riou was coming from. At the center he could see a big fireplace with flames high enough to reach a person waist. The flame had a white circle drawn around it, with some strange lines connecting to the circle forming 6 exact pieces around the circle, on each of the 6 parts it had many runes written in a vertical position, put together in the same order inside of each one of the 6 drawn parts. On the top of the drawing, on the layer farthest to the fire… 6 small pitch black stones inside another white circle, connected to the lines… one stone for each division of the circle as well.
There were 3 black hooded men inside the room.
One of them was collecting some books and putting them down in a pile near another black hooded men to the right corner to the opposite wall where Riou was. He was touching a white translucent crystal with both hands that was held in a metal pedestal, seemed like he was powering it with mana.
Both were turned towards the wall while the third one was collecting the stones and throwing them in the fire… while systematically erasing the white lines in the ground… The stones exploded a few moments later, after they entered the fire.
"Seemed like they don't want anyone to discover their secrets" Riou thought while he watched "No point in waiting… let's ask them directly a few questions… but to be effective… first I need to scare the hell out of them…" So he put on a smile and casually left the shadows of the corridor into the illuminated room.
- "A cozy place you have here… I wonder, how long have you been using this mine as a base?" said the boy looking around.
The three mages quickly glanced towards him and looked at each other trying to figure out how he reached that place as they heard nothing from the tunnel.
The one near the crystal quickly recovered from the shock – "Kill the boy!" he shouted to the other 2 who immediately positioned themselves…
Suddenly one of them put both his hands together and was about to shoot something towards Riou when he quickly brought up his left palm towards the mage, who held still… his instincts told him to stop.
- "Think very carefully now… what does your heart tell you to do in this situation?" Riou said to him while watching his next action… as Riou felt mana surging from the man's arms, he was about to shoot some spell in his direction… Riou closed his hand with vigor, the man felt as if he was pierced, bringing his hand towards his chest… as he was assaulted by a terrible pain in that location… he could not hold himself up anymore and fell down… dead.
- "See what happens if you misbehave?" He said with a smile looking towards the other two…
- "What fascinating crystal you have there. Would you let me take a look?" He added happily as if nothing happened. Walking casually towards the crystal.
Both remaining mages swallowed hard at that sight…
The other mage who was about to engage Riou took a step back as he did not know what the boy just did… but he was concentrating his mana in his body which began to ooze and emit a green smoke that began to quickly go in the direction of the boy…
Riou waved his hand in a swift movement at the direction of the green smoke and the hooded mage… the smoke dispersed as if a strong wind blew it away and the man went flying, violently hitting the wall behind him, falling down like a broken ragdoll… no one could survive such a impact.
- "I will take a wild guess… you are the leader here right? You and I will have a little chat…" Said the boy approaching the last man near the crystal.
The black mage was scared and began to step away from the approaching boy and the crystal.
Riou looked at the white, translucent crystal. It was lapidated into an oval shape, and seemed to have been cut in half. Only one of the half was inside the pedestal, it was neatly positioned as an egg laid in its bottom, with the smooth and straight side facing the mine wall.
- "And this here is how you intended to leave… hum?" said the boy analyzing the crystal.
The man began to get angrier… - "I don't know who you are or how you got in here, but you will not leave here alive!" Said the mage preparing to fight the boy as the other did.
- "I'd think twice before trying to fight me…" said the boy menacingly as he turned towards the mage with a serious expression. The mage didn't know how to respond, he saw how the other two were immediately dealt with… The mage stopped his movements… Riou noticed that the threat was effective, but the mage's will was still strong. Riou would need more than that to bend the dark mage.
- "Now tell me, what was your plan here… and where does this crystal here take you to?" asked the boy in a very polite manner.
- "Hahahaha!" Laughed the mage – "Do you expect me to betray the council… death is more welcome than to suffer the council wrath! You have no idea what you are getting yourself into!" he added.
Riou smiled broadly towards the mage… - "I think you are mistaken… I will not bring you death… I will bring you pain…" Riou became dead serious and spoke very slowly while maintaining the serious expression "Unimaginable… excruciating… pain…" he shook his head looking deeply inside the man's eyes… who could see emotionless dark blue eyes gazing into his very soul… "You will desire death… you will plea for it… but it will not come" Riou smiled once again with eyes wide open.
Riou was not lying, but still, he exaggerating to extreme degrees to get his point made, he was no sadist but would have no mercy on the enemy to extract the information he needed. At a first moment his goal was to scare the hell out of that mage, so he would be willing to talk, and if that did not help, well… Riou hoped it would not come to that.
Noticing that it would take more than what he shown that to instigate true fear on the mage, Riou began to release large amounts of his mana in the ambient.
"Perhaps a demonstration will help…" he thought to himself.
The room quickly became full with Riou's mana to the point that the mage was able to feel it, it slowly became a pressure against the dark mage's body, growing in intensity to the point that the very air seemed to be thick… the mage was showing signs of fright as he never felt something so powerful before. It was as if the boy emanated an aura of power unlikely anything he had seen.
And before him the boy slowly approached with gleaming eyes and a strange calm to his movements, as if savoring the moment before unleashing whatever atrocities he had reserved for him…
It was getting hard for the black mage to breathe and to hold himself up… The mage's will to resist was crumbling at each step the boy made, as each step he took doubled the force behind the aura and with it, the certainty that the boy would be capable of unimaginable horrors… far worse than the council could… that realization became very real, very fast for the mage.
