“To think you’d come back on your own two feet.”
I looked at the captain. He was standing in front of Mr. Bozzelli’s home and he had his sword out.
“You’ve saved me the trouble of looking for you.”
”Where is Mr. Bozzelli?”
The captain didn’t respond, and instead swung his sword at me. His lips were moving as he activated a sword skill. The sword shined for a moment and its speed suddenly increased.
‘Swift Strike’
CLANG!
The sword collided with an invisible barrier that protected me.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The captain didn’t stop and continued to attack at the barrier. He was determined to break through. The sword was moving so fast that I couldn’t chase it with my eyes.
You might be thinking it was a stupid idea for me to come back here on my own, but I had to.
‘I’m pretty sure Mr. Bozzelli mentioned the Order…’
The Order, also known as the Black Order, was mentioned many times in the story.
They were a group of black mages who terrorized the people of Sonia. While reading the story from Ellan’s point of view, I remembered news that even reached his ears. Bombings, murders, and sacrifices. Ellan vowed that he would put an end to them once he gained strength.
The problem was that before Ellan gets strong enough, the Order will have already done a lot of evil. For the story it was to create an enemy for Ellan to grow. However, it was different now. I couldn’t just wait until I got swept up in their plans.
’There was one really big incident that took place in the markets… and it ended with a lot of people dying.’
CLANG! Crack!
I could see a small crack in my barrier. The captain changed his grip on his sword and used another skill.
’Heavy Strike!’
CRASH!
My barrier shattered, and the captain’s sword swung towards my neck.
‘Now, Faye!’
Faye had a page opened to a magic circle. Before coming into the house, I asked Faye to prepare a strong attack. I just needed to wait until his guard was down, and that moment was now.
A ball of light appeared in front of me and it shot straight towards the man. The captain flinched and tried to block with his sword. However, he was too close to block in time.
”Arghh!”
CRASH!
He went flying backwards, and crashed into the house.
”Cough!”
The captain looked at me with anger as he coughed up blood.
Faye summoned another ball of light and sent it flying at the man.
He jumped to the side and rolled on the ground, barely avoiding the attack.
BOOM!
The ball of light destroyed the door of the house and the man stared at the destruction speechlessly.
The magic that Faye was casting was ‘Magic Missile”. It was widely known as a low 1st circle light spell that shoots out a ball of light at the target. It had low attack power, and was typically used as a distraction.
If anyone from the magic tower saw this right now, they would never believe that it was the same spell.
When the captain turned back to face me, there were three magic missiles coming straight at him. He quickly lifted his sword and cut two of them with ‘swift strike’, but the last one hit his shoulder.
“Augh!”
Even with the aura inside his body protecting him, the power of the spell was so strong that it made him grunt in pain.
The captain looked up, and this time there were five magic missiles in the air.
“!!!”
He let out a silent scream as he swung his sword and cut down three magic missiles. The other two landed on his rib and leg.
He didn’t let out a cry this time. He just glared at me with determination in his eyes.
Even as ten balls of light formed in the air, he kept his stance and continued to look at me. He must have believed I would run out of mana soon. I was also worried about this, so I looked at Faye.
It felt like it was saying this.
‘Don’t worry.’
Faye proved this as it continued to summon magic missiles.
Huff huff
There wasn’t a spot left on the captain that was normal. He was bleeding from his whole body, and his arms shook while holding the tilt of his sword like a cane.
He didn’t even have enough strength to hold it up anymore. While he was catching his breath, there were now fifty magic missiles in the sky.
“…who are you…”
There was no more determination left in his eyes. There was just fear, anger, and frustration.
“Why are you getting in our way? Just for a couple of kids? What we’re doing is much more important than that!”
The man’s eyes changed.
“I know… You can join us! With your strength I’m sure Mr. Bozzelli would be happy to give you anything you want. Is it money? power?”
I looked at the captain.
What I want? Since coming to this world, I hadn’t really thought about it. My only desire was to come here, and that was already granted. Money? I only needed enough to survive each day. And power… always came with more responsibility. In this world, I wanted to live quietly and freely.
My eyes shined in the night.
In order to live the life I wanted, I first needed to make my surroundings safe.
“I want to know what the Order is planning.”
The captain froze.
“H-how do you…”
There was more fear in his eyes than before.
The man suddenly grabbed his head with both his hands. He looked like he was in pain as his body twisted and turned in unnatural ways.
“ARGHHHHH!!!”
He screamed as blood started to spill out from his eyes, nose and ears.
“P-Please, no! I won’t say anything!”
The man was screaming at the sky as if someone was there.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!”
The man let out a scream as flames began to burn out of his eyes. The flames slowly covered his entire body until nothing was left. Not even ashes.
