----------------------------------

Judeau sat a few steps away from Viktor. The mercenary leader was laying down on the ground using his hands as a pillow. The archer was watching the brothers’ condition and the surroundings as he began to talk with the leader.

“Back in the manor, the men on the second floor seemed unable to defend themselves. They didn’t even flinch when they saw me, for someone of that level of skill, they should have been more difficult to take down” Said the enigmatic archer “And now we’ve seen all these spells...”

Judeau looked at Viktor “The boy is not telling the truth” affirmed the archer while Viktor listened to him and gazed at the night sky in a contemplative expression.

“The Bear was the Magus partner, and the boy is connected to the Bear, that’s a fact” Said Viktor.

Judeau nodded.

“Syldis would not have involved us if he were just anyone. And she was really concerned about him, I do believe the boy is telling the truth when he said he is searching for the magus.” Viktor turned his head and looked to the Dracar corpse.

“But there is no way to deny that the boy is something else” the mercenary leader chuckled.

“I know he is not telling us everything.” the mercenary leader was very relaxed “But who can really blame the boy? It’s a smart move to lie and hide secrets in these lands. Especially when you are in the company of mercenaries.”

Judeau smiled and nodded.

-------------------------------------------------

Levi and Riou reached the city, the big gates were open and both rushed through them in a hurry.

Levi quickly directed herself towards the mercenaries’ camp right after crossing the gates.

“Let’s go gather more men… it won’t take long to get Viktor and Judeau, then we can…” Noticing something was wrong she turned back.

Riou was gone, she searched around but he was nowhere to be seen.

Frowning at herself for not noticing it sooner, she turned around and continued on her way towards her camp, Viktor was waiting.

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Riou was already moving quickly through the streets, searching the east side of the city. “It was a mistake to take the mercenaries' help… I could have investigated both places by now if I was alone… probably” Thought the boy rushing through a dark alley.

The only activity in the city by that time of the night was near the taverns, Inns and the eventual shady figures on the alleys.

The east side of the city was completely empty. Despite its larger streets and bigger houses. The only thing that resembled a person were the statues on the gardens and plazas there. The eerie silence of the place brought a bad feeling to him. “Something is wrong… I need to hurry”

That part of the city was clearly richer and designed for the nobles, most of the houses were mansions with signs in the front, probably with a family name or something. But Riou could not read any of the signs there. “Great, how do I know where the Landgrave lives now?” Thought him looking around, trying to identify anything.

“I need directions…”

Riou went back to the lower district hoping to find anyone that could give him the information he wanted.

It didn’t take long for him to see a group of 3 shady figures, leaned towards a wall between two houses. A fat man and two women. The group was clearly monitoring the streets.

Riou smiled and walked directly towards them.

The man wore common clothes and had a dagger hanging on display at his belt, his face was round with no facial hair. His head looked a little too big given of the small hat he was wearing.

The women had revealing small clothes, they showed more skin than they should. They were also wearing some sort of makeup on their faces and body that poorly tried to hide their age, underneath it Riou could clearly see skin rashes and even some scars.

They were not beautiful nor young, all their features were heavily mistreated.

The women showed no interest or reaction as the boy approached. Both had the usual dark hair and dark eyes of the region in a wavy hairstyle.

The man stepped forward towards the boy.

“It’s 5 coins, 9 for both of them… payment upfront” Said the man with a sense of superiority, clearly trying to intimidate.

His teeth seemed rotten and a foul smell reached Riou’s nose as the man spoke.

Ignoring what he said, Riou proceeded to ask what he wanted to know “Where is the Landgrave house? How do I get there?” Said him in a serious tone. He had no time to spare as something was bothering him since he returned to the city.

The man showing contempt replied “If you don’t have money, get out of here boy”

Riou stepped forward, getting very near the fat smelly man, looking him straight in the eye “I won’t ask you again… Where is the Landgrave house?” Said him slowly in a menacing tone.

The fat man smiled and looked at the girls before slowly reaching for his dagger.