The only thought that crossed the mage's mind at that moment was that he was not up against a boy, but against a monster, a demon of unimaginable power.
- "We planned to weaken Allard!" screamed the mage with the little air he had "We wanted to use the princess and queen but the plan failed… then we used this opportunity to get rid of the court mages!" he said out of breath.
As the mage cracked, Riou remembered a passage and agreed to it "Fear of pain can really be more effective than pain itself…"
- "Who is behind it?" Shouted the boy with a resounding voice
Falling completely to the ground and cowering in a mixture of despair and terror he said – "The council is supporting Argos! That's all I know!"
- "Where are the council members?!"
- "I don't know!
- "Who ordered you here?!"
- "The one known as the Undead Mage! He obeys the council, they commanded us here and also gave us the stones to summon the Fiends!"
- "Where does this crystal lead to?"
- "The mountains to the west… near the ocean, he is there… near a village"
At that moment Riou was a step away from the mage who was barely conscious…
Riou looked from above towards the mage at the ground – "How can the council have so many mages at their disposal?" he asked calmly
The mage was struggling to answer that question... Riou intensified the pressure – "So?" he said expecting an answer very quickly. The mage, beginning to suffer from lack of oxygen and the strained emotional condition he was subjected to, made him start to hallucinate. He felt as if the boy was sucking his soul while expected an answer… as if he would be tormented for eternity by the demon in front of him.
- "The runes… they… carve runes… into the body… fueled by mana… and taught… how to use them… anyone becomes… a mage with them…" said the mage fighting to stay awake, with glazed eyes.
- "That explains why all of you look like and speak like thugs…" Riou said pointing to the blue rune on the man's forehead… and with a movement of his finger, Riou broke the magical containment that was created, allowing the mana to flow outside the body… as the mana was not inherent to it, it quickly dispersed turning the rune gray… all magic power stored there was completely gone, disabling it for good in the process… Riou applied the same tactic to all runes on the mage's body… leaving him powerless once again.
Riou released his mana pressure to allow the man to recover a bit, he needed him conscious.
The now ex-mage breathed deeply as if he was about to drown and was able to reach the surface once again. Riou waited for him to recover a little more before continuing.
- "I will let you live… you are free to escape from here if you can… but there is a good chance you will be captured. So remember this, you will keep my presence here a secret… we never met, or had this conversation… if you even think about talking about me… I guarantee, you will see a much less pleasant side of me" said the boy to the ex-mage who nodded many times with small movements
"Bhalrom will not stop… he will come in again and will eventually find this place… I need someone to take the blame and inform them of the council allegiance." Realized the boy as he turned around.
Riou went back to the crystal, and touched it with his right index finger… unexpectedly a bright orange light shot out of the crystal towards the wall, forming a round black shaped circle with orange edges that oscillated as if made of water. The ex-mage at that point did not find it strange that the demon was capable of activating the crystal so easily…
Before crossing the portal, Riou took the crystal from the pedestal… he did not want anyone following him… He turned once again towards the black hooded man on the floor
- "Remember my words…" he said seriously turning again towards the portal.
He looked inside the portal and noticed a room very similar to the one he was in before, very dark with stone walls, he also saw a pedestal and a crystal very similar to the one he was holding.
He took a step forward traversing the portal…
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It was very dark in the capital city of Allard when two figures crossed the gates and directed themselves towards the merchant district on foot. Their destination was a much known Tavern in the area.
The tavern was full and lively as usual… The two figures stepped inside, and as everyone there turned to see, they went completely silent in the same instant their eyes reached them both.
The two continued to walk towards the counter near the kitchen, probably looking for the owner of the Tavern.
It didn't take long for Syldis to come out of the kitchen to see what happened, it was not usual to quiet down all of a sudden.
When Syldis got out and saw the two standing before her, her eyes widened and her mouth opened in surprise.
- "Therese!" Syldis exclaimed – "And this must be the little Leona, it's being a lifetime since I saw you!" Added the big woman putting a big smile on her face.
The first figure was a woman named Therese, she was a tall woman, not nearly as tall as Syldis. With pale wavy blond hair, long enough to go over her shoulders reaching almost the middle of her back. Her exact age couldn't be guessed as she seemed to be between 20 to 30 years old but the air around her gave off a different feeling, of a much older person as she held herself well, with a dignity and a proud stance that clearly differentiated her from anyone else. Her eyes were very unusual as well, her iris had a golden color, very bright and vivid, and her eyelids were slightly relaxed, covering bits of her eyes. She had a faint smile on her delicate mouth. Everyone that saw her could agree that she passed the impression of a gentle yet unapproachable woman.
Her most predominant characteristic was her calm demeanor, her movements were slow in motion and very precise to the very detail, from the way she walked to her hand movements. It was as if every move she made was calculated. She was wearing pieces of metallic armor and chain mail, clearly valuing mobility and lightness over protection as only shoulders and chest were covered with plates. Her legs as well had plates on the thighs and a heavy cloth beneath it with big boots matching the dark gray shades of her metal armor and heavy clothed pants. She had a two handed sword sheathed and attached to her back, everyone that saw her couldn't believe that such a frame was able to handle it.
