25 Magus (1/2)

The moment the boy crossed, the portal began to violently oscillate, his water like membrane began to shrink until it finally closed behind him.

The room was dark, lit by a few torches on the walls. Riou saw the same pedestal with the crystal counterpart and approached it to take the crystal. ”This could be handy in the future.” Thought the boy saving both crystals inside his money bag.

There was no one near him, nor could he sense anyone. There was only silence and a dark corridor to follow.

He soon reached another small room. It seemed to be a laboratory with many substances and rare metals on top of the tables. Parchments and old open books were scattered around and showing images of runes and magical circles.

On top of one of the tables, near many parchments with magical circles drawn on them, was a body… a dead man wearing a black robe… distorted in his limbs and chest as if his bones had been broken and tried to heal in the wrong form… he was surrounded by a white, almost translucent thin blue glowing form of chain or rope…

”This spell is still effective?” thought the boy recognizing his spell… and completely unaware of the extents of his power.

Riou approached it and dispelled it… ”No need for it anymore now…” he thought…

Riou walked with caution through the dark… eventually he reached a large room, with an eerie darkness that felt unnatural to him. The room was squared, lit by torches far from the center on the side walls, but at the very center of the room he could see the back of a stone throne. As Riou walked around to see its front, he began to notice a figure who sat on it…

A dark mantle could be seen covering what he guessed to be the body of a person, as the shape was very similar. It was alive as Riou noticed it was following his movements with its head shrouded in darkness.

Riou kept walking until he reached the front of the throne. The boy was about 10 steps away from it and stopped to look at the eerie figure which was sitting there.

Suddenly the figure moved and began to stand up. – ”At last my sacrifice arrived… you are older than what I requested, but it will suffice for now…” An eerie and deep voice resounded in the room.

An even darker shroud of black fog emanated from the figure and slowly advanced towards the boy who showed no sign of fear.

Suddenly the black fog encased the boy in a whirl… the figure seems pleased and opened its arms and inclined its head backwards… as to receive some kind of prize.

A few moments passed and nothing happened…

The figure recovered its normal position and dismissed the fog with a hand movement… standing in the middle of the fog was the boy, with the same calm expression he had as he arrived.

-”You are a mage…” said the dark figure calmly to the silent boy. – ”It doesn't matter… you will die nonetheless…” The dark figure pointed his finger towards Riou.

A violet ray immediately came out rapidly drawing closer and hitting the boy.

-”Drain soul… death ray… what's next, necromancer? Raise dead?” Riou replied without concern…

The figure became unsettled… the fire on the torches flickered and burned intensely as the figure opened its arms.

The light covered the room showing for the first time an extremely pale, bald man with white, dead eyes.

-”I'm Callas the Undying, a mere necromancer can't compare to my power!” Replied the mage as he released his power into the room. Bringing his fist up to the level of his face, concentrating his mana in his hand, he formed a violet ball that covered his entire fist.

-”Die…” He said shooting the ball towards the boy who prepared to receive the impact.

A loud noise followed- a powerful explosion that launched Riou to the opposite direction… he ended up hitting the wall at his back. The whole area ended up covered in dust smoke.

Callas kept watching, unsure if the boy was dead… until he noticed movement.

Riou began to walk up once again leaving the smoke… - ”That was unexpectedly strong… but not strong enough it seems” He said cleaning the dirt off his clothes.

The mage showed hints of discomfort on his face and body, he clearly was not expecting the boy to survive that.

He promptly conjured many more violet energy balls and as fast as they were forming he threw them at the boy without stopping. Each one of them exploded as fiercely as the first, creating a thick smoke screen because of the stones' destruction… after a few blasts the mage focused death energy in both hands… a bigger spell began to form. As soon as the boy emerged from the dust, Callas threw it at him.

The impact destroyed the walls and part of the ceiling, but luckily it was made of solid rock and did not collapse completely.

The mage watched expectantly and calmly for the dust to settle down once again.

To his surprise, the boy emerged unscathed once again.

-”I'm trying to figure you out… you are clearly dead, but your soul seems to still be attached to your decaying, moving body, somehow…” Riou paused looking at him before continuing - ”Are all council members like you?” Asked the boy analyzing the strange mage.