But before he could unsheathe it, Riou infused his right hand with mana and quickly punched the man in the lower jaw, with a right uppercut.

The man was knocked out cold.

He fell to the ground between the women that now acknowledged the boy, looking with a mixture of fear and surprise at him.

Riou was serious. “So… where is it?” Asked them again.

“North of here, keep going until you reach the graveyard, his house is the one to the right in the middle of the terrain, just following the cemetery walls and you will find it.” Quickly answered the one to the right.

Riou rushed in the direction. Both women were very relieved when he left. They looked down to the man on the ground and just stayed in the same position waiting for customers, they didn’t even try to help the fat man.

--------------------------------

Riou found the place, the cemetery was massive and occupied a great part of the north part of the city. It had stone walls all over its border.

It was not too tall and Riou was able to climb it without effort. On its top he looked inside, there were many mausoleums all over the graveyard field that was quite large to be Inside the city.

The mausoleums were small crypts made of stones and with a single door. Many had detailed sculptures on them, busts, coats of arms and scriptions on top of the doors. They were far apart and seemed to be just entryways. Like doors to indicate the location of bigger underground tombs.

There were no crosses or tombstones on the top of the land.

There was a house not too far to the east inside the cemetery walls. The Landgraves seemed to be the caretakers of the place.

Riou jumped inside and began to follow the wall to the east towards the mansion.

The cemetery had an eerie atmosphere. It was completely empty and silent, the dark entrances at the mausoleums gave a feeling that some monstrosity would crawl from them at any moment.

Riou shivered by the thought that he could be in a thrash horror movie.

“No matter the world you are… a cemetery at night is always spooky”

Reaching the 3 story mansion, Riou looked around it but saw no lights or activity inside the big house.

“Strange, either Max is here or everyone inside is just sleeping” Realized the boy thinking that this could be the wrong house.

‘No, it has to be here’ Aware of the possibilities, he still followed his guts that urged him to search for a way in. But every window and door at the ground level was tightly closed and locked.

Riou could only find one opening in the whole house, a window on the third floor.

“That’s my way in” thought the boy as he didn’t want to break anything. He got right below the open window.

“Ok, let’s try this” Riou infused his legs and arms with some mana once again. He jumped to take a hold at the second story rail so he could climb the rest of the way up to the window.

But the power was a bit too much, his jump was too high and too strong. He passed the second floor all the way to the third and hid the stone beneath the window with a loud noise, still, he managed to grab it and hold himself into it.

Grabbing the window ledge properly and pulling himself up, he looked inside to make sure no one was there. It was dark but there was nobody in the bedroom, Riou quickly got inside.

He put his hand on his shoulder that had just hit the stone with some force and was a bit hurt.

“My fine tuning is crap, it’s always too much or too little… fuck I need to improve this quick.”

Inside, the room was barely illuminated by the light that came from the open window. He was able to see paintings of landscapes, velvet silky sheets on a high quality bed.

“Fancy room...”

The upper floor seemed full of bedrooms connected by a large corridor with a red carpet and tapestries on the walls. They were filled with depictions of blue flowers and adorned with golden stripes to its borders.

A stairway down could be seen in the middle of the long corridor.

Riou could see nor hear anyone in the place, as if there were no one's presence in the whole house but his. It felt empty. Nonetheless he moved silently through the shadows of the corridor towards the staircase.

The steps were majestic, wide and went down straight to the ground level with accesses to the second floor.

It was clearly designed to impress visitors who came in by the front door, they would be welcomed by a big chandelier and a big and pompous stairway.

The whole house was ostentatiously decorated as well, many valued objects like chandeliers, silver and golden objects every room. Metal candle holders were all over the place, but none was lit.

One kind of painting caught Riou’s attention, they portrayed a man with black hair and beard in the same pose over many paintings.

“This must be Mr. Landgrave”

Despite being empty, the house seemed well cared for, no dust or signs of disuse could be seen anywhere.