She was indeed a beautiful woman with a thin waist and very well defined muscles… giving her a round butt and very appealing round breasts.
The second figure was also a woman, Leona. She was clearly younger, at her 20 years at most, wearing long black boots and brown pants which were held low on her waist by a red colored wide belt. She had a leather vest with buttons at the center that did not cover her entirely, leaving a small skin gap between the pants and the vest, as well showing her cleavage as the top buttons were open. The vest itself was well-designed and seemed made by a material harder than leather, it aligned to her shoulders perfectly and was adorned with golden sewn details, the vest granted flexibility as it shaped perfectly around her body. She had a light gray shirt underneath, the sleeves stopped before the forearms that were protected by another leather wristband that was tied to the middle index finger and with a buckle underneath it to hold it in place.
She had an athletic and well defined body very similar to Therese, only that she was not as tall as her. With long straight brown hair tied in a voluminous ponytail. Her face hold a scar that ran vertically from above to below her right eye reaching her upper cheek, as if a blade had run straight in a downward movement avoiding her eye itself as it was undamaged. With very open jade colored eyes it seemed that nothing could escape her perception. She also carried a two handed sword on her back very similar to Therese.
- "You seem well Syldis" said Therese politely.
- "Please take a seat you must be tired, last I heard from you two you were going to Khargaz to train, it was a couple of years back… what brings you here to Allard?... Wait! Please take a seat and I will fetch something for you to eat, then you will tell me everything"
Therese nodded as Syldis went inside the kitchen once again. Therese then went for an empty table nearby followed by Leona.
The silence only was relieved once the two woman sat down.
Whispers from the clients around the tavern could be heard amongst their tables.
- "That's Therese!"
- "I don't believe it! I was told she was a giant, this beauty cannot possible be her…"
- "The Lioness?"
- "The one and only… see the golden eyes? And the two handed sword? That's the Lioness for sure…"
- "So the other one...?"
- "A disciple maybe?"
- "Seems like it…
- "What I wouldn't give for a night with the two of them…"
- "Are you mad? They will kill you if they hear it…"
- "But I'd die a happy man haha"
- "The Golden Eyed Therese in person… nobody will believe me when I tell this back in Siscia!"
The commentaries went on… while the two waited quietly for Syldis to return.
Rodrick stood up from his desk and walked towards the window – "What is it Albert?"
- "We received a report that the assassins ceased to follow the boy." Informed the servant.
- "And why is that?" Rodrick asked turning towards the servant with an angry face.
- "They are demanding more money sir… they said that the contract was for the boy alone, but he is always surrounded by strong people… one of them the princess… they said that the price for handling a princess is much higher…."
- "What?!" Said the lord loudly, turning around facing the servant. His face was red and his eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, such was his sentiment towards the proposition.
- "The princess was given a royal seal my lord, she left with the boy to roam the city days ago… and now as you know, he is participating in the incursion with the army."
Rodrick punched his desk in anger. – "That gross, loamy bastard assured that the assassins would not fail… they not only failed, now they are even demanding more money!"
Rodrick faced the servant once again… calming himself down, then continuing - "How much more do they want?"
- "They said they want triple the initial payment" Answered the servant promptly and with a calm tone.
- "Outrageous! I already paid a fortune… and now they demanded triple that price?" The lord paused for a moment and sighed… - "Tell them to stand down for the moment… I will deal with the boy myself." added the Lord.
The servant bowed once again acknowledging the order.
- "Yes my lord. And regarding today's plan? Do you wish to proceed?" Questioned the servant in a calm voice.
- "No, the king changed his mind and put the first army in charge of protecting the royal wing… he is on to something, we may raise too much attention if I try anything now…"
Rodrick walked to a table by the wall and took a chalice and a bottle of wine from it, poured the wine in the chalice he began drinking slowly.
- "I will wait for the incursion to end and the dust to settle… It will be foolish to try to rush my plans… not now that Maximilian is finally gone, the boy is a mere pawn and can be dealt with later. It's only a matter of time…" Rodrick said taking another sip of his wine.
---------------------
The tingling sensation was still bothering him greatly, it was not something he could not withstand, but he still had to constantly remind himself that it was the spell's effects and control himself to not scratch his eyes furiously.
Riou dashed through the mine towards the corridor to the right, where the mages' groups split up, and the one he still needed to investigate. Once he arrived there he calmed down, with care he began to walk paying attention to his surroundings as more enemies could be lurking nearby.
He could see the mine very clearly with the spell active, and easily spotted footprints in the dust. Following them to the next opening, Riou noticed that the mine there just had natural rock formations which were commonly seen in the other parts of the mine, but this one had a very big natural structure at the very center of it, serving as a big central pillar, probably solely responsible for holding the ceiling.
The room was as big as the entrance. Riou was following the footprints in the dust and soon noticed that the straight line of steps which he followed since the beginning of the corridor suddenly became erratic and dispersed, as if a person turned to inspect his surroundings in search of something. Riou was not a tracker but he could clearly see several different shoe sizes that walked in that direction, which almost simultaneously began to do similar rotational movements on the same spot.
