19 The One That Could (2/2)
-”How can you stand this smell?” Said Riou snapping his right hand fingers, both of the undead stopped in place and a white glow poured out of all holes of the undead body, principally eyes and mouth. The both corpses collapsed as soon as the light vanished…
The dark mage showed a confused expression… he pointed his ring to the same corpses, the ring glowed once again… but this time the corpses didn't move.
-”Impossible! What did you do?! No magic can be cast below this runes without the ring!” Shouted the dark mage at the boy…
Maximilian was exhausted but still conscious, watching the scene he faintly laughed, as he knew, well enough, the power of whom his former apprentice was challenging.
-”It seems now it was YOU who didn't realize where you got yourself into…” Mocked Maximilian looking up to the dark mage with some difficulty.
That statement made dark mage furious, he brought his both hands up, pointing his palms to the ceiling and using his ring to channel his mana to conjured a massive fireball above him, its diameter was bigger than the dark mage himself. It had a white flame core and orange flames on its borders, clearly a very powerful fire spell and as soon as it formed, it was thrown at the boy…
Riou was ready as soon as he saw the flames forming. To the dark mage just seemed that the boy brought his right hand to his left shoulder and then he swung it in a violent horizontal movement to the right, and once it finished the massive fireball collapsed on itself, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
The dark mage couldn't believe his eyes, he couldn't see how his fireball vanished without a trace… To him it was not possible that the boy did anything. He could only think that he made some kind of mistake while conjuring it…
The boy began walk towards the dark mage as a form of pressuring him into action… Riou wanted to see what else the Dark Mage was capable of.
The dark mage pointed his ring once again at the boy… and began chanting in elven tongue.
Riou could feel the temperature around him dropping considerably, ”Ice magic!” thought excited the boy as it was the first time he was experiencing it. Riou spread his mana in a large radius around him and commanded it to agitate the air molecules around him, creating a barrier of heat. He then got ready to whatever could be thrown at him.
When the dark mage finished his chanting, to his and even the boy's amazement, nothing happened… Riou looking to him in confusion asked
-”So… what else was supposed to happen?” The Dark mage was baffled, the boy that should be a frozen block was still talking and walking…
And what was worse to the dark mage, even if he suspected that the boy was able to use magic inside the room, 2 of his most powerful spells somehow did not work. The fact he couldn't understand why was driving him mad.
The old Mage couldn't help but to blame his ring, he looked to it once again asserting it was still intact and functional…
Convinced that the ring was not the problem he began chanting in a strange language, very different than the elvish he was used to hear… he pointed his ring towards the boy once again.
Riou felt all his hair standing up on his body, an experience he was well aware by this time, recognizing the pattern of the lighting spell he quickly forced his mana to involve him to avoid attracting the lighting charge…
Massive quantities of lightning erupted from the ring in a cone towards the boy as soon as the chant stopped
Once again to the Dark Mage disbelief the boy kept approaching in a slow but steady pace as none of the lightning discharges was able to hit him. If the dark mage didn't know better he'd swear that the lightning were avoiding the boy as if they had a will of their own… afraid to touch the boy.
Lord Landgrave was clearly desperate as all his best spells failed completely, he quickly glanced to Maximilian who was relaxed watching. Finally he had understood why his former master was so confident…
-”What are you!? Why the Argonian runes have no effect on you? How can you instantly conjure invisible magic so powerful to top my best spells? How?!” Shouted the mad Mage furiously at the boy
Riou smiled and scratched his head… - ”Let's just say, I'm not from around here…”
The Dark Mage still not defeated, pointed his ring towards the well at the center of the room and once again began to chant in that strange tongue…
The ring began to glow more and more brightly, until it suddenly exploded in pieces. The dark Mage covered his face and looked with expecting eyes towards the red well.
The red water began to boil and menacing figure came of the water, hovering a few palms over it.
The figure was as tall as Syldis, the biggest person Riou encountered so far, its face was hidden by a ragged cape and hood, a black darkness was the only thing that could be seen beneath it, the ragged black cape involved its whole body and it seemed to hover over the water as no legs could be seen. It was very thin despite its size.
Riou looked to the dark figure and the red water with attention… ”This well must be a communication device with this thing...” concluded the boy.
-”This have gone too far already…” Said Riou pointing his right palm to the entity and then to the well below it… Tightly clenching his hand.
-”Nature abhors vacuum…” – Said calmly the boy.
At that moment something that resembled a silent explosion occurred inside of the well, making its wall collapse. The red water vanished quickly to its bottom as if a sink drain had been opened. At that same instant the figure vanished together with the red glow on runes at the ceiling. The well was clearly powering them.