Riou went down the stairs. He quickly glanced at the second floor as it was very similar to the third, just a corridor with many rooms.

As he continued down Riou felt an ominous feeling. A vile stench assaulted his nose when he finally left the stairway at the ground floor.

“Death… Oh shit, graveyard, empty house, stench… I don’t like where this is going”

Something caught his attention, a small section of the front door was glimmering, a faint green glow. approaching it, he saw a small rune carved in the door. Now closer, he realized that the windows nearby also had the same rune carved with the green glint to it.

Unaware of what that could be, he continued on his search through the house. After seeing that, he was more than sure that something was not right in that place.

The ground floor had 2 ways, to the right and to the left of the stairway that divided the mansion. To the right Riou could see corridors and open doors that led to common rooms and even a kitchen. To the left, he noticed the more common rooms but something else. Of all doors of the house, there was one that was closed shut, locked from the inside.

As he got near it, the stench intensified. Suspicious of the door, he put his ears to it.

Nothing could be heard from the other side.

He got down on the floor and looked through the door gap, it was too dark inside. But as he was about to stand up, he noticed a faint green glow reflected on the stone floor inside the room.

“Another of those runes? But what is this thing? A trap perhaps?” he thought as he stood up once again. He touched the door with his fingers, like a thief that was cracking a safe, searching for the right spot.

With his mana he extended his reach and tried to locate the source of the magic on the other side of the door.

He quickly found the rune. It seemed to be just like the others he saw by the entrance. So, was it a lock, an alarm or a trap? In any case, he should try to deactivate it.

So he tried one approach. Through his fingers and through the door, he covered it with his own mana. Forming a capsule to contain the rune power and to prevent it from liberating or activating

Feeling confident in his attempt to disarm the rune, he put his hand in the door handle and slowly opened it.

“Interesting… I guess it worked? Its not locked anymore”

It was just a small and dark storeroom. Some shelves and sacks on the floor but nothing out of the ordinary could be seen there.

But still, the smell of rotten flesh had greatly increased there. He knew he was in the right place. He opened his hand and conjured a small fire, big as a candle light.

To his surprise, the stone floor squeaked as an old wood the moment he stepped upon the room.

Riou smiled and quickly got down, searching for a hidden trapdoor.

He found a small cord attached to one of the sides near one of the sacks. Pulling it up opened a wood door painted to match the stones on the ground.

The already strong and characteristic fetid odor, intensified by a hundred fold the moment the trapdoor opened. The smell coming from that hole was too much and forced him to cover his nose.

Below the door there was a staircase that led to an underground passage, looking inside with more care, he could see a long corridor made of stones, it was recently used because the torches on the walls were all lighted up.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!” he heard the scream echoing from somewhere deep inside the corridors.

He was taken by surprise. “Graveyard, empty house, foul stench, underground passages and screams… great… just great” He thought cursing his bad luck.

Down the stairs he walked through the corridor cautiously, wary of traps and possible enemies in front. He also noticed the corridor was inclined. Each step brought him deeper into the earth.

“Feels like I’m in a dungeon crawler game now… things just get better and better”

The ceiling was getting higher and higher as he kept going. After a while he finally reached a larger room.

“Is this the boss room?”

Bigger than the whole Drinking Bear tavern, above it, the high ceiling formed a dome.

There were many tables with alchemical apparatus, glass tubes filled with strange substances. Bookshelves filled with old books and parchments.

In the center of the room there was a wide round well not too high from the ground.

Riou could see it was filled with a red liquid, almost to the border.

In the ceiling, many different runes and inscriptions that were engraved in the stone. Riou could not identify any of them but they certainly were many, enough to cover the whole thing in them.

To his left, near the corner of the room there was a pile of corpses, the top ones seemed fresh, but the ones on the bottom showed signs of advanced decay.

On the far side to the left, there were a few iron cells, they were made of thick bars, connected forming a square cage, big enough to hold a person or two inside.