"The darkness haze spell was cast when they were here…" Guessed the boy… looking in front he also saw marks on the stones, on the ceiling and the ground… to the ceiling and nearby stalactites debris he saw a scorched surface, very similar to the ones Ursula's flames did, meaning it was a mage able to produce high temperature flame… and nearby there was a liquid substance on the ground… Riou approached it and touched it with his hand… it was cold and not sticky. "Cold water… Ice magic perhaps?" He guessed since there was no water sources nearby. He searched around and noticed strange transparent formations, erupting from the ground in a wide wall formation… he also touched it… "Cold… As I thought, Ice barriers…"
"They battled here… against an invisible enemy…" thought the boy looking at the footprints…
They were all over the place, and suddenly broke formation, four of them to one side… two ran to the other… And the remaining two ran together forwards, to the opposite end of where Riou came from…
"Did the shadows purposely force them to split up again? Or was it just panic?" Tried to figure out the situation while he followed the four that stuck together…
Riou walked towards the right wall, following the footprints that showed concern, because they were very near each other. It did not take long for the boy to see a pile of bodies… four soldiers dead, mutilated in a horrendous way. Blood spatters reached the ceiling which was very high, covering the wall and the rocks nearby. It was impossible to know which part of the body Riou was looking at, much less to which soldier it belonged to. Since no footprints came out of that place and by the sheer quantity of body pieces… He concluded that all four met their end here…
He quickly retraced his steps back to where all footprints came together… Following the footprints on the left side… he quickly after a few steps, noticed a woman's body impaled on the ceiling stalactites… he couldn't figure out who it was, due to the different shades he was seeing… but by the size of the body, he knew it was not Lilly's.
Looking around once again, he saw many broken stones and splintered stalactites at the floor, as if they were blown off. Someone put up a fight with powerful magic, really close to the woman's corpse… Powerful enough to destroy some of the rocks there
"They were near each other in pitch black darkness… She screamed… the other mage heard and shot all his spells in her direction…" Trying to make sense of the situation, the boy looked at the direction of the rock debris probably came from, while walking towards the most likely position of the other mage.
After a few rocks and shattered stalagmites, Riou saw a sword held by a hand… just a hand holding a sword, no body attached to it… and yet another trail of blood.
That trail led the boy to the rest of the hand's body… it was leaned against the wall, still pressing without strength against his wound with his left hand, in an attempt to stop the bleeding of where his right hand should be. It was Nolan… Riou rushed at him hoping he'd still be alive… but as he approached he noticed that there was no more blood gushing out and aside from the right hand, there was also 4 big puncture holes in his chest.
"Evil creatures… they torture and abuse their victims…" Thought the boy once again returning to follow the last footprints that let toward the center pillar. "Lilly and Serena…" concluded the boy.
Riou sped up as no sign of shadows could be seen nearby…
The footprints continued, they were in a hurry, the distance of the steps showed they were running and hit the pillar, cautiously going around it and towards the wall in the opposite side from where Riou came.
Many ice barriers and scorched marks were found in that trail, which told the boy they tried to prevent anything from following them as they tried to flee from that place.
Getting near it Riou noticed movement in that direction, near the wall…
3 shadows were lurking nearby a corridor entrance, contorting their bodies looking and analyzing the corridor, clearly trying to avoid something… since nothing happened, they suddenly and very quickly entered the corridor until they came back again a moment later … followed by a massive fire wave that raged outside the corridor near the shadows that leaned on the walls to escape it.
Riou stealthily got closer. He noticed that the shadow beings were not whole anymore. It seemed that many parts of their bodies have been hit by the intense fire… "Seems like fire can cause damage to them as well… to the point they fear a full hit of the spell, this is most likely Lilly's fire as she is a fire specialist" Realized the boy while watching as they tried to go in again … and contorting themselves as the wave repelled them once more.
Riou waited for the moment they went inside and quickly approached the entrance… As he noticed that another fire wave was coming, he quickly erected a mana barrier to prevent the shadow fiends to escape this time.
"This must be some tactic taught in the academy… or could it be just coincidence…." He thought unsure if it was a known tactic or plain survival instinct that led Ursula and Lilly to the same situation.
Suddenly the shadow fiends appeared at the barrier, unable to get out they contorted their bodies to find a gap at the edges of the barrier, but as it was made of mana, there was no gap for them to exploit. Riou could notice a hint of despair in the shadow fiend's erratic and fast movements. It did not take long for them to be hit by the flame…
And as soon as the shadow fiends were engulfed by the fire the dark haze immediately dissipated. Riou could see firsthand the effects of a high level fire spell on these shadow fiends as they contorted and launched themselves against the invisible barrier silently languishing. The 3 shadow figures died slowly as the remnants of the fire consumed their inexistent physical body until the shadows dissipated into oblivion.
Riou dispelled his mana barrier and his vision spell as well to his relief, it was a blessing to be rid of the sensation. Imagine yourself to be finally rid of an eyelash that got stuck inside your eye for a few hours… the moment it is removed is a blissful feeling of relief. That was how Riou felt as his vision returned to normal and he saw a gold colored flame finishing up the last parts of shadow fiends…
"Intelligent, this must be some kind of holy fire to be able to affect the shadow beings this much." Concluded the boy sneakily looking inside the corridor.
There was another opening to the outside to circulate the air inside the mine, and a faint light also came through it. He could see Lilly and Serena standing there watching the fiends being consumed… they looked tired, but not exhausted.