The dark mage couldn't believe what happened…
-”My well of souls… over 20 years gathering power to conjure a powerful abomination from beyond the spirit world… and this boy ended it in an instant…” Said the dark mage falling down on his knees still staring blankly to his well…
Riou left the dark mage to its thoughts and went towards Maximilian… the boy touched the chains that were imprisoning him, they rusted in a second, crumbling completely a moment later. Freed, Maximilian muscles were exhausted from the position he was being kept and the torment it was to endure the strange Emerald power, Riou helped him to sit down to relax his body for a moment.
Maximilian nodded with a smile to Riou, showing the boy he was comfortable. His real concern was not himself. The mage expression became preoccupied as he looked to the cells… Understanding his wishes, Riou quickly went towards the only cell that have someone inside it.
Breaking the cell bars the same way he did with the chains he was quickly inside. Down on the ground an old lady wearing a dress as the noblewoman did on the castle. This had tones of dark blue and white stripes adorning it. She was clearly over her 50 years, with gray hair and a few wrinkles at her face… she still possessed a beautiful aspect to her. Approaching her Riou turned her in a more comfortable position, he noticed she was unconscious and weak, but breathing steadily.
-”She is alive Max!” Shouted Riou for the Magus relief.
Maximilian sighed as his head fell down, a heavy burden was lifted from him as his some of worries had left him with that news. And with a renewed liveliness he looked up towards his former apprentice with burning eyes…
-”You had fallen beyond redemption, Albert…” – Spoke the angry Magus raising up to his feet – ”Using Argo's Dark Rituals to defile the dead… consorting with evil entities… helping the Council… and for what?!” said the Magus in a loud angry tone.
Standing up, he began to walk with some difficulty towards his former disciple, with burning eyes as if a turmoil of rage burned inside of him…
He stopped beside the kneeled Dark Mage that was still staring blankly to the broken well…
-”You wished to force your way into my mind with that damn stone… after all this years, you still want to know my secrets… to take a look inside my mind” Said the Mage looking his former apprentice, that hearing those words regained some of his attention, he was able now to look at his old master..
Noticing that he had his attention, Maximilian continued…
-”But instead, let me show you something else… as you now prefer to walk amongst evil entities and dark gods, what I offer you is a much greater gift… a glimpse into a true demon's soul…” The dark mage eyes widened.
Maximilian removed the hood on Albert head, showing an old man face, he was clearly over his 70, white hair and some flaccid skin, he had an unhealthy skinny appearance. Wide dark eyes looking upwards towards his former master… Max put his hand on the Dark Mage head… The Magus knew his former disciple's curiosity would be the end of him.
Maximilian concentrated and began to form a pathway with his disciple, but differently than the other time, Max was not extracting but forcing images…
The magus brought forth a great quantity of extremely disturbing images that had been burned in his mind, and forced them into the Dark Mage's mind.
The Dark Mage saw the selected images, gore, death and rivers of blood and disemboweling. Truly indescribable terrors to a simple that had no idea what a movie or a game is. All he could feel as he watched them, was a sense of insignificance.
All he lived so far, was nothing compared to the horrors that the owner of these thoughts had walked through, unscathed. If an evil god existed, this was certainly his mind… was all the dark mage could think as the images ran amok inside his head.
Mind reading techniques were rare even amongst the most powerful mages, as it had a costly price at any mistake. It consisted into forming a mana pathway between the minds to extract bits of information from one mind to another.
What Max was doing was the opposite of that, forcing one's thoughts into someone else mind was an entirely different level of difficulty. It was hard to form a pathway into an unwilling mind. But once formed, the receiving mind could not control the flow of the mana and information, which meant it could easily be overwhelmed by it, which resulted in the death of the receiving mind, in all attempts.
Few moments later the dark mage eyes began to lose its light as he fell to the floor… Dying with a terrified expression.
Max didn't regret his actions, but still the act of killing his disciple took its toll on the Mage as a great sadness could be seen on his face - ”You always were a curious one…” – said while looking at the lifeless body on the ground…
Riou looking at Maximilian – ”Let me guess… I'm the demon…” said a conformed boy…
Max looked back to Riou, forcing a smile to reply…
-”You certainly are the most frightening existence I know my friend…” Said Maximilian in a mocking tone, as he slowly sat down near the body, he was truly exhausted now.
-”I began to think you wouldn't show up… what took you so long to get here?” Asked Maximilian looking to the boy that was tending to the lady inside the cell.