-”In a certain way… some of them are…” Said the mage with his white eyes looking curiously at the boy in a very calm tone. – ”I gained the knowledge on how to become immortal from them … and by serving them they will grant me the chance to ascent to even greater forms” – The mage's mana began to spread once again, it looked like a thick black smoke taking over the room. This time it seemed heavy and began spreading across the floor, covering it slowly.

-”So you know who they are?” asked Riou promptly and without any concern.

-”One of them… he was the one that taught me Argonian spells… but it was a long time ago…”

-”How do you contact them?” asked the boy trying to pry for information.

-”Foolish boy, you don't contact them… they contact you” Answered the mage calmly.

Riou squinted his eyes… The mage would not talk or did not know how to contact them, that was clear to the boy… So he changed the topic towards Allard matters. The black smoke had covered over half of the room by that time…

-”I know about the spies… I know Roderick is part of the council… I know about the letter that vanished”

The mage smiled faintly - ”A letter?” Asked the mage intrigued. ”You lured Maximilian… but before leaving, he left a letter in a room and it was taken by the knight's men” said the boy assertively.

Callas smiled cunningly – ”So the Magus still was able to leave such a thing behind even whenfollowed… and you are wrong if you think that fool of a knight is a member of the council… he is a pawn that doesn't even know the hand that controls him” He said as the smoke finished covering the whole floor.

-”A pity the great Magus of this age had to die so young…” The mage looked towards Riou – ”You as well… you have shown great promise at such young age… but your lack of experience will be your demise… you gave me enough time to prepare…”

-”Ho… lack of experience you say?” Answered the boy smiling

The mage didn't bothered and continued – ”You will fall into despair!” Said the mage beginning to chant in an incomprehensible language… Riou deduced it was argonian since it did not resemble the elf's tongue…

From the fog an eerie violet glow began to appear and ghostly hands began to reach out all over the room… from the center of the room, near the throne, a completely white woman began to emerge, as if floating in the air. It was a specter, a spirit of a dead woman with a deranged face and empty eye sockets. Its white hair floated as if it was inside a pool of water…

-”A banshee?” Riou asked as he brought his hands up to block his ears…

The ghost opened its mouth to huge extents, much bigger than a normal human mouth should open, a really disturbing view…

An indescribable scream followed… it was loud enough to shake every bone of the boy's body… it lasted for a moment and vanished together with the ghost and the black smoke…

Riou removed his hands from his ears… - ”That was loud…” he complained.

The mage seemed unable to believe the situation, his spell that took years of research, that should bring instant death to whoever heard the banshee scream, completely failed. – ”You should be dead!” he stated looking at the boy trying to understand how he had survived that.

-”Well… it's like your level is too low compared to mine, so your spell has no effect on me… also the banshee's scream can be negated by sheer fortitude, since it's an instant death spell on most games… and also the amount of mana you used on it was too low, so I knew it would not affect me” He shrugged towards the mage…

Callas mind was perplexed ”How could he possible know the spell name and its effect? This is an Argonian spell of the highest rank, only few masters in Argos could possess such knowledge… and even then would not be able to survive it… and what did he mean by low? Hundreds of years of research to reach the amount of mana needed for this spell… it had to cover the whole floor, to call it low… absurd!”

-”Low? You dare call hundreds of years of research… low?” the mage said in an angered voice.

Riou shrugged once again before speaking,

-”Let me show you a similar spell… but this one only affects undead like yourself.”

The mage smiled… - ”You think death scares me? I'm a follower of the death god! He bestowed on me eternal life! Such nonsensical spell could never harm me” he said confidently.

Riou smiled wryly – ”That's something I wanted to ask… your death god seems like a good guy you know… he allows undead to roam the place… gives eternal life to any fool who asks… where I come from, death let's no one escape its grasp, I say you guys have it easy around here… So I'd like to test this immortal status of yours…” he said mockingly.

Callas was furious to Riou's lack of respect, he who devoted his entire life towards the black god, to hear such words drove him off the edge.

-”Blasphemy!” Shouted the mage pulling something from inside his robe… it was a big black stone with a red rune engraved in its center as if the stone was created around the rune itself.

The mage smiled once again – ”You are an excellent adversary I must admit, to know about the banshee and how to counter it… you sure must have had an excellent master. Your defensive capabilities are sure impressive.” Said the mage showing the stone to Riou.