- "You got them Lilly!" Said Serena in a happy and relieved tone "Let's get out of here!" she added.
Lilly was still breathing heavily as she watched the shadows being consumed by her fire. She nodded to Serena – "Let's go, we need to see what happened to the others" Said Lilly beginning to move.
The mages were relieved when they saw the burning shadow fiends… and quickly began to retreat towards where Riou was…
It was a moment of decision… If he helped the mages back, he would be interrogated to how he survived… and would probably be prevented from going inside the mine again… The boy showed a grimace of disapproval. He leaned towards the wall concealing his presence…"The path behind me is clear, they won't have any trouble getting back… I have more pressing matters at hand" he thought to himself while he watched the two mages rush by, towards the direction of the exit…
Once they were gone from sight… Riou entered the corridor and followed it as the opening in the ceiling was enough to light his way through it.
----------------------------------
A small and simple fire was burning near the entrance… there was no fuel enough to create a fire to provide enough light to guard the entrance from the shadows that could come out of it.
- "Prepare to destroy the entrance pillars, get something to break or force them out! We must be ready to collapse this entrance if necessary!" – Shouted the knight commanding his men.
Suddenly all attention went towards the entrance as two figures emerged from the darkness inside.
Ursula's eyes widened and a relieved expression took over– "Lilly!" she shouted
Bhalrom and a few soldiers rushed towards them to help in case they were injured. But only Serena had a small cut on her arm, nothing threatening.
The two mages were out of breath as they rushed all the way back after casting strong spells for a long period of time. Bhalrom helped them moving towards Ursula who was far away from the entrance in an improvised bench. Ursula went to intercept them and embraced Lilly tightly who was still recovering from all that happened inside. When she released her Bhalrom quickly asked.
- "Tell us what happened" Said the knight to Serena
- "Shadow fiends… they lured us in and then attacked after they casted a darkness spell." Said Serena
Bhalrom nodded acknowledging that he already knew that much… and requested to keep going.
- "As the dark veil came I knew we were up against shadow fiends… If we stayed in the open part of the mine we would die. I shouted to everyone to search for cover… but I could not see where they were… our group got attacked so I grabbed Lilly's hand as she was still near me and ran… I kept using ice barriers and wind magic to try to find a safer place… luckily we reached a corridor, we stood our ground there and began retaliating. I knew they would try to get to us and so we kept changing the intervals of the spells to try to catch them off-guard. It took a while but Lilly's flame wave was finally able to catch them." She said putting her hand on Lilly's shoulder…
- "She killed 3 Shadow Fiends on that corridor and the darkness dissipated, allowing us to come back here."
Ursula looked proudly at Lilly who faintly smiled back, clearly shaken from what she experienced moments ago…
- "The others?" asked Bhalrom already knowing the answer…
Lilly was holding back her tears, as Serena sadly shook her head…
Bhalrom sighed… and returned to the topic at hand…
- "You said three Shadow Fiends? Are you sure?" Asked the knight inquisitively.
"Yes" Answered Serena with absolute certainty.
- "It took a high mage of Argos with great knowledge of death magic to summon one of these creatures… to be able to summon three… it's unheard of… and if the dark spell was dispelled we have reason to believe that the mine is free of the fiends…" The knight said thinking out loud.
Ursula nodded in agreement to his theory.
Bhalrom looked once again to the two mages… with very serious eyes
- "Did you see the boy… or his body on your way out?" he asked to the surprise of the two mages…
Lilly blinked a few times as if waking up from a lucid dream.
- "When did he enter the mine?"
Asked Lilly trying to understand what happened.
- "He went in after none of you reported back… he rushed in and brought back Ursula with him… then before we knew it, he went back inside… probably looking for your group." Answered the knight.
Lilly looked towards Ursula unable to believe what she just heard.
- "No, we didn't see him" Answered Serena confidently. While Lilly couldn't help herself and looked towards Ursula and Bhalrom.
- "What do you mean by brought back?" She asked still trying to make sense of that affirmation.
Ursula looked down – "Somehow he was able to bring me back outside… as my whole group suffered the same fate as yours and the dark haze was still covering the mine" She said with a sad voice and face.
That was hard for Lilly to believe… she had come to terms that the boy was not as weak as she first assumed, but to be able to throw himself against that kind of situation and still live… the only way that would happen in her mind was if the monsters had all converged towards Lilly's group after Ursula was alone… that was the only way she could see how he would survive, but it still wouldn't explain how he was able to blindly roam effectively through the mine carrying her.
Bhalrom looked up to the sky once more… the night was approaching fast… he had to make a decision. And so he looked towards the 3 mages…
- "I know this is a lot to ask… but we will not be able to come back down before nightfall. I will give you a few moments to recover… and then we will storm the mine once again. If 3 shadow fiends were involved there are enemy mages inside… we will need your help to defeat them." Said the knight with a serious tone.
Ursula and Serena with a serious and determined expression nodded in agreement, followed by Lilly who also nodded a moment after them.
- "Prepare torches… I want 10 men to follow me and the Mages into the mine once again, we will put an end to the enemy and avenge our brothers!" Shouted the knight to the first army soldiers who shouted back in unison- "Ahh!"- They shouted, fearless and confident in their victory.