Riou got confused… - ”I didn't know you were here” Said him looking to the Mage – ”it took me 2 days of search to get here… So what happened? Why didn't you tell me anything before leaving?”
Maximilian pondered for a moment, recollecting his memories before continuing - ”I received a disturbing letter that morning, I saw it as it came into the run, it was pushed under the door… I tried to see who put it, but there was no one there by the time I looked” – Said the Mage remembering that morning facts.
-”It said that the Eleanor was captured… and that they would kill her if I didn't go to the Landgrave's house immediately…” Said Max pausing for a moment
-”I didn't have much time to spare… but before leaving I went to your room… as you were not there, I put the letter on top of your desk, under the candle holder and rushed here… Even if you didn't know how to read it, anyone in the castle would be able to”
-”There was no letter Max… and no one saw you leaving… also a few hours later the castle was attacked by the Twilight Council I think. They almost kidnapped the queen and the princess…” explained Riou – ”I think they lured you out to weaken the castle defenses, this here was only a ruse to their real target… they wanted to cripple the alliance with the Northlands.”
Maximilian became extremely preoccupied by the facts he came to knew. It took a while for him to process the boy's words… - ”It makes sense now… they knew I would rush to Eleanor and used Albert's hate towards me…” – He looked towards Riou - ”Luckily for us they didn't take you into account…”
Riou nodded in agreement while his mind drifted back to the letter Max left in his bedroom.
-”The question now is, who took the letter from my room…” – Said Riou intrigued by the identity of this person.
Riou suddenly stood up and left the cell to face the entry corridor as noticed a presence coming from it, soon after he could hear footsteps coming in his direction.
3 familiar faces appeared weapons in hand, Judeau with his bow, Levi and Viktor holding their swords… they relaxed at the sight of the boy.
-”Are we too late? Did we miss the whole party already?” – Said Viktor sheathing his sword, Levi followed his action right after while Judeau put his bow to his back.
Riou smiled to the mercenaries presence – ”You missed for just a few minutes… how did you come here so quickly?”
-”Levi brought horses and a carriage to the riverbank, it sped up the trip back… after your disappearing act we knew where you are going and we came directly here as soon as we arrived at the city.” Spoke Viktor looking around the strange laboratory with a preoccupied expression… - ”Is this what I think it is?” Said him walking towards the center of the room, looking at the well – ”An Argos' Defiler mage, inside Allard capital?” Asked Viktor preoccupied looking to the body of the dark mage.
Riou looked towards Max ”This is with you old man…” unsure of what to say…
Max taking the cue addressed them, especially Riou…
-”Unfortunately, yes… Albert Landgrave was my apprentice about 50 years ago, at that time, his curiosity was greater than his ability…”
Maximus sighed before continuing
-”He was a power hungry man, he wished to be better than everyone else… but lacked the humility to accept his own flaws and refused to work on them… in a sense he was his worst enemy…” Said the Mage in a sad tone looking at Albert's body.
-”It took too long for me to notice” Max paused for a moment before continuing – ”In the end we fought… he lost and swore vengeance… I thought he was young and would grow out of his hate eventually… and as you can see” Maximilian pointed to the surroundings…
-”I was wrong… he ended up being used… lured and seduced by the Council with the forbidden spells of Argos' death mages… he even got his hands into an Argonian Emerald…”
Viktor looked to the big green stone in the wall behind them… - ”So that's the stone Argos use to safely extract information from prisoners… a fearsome device that exhaust the mind and body of the victim, slowly but surely to break the defenses against mind reading techniques…”
Riou looked once again to the green stone, thinking in the history between Max and his apprentice he began to walk towards Eleanor once again, it was past the time to leave that fetid room already… Riou feared that the smell was stuck on him and would never leave his nose.
-”Give me a hand with her, let's take them both to Syldis tavern… they need a place to rest… ” Said Riou to the mercenaries.
The Viktor took Eleanor while Judeau and Levi helped Maximilian to leave the room… Riou waited for them to get some distance… he walked the corridor until he reached the stairs… turning around and facing the room once again, he sent his mana towards the room they just were, filling it with some of his mana, he combined it with the rotten smell creating some methane gas… just enough to reach the torches causing an explosion… he just wanted to bring the ceiling and walls down, his intention was to bury the evidence without alarming the whole city.
Riou wanted to keep the Council spies unaware of what happened there, keep Albert's death a secret for the moment… perhaps buy them some time.
The mercenaries felt a small tremor as they left the house gates into the street, they looked behind just to see Riou coming out of the house… The group now together kept going towards the Drinking Bear Tavern.