Looking at the cells Riou noticed someone was laying down on one of the cells. Right next to it on top of a table, two bodies were connected to some tubes that were pumping some sort of liquid inside the corpses, near them, there were metal tubes and some crystals that probably were being used to do experiments on the bodies

“Necromancy?”

Riou couldn’t see very well from the distance, but sure did look like it.

In the far back of the room there was someone standing with its back to the entrance. Wearing a mage’s black robe and a hood over its head, much similar to the ones used by court mages.

“Yep, boss room” Riou thought to himself.

Above the mage and stuck into the wall was a big green rock, an enormous emerald stone.

The dark mage moved to the side to pick up something, and Riou noticed there was someone else there, below the green stone.

The gray hair on his head caught Riou’s attention. It was a man, chained to the wall by his hands and feet, unable to move, fighting to remain conscious.

“Max!” recognized the boy.

The Dark mage approached the prisoner once more. Distracted, Riou decided to approach it stealthily.

“You are resilient, she didn’t last a third of the time you did” Said an old man’s voice with a dark tone “Shall we continue, old friend?” he said, raising his hand towards the green emerald that was right above the prisoner.

The green stone began to shine brightly.

With it, the very wall itself as well lighted up. It glowed a shade of green that revealed more runes and inscriptions on the stones, they slowly were picking up on the green color of the stone and descended all the way from the dome to the green stone and then to where Maximilian was being held.

As the last rune lighted up right above Max, a green twisting light emerged from the emerald and as a string of light began its way towards Maximilian’s head.

As it touched him, Max began to twist in pain and agony.

“Crap!” Without much thinking he rushed forward, trying to get a better position to launch a sneak attack since the man was focused on Max.

But as he stepped near the well, the whole room lightened up in a green glow.

The runes at the dome shone brightly, warning the Dark mage of a presence in the room. He turned to see Riou standing near the well at the very center of the dome.

Beneath the hood Riou saw a very old man, probably over 70 years old.

“A trap?” asked Riou, readying for any attack from the runes.

The mage was surprised “An intruder?” he then pointed his hand at Riou, the dark mage had a very distinct ring with a big dark red stone on it, resembling a big ruby.

With the dark mage’s attention turned, the spell ceased and Max recovered his senses. “Riou!” Exclaimed the mage when he finally noticed the boy there.

Relief could be seen in the Magus eyes. The dark mage clearly noticed the change on Maximilian attitude, from despair to relief in such a short moment, intrigued, he lowered his hand.

“So, you are acquaintances” he said in a mocking tone looking at Maximilian “Is this young boy your new disciple?”

The dark mage turned to Riou without waiting for an answer “How fortunate of me to meet a fellow apprentice, and here I thought I was the last one” continued the mage.

“Mister Landgrave I presume?” said Riou watching the mage’s movements with attention.

Landgrave’s mocking expression suddenly became morbid seriously.

“I confess I don’t know how you managed to enter my house. But it doesn’t matter now… if even the great Magus couldn’t take me, what can a mere apprentice do?” Said Lord Landgrave pointing his ring to the dead bodies near the cell.

The big ruby glowed brightly for a moment.

The 2 corpses on top of the table began to move, standing up on their own and then moving towards the boy. The advanced decay of the bodies were severe, ribs and part of the cranium could be seen. The flesh was rotten with a dark brownish color. They had many cuts and substances stuck and sewed to their rotten flesh and bones. They had no eyes and moved rather slowly, mindlessly approaching the boy.

“Yep, Zombies. That confirms it… necromancy is a thing here. And oh my god, what’s the problem with this smell? I thought it couldn’t get any worse” thought the boy with a grave expression on his face, he could not handle the vile stench mercilessly assaulting his delicate nose.

Noticing the tense expression on the boy, the dark mage rejoiced.

“Hahaha! Did you just realize where you got yourself into? So you know the power of this undead!? Maximilian taught you well, to even recognize this ritual, you must be a really good apprentice” Laughed the dark mage looking at the boy.