-------------------------
After following the corridor for a while it ended abruptly with collapsed rocks and dirt… Riou casted another white light on his hand to better see his surroundings…
The rocks seemed recently moved, as the older dust on the floor was moved away from the location that the rocks fell, it was not uniformly distributed anymore. Riou estimated that it was a day, maybe two since it collapsed.
"So there is more to this mine… now, how to pass through this without collapsing the whole tunnel?" He though bringing his hand to his chin and looking towards the rocks and dirt in front of him…
As if deciding the method, he moved his head from side to side, stretching his neck and back muscles… bringing both his hands to his sides near his body, he began to fill the tunnel with his mana, enveloping everything around him in a layer of his magic power… once everything in the tunnel was secure he began to bring his hands up towards the ceiling, slowly but steadily…. With his hands, the rocks in front of him began to tremble… shaking until they finally went up, floating slowly towards the ceiling, from where they came from… as the rocks and dirt moved, gaps began to form and as soon as they formed, the magic mantle Riou formed instantly penetrated through the gaps. It quickly stabilized the rocks and dirt… the mantle went upwards through the ceiling penetrating the rocks above as well.
He moved everything as a single body, bringing all up simultaneously in a slow movement. Quickly a passage formed. He passed by once it was big enough, and he did so very quickly while holding everything up in the air.
The collapsed area was a few steps wide inside the corridor, and once Riou traversed it he slowly began to bring the massive body of rocks back down, calmly and slowly, avoiding any more pressure than was necessary…
Once everything was in place once again, Riou could move forward inside that mine.
The corridor went on and reached another open area full of old mining equipment, crates, mining carts and pickaxes… there were many old stools and improvised beds near rests of fire pits and pots used for cooking. They were all old, rusty and with a big layer of dust. In the ceiling he could barely see another breathing hole.
That room in the mine was not nearly as big as the others and was completely made by the miners as it was a square like room with another corridor on its end.
Riou imagined that since this was the last rest place the miners had, the last chamber in the mine should be near.
Riou approached the other corridor entrance and heard something on the other end. He quickly put down his light as he reached the wall in front of the corridor entrance, he quickly looked through it.
The corridor was not long, and at its end he could see a room. An oscillating light, flickering as if a big fire was its source illuminated everything there.
Voices echoed from the room.
- "Is the crystal ready?" a man's voice asked
- "Almost…" a man replied
- "Quickly then, all the summoned shadows were taken out, we need to get out before they reach us" yet another men's voice echoed.
- "Don't fret, for as powerful as the enemy mages are, they will take a couple hours to safely cross the collapsed corridor, by then we will be long gone…" the first voice replied.
- "But still, I can't believe they were able to win against 6 shadow fiends inside a dark mine… the court mages are not to be underestimated"
- "Yes, but I don't believe they did so unscathed… probably a few died in the process…" one of the voices said with a tone of satisfaction.
Riou quickly and silently rushed through the corridor avoiding detection, he reached the last room in the mine.
It was a round room, with marks of excavation to the walls, it was not very big with no other exit or tunnel other than the one Riou was coming from. At the center he could see a big fireplace with flames high enough to reach a person waist. The flame had a white circle drawn around it, with some strange lines connecting to the circle forming 6 exact pieces around the circle, on each of the 6 parts it had many runes written in a vertical position, put together in the same order inside of each one of the 6 drawn parts. On the top of the drawing, on the layer farthest to the fire… 6 small pitch black stones inside another white circle, connected to the lines… one stone for each division of the circle as well.
There were 3 black hooded men inside the room.
One of them was collecting some books and putting them down in a pile near another black hooded men to the right corner to the opposite wall where Riou was. He was touching a white translucent crystal with both hands that was held in a metal pedestal, seemed like he was powering it with mana.
Both were turned towards the wall while the third one was collecting the stones and throwing them in the fire… while systematically erasing the white lines in the ground… The stones exploded a few moments later, after they entered the fire.
"Seemed like they don't want anyone to discover their secrets" Riou thought while he watched "No point in waiting… let's ask them directly a few questions… but to be effective… first I need to scare the hell out of them…" So he put on a smile and casually left the shadows of the corridor into the illuminated room.
- "A cozy place you have here… I wonder, how long have you been using this mine as a base?" said the boy looking around.
The three mages quickly glanced towards him and looked at each other trying to figure out how he reached that place as they heard nothing from the tunnel.
The one near the crystal quickly recovered from the shock – "Kill the boy!" he shouted to the other 2 who immediately positioned themselves…
Suddenly one of them put both his hands together and was about to shoot something towards Riou when he quickly brought up his left palm towards the mage, who held still… his instincts told him to stop.
- "Think very carefully now… what does your heart tell you to do in this situation?" Riou said to him while watching his next action… as Riou felt mana surging from the man's arms, he was about to shoot some spell in his direction… Riou closed his hand with vigor, the man felt as if he was pierced, bringing his hand towards his chest… as he was assaulted by a terrible pain in that location… he could not hold himself up anymore and fell down… dead.
- "See what happens if you misbehave?" He said with a smile looking towards the other two…
- "What fascinating crystal you have there. Would you let me take a look?" He added happily as if nothing happened. Walking casually towards the crystal.