-”But that's all you are… a defensive mage, you do not possess the power to kill me… and for disrespecting the black god of Argos, I will show you the true power of death!” he then hold the black stone in his hand and began to chant. The black fog began to concentrate around the stone and entering it as if it was being sucked in.

Riou didn't wait any longer; it was time to end this fight. He wasn't sure if the mage had told him the whole truth, but he was confident that the mage said enough to continue his investigations…

Riou said slowly looking to the mage

-”Undeath to death…” as Riou finished the words, instantly his mana covered the floor of the room in a shiny, glowing light circle, having the mage on its center…

The moment the mage noticed how quickly the boy's mana covered the floor his eyes widened, for the first time in many years he felt fear and he was unable to say another word. ”I underestimated this boy... took me minutes to accomplish with low quantity of mana what this boy has done in an instant with an absurd amount… it even formed a glowing light so strong and condensed it was… hundreds of years of research beaten in a moment by a mere boy…”

Soon after the circle was formed a white light emerged from the circle, engulfing everything inside it for a few moments and disappearing completely afterwards.

Callas body quickly decayed transforming itself into ashes even before hitting the ground, only his skeleton covered by his clothes remained.

Riou approached the skeleton and was about to take the stone from the floor… just before touching it he stopped… he remembered what happened with every crystal he touched… so not wanting to activate it, he wrapped it in a piece of the mage's cloth and put it inside his pouch.

-”I feel like as if I am playing as a high level inside a low level dungeon…” Riou said to himself looking at the result of his spell. ”It's weird… it really feels like I'm inside a game collecting loot…” he thought looking around him… ”Now… how to get out of here and get back to the city?”

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Riou found the exit to the cave on the mountain foot, it was dark and he could see the village lights not too far away. He decided to stay the night there and to begin his journey back to the capital in the next day.

It took a while but he found a tavern in the village with a spare room and a warm meal. The next morning he questioned the townspeople about how to return to the city and discovered a caravan that was headed to the capital.

It took him almost a week to return to the capital with the caravan speed. It consisted of a few cars full of supplies to sell in the capital stores. It would take longer to go with them, but still would be the most reliable way since there were no roads. Also he was not in a hurry to get back. So between sleeping beside a campfire and eating what they could gather he used every free time to think about what happened in the cave, the conversation with Callas and mainly what to say to Bhalrom and Ursula once he arrived.

------------------------------------------------- Riou's view at the capital

It was still morning when he arrived and he decided to go straight to the castle.

He recognized some of the guards at the entrance, who were surprised to see him alive, word was that the boy had disappeared mysteriously.

The castle was busier than he remembered, some nobles were visiting, something was happening. Riou searched for Bhalrom but was not able to find him and no men from the First Army could be seen.

Riou approached the guards near the throne room

-”Is Bhalrom with the king?” Riou asked.

-”The king is in closed audience” answered the guard abruptly, Riou noted the green colors on the guard's emblems.

Having time, he decided to search the castle to see if he could find someone he knew. After a while he went to the training room, it was possible that Eileen was there with Lilly.

As he approached the training hall he heard noise coming from inside, the door was open as usual to let the wind blow as it got really hot in there. As he stood in front of the door ready to enter he looked inside.

The blue rapier was still moving on the ground as if it was just dropped. It was beside a blond woman that had her back turned towards the entrance of the hall. She was dressed in training gear. In front of her was a man, long blond hair with a braid to the right side that was longer than his face, dressed in clothes similar to the nobles. His face could not be seen properly, as it was way too close to Eileen's face, who by the way wasn't moving.

It took a moment for him to realize that it was a kiss…

Riou thought that the man noticed him at the entrance and moved away, looking towards him… Eileen quickly turned around. She looked at Riou standing there, she was in a mix of emotions and her eyes were wide open, as if she just got busted, her mouth was slightly opened due to surprise and Riou could notice a wet gleaming around her mouth, as the man's saliva was still there, proof of the torrid kiss they shared.

His heart sank.

His mind went blank.

Riou moved his hand in an apologetic manner – ”I didn't mean to interrupt…” he said awkwardly, quickly turning away and leaving the door.

Something stirred up inside him, a heavy sensation took over his chest and his mind was racing with many thoughts… and before he even noticed he was already on the very top of the side wall jumping down towards the city.

He used a wind spell to break his fall once he was close to the ground, landing in a remote part of the city without thinking.