I had read about this happening to those who followed the Black Order.
The bottom of the chain were all under a curse that would take their lives if they proved to be dangerous to the Order.
‘I couldn’t ask him where Mr. Bozzelli was…”
I walked into the house through the destroyed entrance, and soon realized that no one else was here. I kept walking until I found a door to the basement.
‘If there’s anything shady going on… I’ll probably find it down there.’
I reached for the door, but a black spark blocked me.
Crack Spark
Together with it, I could see a black magic circle appear over the door.
“It’s a barrier created from black magic!”
Rene peaked over my shirt.
“Master, let me try!”
“Hm?”
Before I knew it, Rene opened her small mouth.
‘Dispel!’
The black circle started to shake, when it lifted off the door. It was getting absorbed into Rene’s mouth. I had seen Faye use a similar spell before, when it sucked up the illusion spell on Harry’s sister.
Gulp
“Yum!”
I reached for the door once again, and went down a dark set of stairs. Faye had cast an invisible spell on me so that I could ambush Mr. Bozzelli.
At the end of the stairs I was in a dark place where only a few candles were lit.
In the center I saw a shadow of a mountain.
When I got closer I could see that it was a mountain of bodies.
They were stacked over each other, unmoving.
Each person wore an expression of unthinkable pain and their eyes were open in horror. On the ground I could see a red magic circle.
“….only one more spot.”
“Our plan…”
I could hear voices behind the mountain of bodies. One of them belonged to Mr. Bozzelli, so I walked closer.
“I’ll be sure to let Third know of your efforts.”
“Thank you… All for the Great one.”
Mr. Bozzelli’s voice was careful and submissive. It was different from what I remembered.
Snap
The man standing next to Mr. Bozzelli suddenly snapped his fingers.
“…It seems you have a guest.”
“!!”
“!!”
Mr. Bozzelli and the other man turned to looked at me. The invisible spell was broken.
The other man was hidden in the shadows so I was unable to see his face. All I could see were his eyes.
My blood turned cold when I met his eyes. There was no emotion or life in them. My body was shaking uncontrollably. All my senses were warning me that this man was dangerous.
“I trust you’ll deal with it.”
He turned around and disappeared.
I sense of relief washed over me.
“To think you got past my captain. What happened to him?”
“…He burned into flames.”
Tsk
Mr. Bozzelli clicked his tongue in disappointment. He then raised his hand at me.
“Black bullet!”
A ball of black magic appeared and it flew towards me.
‘Magic missile!’
A white ball collided with the black magic and caused an explosion.
Boom!
The explosion blew out all the candles, sinking the room into complete darkness. From within, a white ball of light flew towards Mr. Bozzelli.
“Black shield! Shadow arms!”
Bam!
The magic missile collided with the shield but was unable to break through. At the same time, I could sense long shadows coming out from the ground around me.
Faye summoned the white sword in front of me, and I used it to cut down the shadows. They helplessly dissipated as the white blade touched.
“Cough!”
I could hear Mr. Bozzelli coughing up blood each time I cut down the shadows.
Black magic granted the caster with powerful spells, but it also made them vulnerable. The spells required not only mana but their life energy as well.
Black mana was a result of mixing the two energies.
This was the reason why most black mages performed rituals and crimes where people were sacrificed. They needed to collect more life energy in order to grow stronger.
From the light of my sword, I could see Mr. Bozzelli drinking a potion.
I ran towards him with my sword.
The black mana around him was growing stronger.
He held out his hand, and gripped it tightly into a fist.
“Shadow spikes!”
A black spike shot up from the ground in front of me. I jumped backwards to avoid it but I was too slow.
CRASH!
It broke through the barrier that Faye cast and was only inches away from me.
When I thought it was all over, my body lit up with light and I was suddenly moved a few inches to the left. The spike cut past my right arm instead of puncturing me in the chest.
“Blink?!”
Mr. Bozzelli sounded more surprised than I was.
Blink was a 2nd circle spell, but was a type of spatial magic which was notorious for being difficult to learn.
Many mages who can cast 3rd circle spells will go their whole lives without ever being able to cast ‘Blink’. It was also a skill most commonly learned by war mages, who needed it for combat.
I held my sword with both arms, while my right arm dripped in blood. The cut was deeper than I expected, and I could feel the spread of dark mana. I knew Faye could trap the dark mana like it did for Sara, but there was no time for that right now.
I ran towards Mr. Bozzelli and swung my sword.
”Black Shield!”
CRASH!
My sword completely shattered the shield, and cut across Mr. Bozzelli’s body. Blood splattered in the air as he knelt to the ground.
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