Both remaining mages swallowed hard at that sight…
The other mage who was about to engage Riou took a step back as he did not know what the boy just did… but he was concentrating his mana in his body which began to ooze and emit a green smoke that began to quickly go in the direction of the boy…
Riou waved his hand in a swift movement at the direction of the green smoke and the hooded mage… the smoke dispersed as if a strong wind blew it away and the man went flying, violently hitting the wall behind him, falling down like a broken ragdoll… no one could survive such a impact.
- "I will take a wild guess… you are the leader here right? You and I will have a little chat…" Said the boy approaching the last man near the crystal.
The black mage was scared and began to step away from the approaching boy and the crystal.
Riou looked at the white, translucent crystal. It was lapidated into an oval shape, and seemed to have been cut in half. Only one of the half was inside the pedestal, it was neatly positioned as an egg laid in its bottom, with the smooth and straight side facing the mine wall.
- "And this here is how you intended to leave… hum?" said the boy analyzing the crystal.
The man began to get angrier… - "I don't know who you are or how you got in here, but you will not leave here alive!" Said the mage preparing to fight the boy as the other did.
- "I'd think twice before trying to fight me…" said the boy menacingly as he turned towards the mage with a serious expression. The mage didn't know how to respond, he saw how the other two were immediately dealt with… The mage stopped his movements… Riou noticed that the threat was effective, but the mage's will was still strong. Riou would need more than that to bend the dark mage.
- "Now tell me, what was your plan here… and where does this crystal here take you to?" asked the boy in a very polite manner.
- "Hahahaha!" Laughed the mage – "Do you expect me to betray the council… death is more welcome than to suffer the council wrath! You have no idea what you are getting yourself into!" he added.
Riou smiled broadly towards the mage… - "I think you are mistaken… I will not bring you death… I will bring you pain…" Riou became dead serious and spoke very slowly while maintaining the serious expression "Unimaginable… excruciating… pain…" he shook his head looking deeply inside the man's eyes… who could see emotionless dark blue eyes gazing into his very soul… "You will desire death… you will plea for it… but it will not come" Riou smiled once again with eyes wide open.
Riou was not lying, but still, he exaggerating to extreme degrees to get his point made, he was no sadist but would have no mercy on the enemy to extract the information he needed. At a first moment his goal was to scare the hell out of that mage, so he would be willing to talk, and if that did not help, well… Riou hoped it would not come to that.
Noticing that it would take more than what he shown that to instigate true fear on the mage, Riou began to release large amounts of his mana in the ambient.
"Perhaps a demonstration will help…" he thought to himself.
The room quickly became full with Riou's mana to the point that the mage was able to feel it, it slowly became a pressure against the dark mage's body, growing in intensity to the point that the very air seemed to be thick… the mage was showing signs of fright as he never felt something so powerful before. It was as if the boy emanated an aura of power unlikely anything he had seen.
And before him the boy slowly approached with gleaming eyes and a strange calm to his movements, as if savoring the moment before unleashing whatever atrocities he had reserved for him…
It was getting hard for the black mage to breathe and to hold himself up… The mage's will to resist was crumbling at each step the boy made, as each step he took doubled the force behind the aura and with it, the certainty that the boy would be capable of unimaginable horrors… far worse than the council could… that realization became very real, very fast for the mage.
The only thought that crossed the mage's mind at that moment was that he was not up against a boy, but against a monster, a demon of unimaginable power.
- "We planned to weaken Allard!" screamed the mage with the little air he had "We wanted to use the princess and queen but the plan failed… then we used this opportunity to get rid of the court mages!" he said out of breath.
As the mage cracked, Riou remembered a passage and agreed to it "Fear of pain can really be more effective than pain itself…"
- "Who is behind it?" Shouted the boy with a resounding voice
Falling completely to the ground and cowering in a mixture of despair and terror he said – "The council is supporting Argos! That's all I know!"
- "Where are the council members?!"
- "I don't know!
- "Who ordered you here?!"
- "The one known as the Undead Mage! He obeys the council, they commanded us here and also gave us the stones to summon the Fiends!"
- "Where does this crystal lead to?"
- "The mountains to the west… near the ocean, he is there… near a village"
At that moment Riou was a step away from the mage who was barely conscious…
Riou looked from above towards the mage at the ground – "How can the council have so many mages at their disposal?" he asked calmly
The mage was struggling to answer that question... Riou intensified the pressure – "So?" he said expecting an answer very quickly. The mage, beginning to suffer from lack of oxygen and the strained emotional condition he was subjected to, made him start to hallucinate. He felt as if the boy was sucking his soul while expected an answer… as if he would be tormented for eternity by the demon in front of him.
- "The runes… they… carve runes… into the body… fueled by mana… and taught… how to use them… anyone becomes… a mage with them…" said the mage fighting to stay awake, with glazed eyes.
- "That explains why all of you look like and speak like thugs…" Riou said pointing to the blue rune on the man's forehead… and with a movement of his finger, Riou broke the magical containment that was created, allowing the mana to flow outside the body… as the mana was not inherent to it, it quickly dispersed turning the rune gray… all magic power stored there was completely gone, disabling it for good in the process… Riou applied the same tactic to all runes on the mage's body… leaving him powerless once again.
Riou released his mana pressure to allow the man to recover a bit, he needed him conscious.
The now ex-mage breathed deeply as if he was about to drown and was able to reach the surface once again. Riou waited for him to recover a little more before continuing.
- "I will let you live… you are free to escape from here if you can… but there is a good chance you will be captured. So remember this, you will keep my presence here a secret… we never met, or had this conversation… if you even think about talking about me… I guarantee, you will see a much less pleasant side of me" said the boy to the ex-mage who nodded many times with small movements
"Bhalrom will not stop… he will come in again and will eventually find this place… I need someone to take the blame and inform them of the council allegiance." Realized the boy as he turned around.
Riou went back to the crystal, and touched it with his right index finger… unexpectedly a bright orange light shot out of the crystal towards the wall, forming a round black shaped circle with orange edges that oscillated as if made of water. The ex-mage at that point did not find it strange that the demon was capable of activating the crystal so easily…
Before crossing the portal, Riou took the crystal from the pedestal… he did not want anyone following him… He turned once again towards the black hooded man on the floor
- "Remember my words…" he said seriously turning again towards the portal.
He looked inside the portal and noticed a room very similar to the one he was in before, very dark with stone walls, he also saw a pedestal and a crystal very similar to the one he was holding.
He took a step forward traversing the portal…
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It was very dark in the capital city of Allard when two figures crossed the gates and directed themselves towards the merchant district on foot. Their destination was a much known Tavern in the area.
The tavern was full and lively as usual… The two figures stepped inside, and as everyone there turned to see, they went completely silent in the same instant their eyes reached them both.
The two continued to walk towards the counter near the kitchen, probably looking for the owner of the Tavern.
It didn't take long for Syldis to come out of the kitchen to see what happened, it was not usual to quiet down all of a sudden.
When Syldis got out and saw the two standing before her, her eyes widened and her mouth opened in surprise.
- "Therese!" Syldis exclaimed – "And this must be the little Leona, it's being a lifetime since I saw you!" Added the big woman putting a big smile on her face.
The first figure was a woman named Therese, she was a tall woman, not nearly as tall as Syldis. With pale wavy blond hair, long enough to go over her shoulders reaching almost the middle of her back. Her exact age couldn't be guessed as she seemed to be between 20 to 30 years old but the air around her gave off a different feeling, of a much older person as she held herself well, with a dignity and a proud stance that clearly differentiated her from anyone else. Her eyes were very unusual as well, her iris had a golden color, very bright and vivid, and her eyelids were slightly relaxed, covering bits of her eyes. She had a faint smile on her delicate mouth. Everyone that saw her could agree that she passed the impression of a gentle yet unapproachable woman.
Her most predominant characteristic was her calm demeanor, her movements were slow in motion and very precise to the very detail, from the way she walked to her hand movements. It was as if every move she made was calculated. She was wearing pieces of metallic armor and chain mail, clearly valuing mobility and lightness over protection as only shoulders and chest were covered with plates. Her legs as well had plates on the thighs and a heavy cloth beneath it with big boots matching the dark gray shades of her metal armor and heavy clothed pants. She had a two handed sword sheathed and attached to her back, everyone that saw her couldn't believe that such a frame was able to handle it.
She was indeed a beautiful woman with a thin waist and very well defined muscles… giving her a round butt and very appealing round breasts.
The second figure was also a woman, Leona. She was clearly younger, at her 20 years at most, wearing long black boots and brown pants which were held low on her waist by a red colored wide belt. She had a leather vest with buttons at the center that did not cover her entirely, leaving a small skin gap between the pants and the vest, as well showing her cleavage as the top buttons were open. The vest itself was well-designed and seemed made by a material harder than leather, it aligned to her shoulders perfectly and was adorned with golden sewn details, the vest granted flexibility as it shaped perfectly around her body. She had a light gray shirt underneath, the sleeves stopped before the forearms that were protected by another leather wristband that was tied to the middle index finger and with a buckle underneath it to hold it in place.
She had an athletic and well defined body very similar to Therese, only that she was not as tall as her. With long straight brown hair tied in a voluminous ponytail. Her face hold a scar that ran vertically from above to below her right eye reaching her upper cheek, as if a blade had run straight in a downward movement avoiding her eye itself as it was undamaged. With very open jade colored eyes it seemed that nothing could escape her perception. She also carried a two handed sword on her back very similar to Therese.
- "You seem well Syldis" said Therese politely.
- "Please take a seat you must be tired, last I heard from you two you were going to Khargaz to train, it was a couple of years back… what brings you here to Allard?... Wait! Please take a seat and I will fetch something for you to eat, then you will tell me everything"
Therese nodded as Syldis went inside the kitchen once again. Therese then went for an empty table nearby followed by Leona.
The silence only was relieved once the two woman sat down.
Whispers from the clients around the tavern could be heard amongst their tables.
- "That's Therese!"
- "I don't believe it! I was told she was a giant, this beauty cannot possible be her…"
- "The Lioness?"
- "The one and only… see the golden eyes? And the two handed sword? That's the Lioness for sure…"
- "So the other one...?"
- "A disciple maybe?"
- "Seems like it…
- "What I wouldn't give for a night with the two of them…"
- "Are you mad? They will kill you if they hear it…"
- "But I'd die a happy man haha"
- "The Golden Eyed Therese in person… nobody will believe me when I tell this back in Siscia!"
The commentaries went on… while the two waited quietly for Syldis to return.
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