“You’ve been down here for hours? How can you stand this smell?” Said Riou snapping his right hand fingers.

Both undead stopped in place and a white glow poured out of their eyes, mouth and holes in their bodies.

The undead corpses collapsed as soon as the light vanished.

The dark mage showed a confused expression, he pointed his ring to the corpses once again, but this time the corpses didn’t move.

“Impossible! What did you do?! They are the perfect Undead, no magic should affect them!” Shouted the dark mage at the boy.

The boy just smiled “That’s a secret”

The mage recollected himself “My apologies, I clearly underestimated you… but that won’t happen again.” he pointed the shining ring up to the ceiling. The runes there pulsed in a red color and the red water on the well began to oscillate.

Maximilian was exhausted but still conscious, as he was watching what was happening, he let out a faint laughter.

The dark mage heard him and turned his head towards him. “What is so funny?”

“It seems it was you who didn't realize where you got yourself into” Mocked Maximilian looking at the dark mage and coughing mixed with more laughter.

That statement made the dark mage furious, “You were powerless against my runes! What can your young apprentice do against something even the Great Magus couldn’t handle!”

The dark mage brought his both hands up, pointing his palms to the ceiling and using his ring to channel his mana, he proceeded to create a massive fireball above him, its diameter was bigger than the dark mage himself.

It had a bright flame core, clearly a very powerful fire spell. As soon as it formed, it was thrown at the boy.

But Riou was ready.

The boy just pointed his right hand towards it and closed it with intent, the massive fireball collapsed on itself, vanishing without a trace, in an instant.

The dark mage couldn’t believe his eyes, he couldn’t understand what had happened.

“What have you done?!” questioned the dark mage. “No one but me should be able to cast a spell inside this room! All mana but mine should be disrupted”

Riou just shrugged.

The mage could only think that he made some kind of mistake while conjuring the spell.

The boy began to walk towards the dark mage as a form of pressuring him into action.

“This is a good opportunity to train a bit, I want to see what I am capable of” thought the boy.

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?” he was excited 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 creating a heat barrier, and then waited for the spell of the dark mage.

When the dark mage finished his chanting, to his surprise nothing happened. Riou was looking at him expectantly.

“So… are you finished? What was supposed to happen?” asked the boy disappointed.

The dark mage was baffled, the boy should have become a frozen block by that moment.

Two of his most powerful spells didn’t work on a young apprentice. And the fact that he couldn’t understand why was driving him crazy.

The 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 Riou was used to hear by now… 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 of by that time. And recognizing the pattern of the lighting spell he quickly forced his mana to involve him like before, to avoid attracting the lighting charge once again.

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’s disbelief the boy kept approaching at a slow but steady pace, fearless 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.

The great Lord Landgrave was now desperate, as all his best spells failed completely. He quickly glanced at Maximilian who was relaxed watching the fight.

Landgrave finally began to understand why his former master was so confident, that boy was not what he seemed to be.

Turning back to the boy he spoke “What are you!? Why do the Argonian runes have no effect on you?” Shouted the mad Mage furiously.

Riou smiled and scratched his head “Well it’s a surprise to me too to be honest. But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably because I’m not from around here.”

The dark mage turned towards Max once again “How can he instantly conjure invisible spells? What kind of Voiceless incantation can top my best chanted spells?! How does he do it?”

Max just laughed and shook his head.

But the Dark Mage was 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 expectant eyes towards the red well.

The red water began to boil and a menacing figure began to emerge from the water, hovering above 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 as no legs could be seen. It was very thin despite its size. It’s hands and parts of its arms were exposed by the ragged cloth, they had a strange pale color to them.

Riou looked at the dark figure and the red water with attention… “Is this well some kind of communication device or summon circle?” He looked down the well and to the stones that formed them.

“I think I’ve seen enough, this thing looks dangerous, there is no reason to risk it” Riou pointed his hand to the well “This has gone too far already” And he clenched his hand tightly.

“Nature abhors vacuum,” said Riou pointing to the well.

At that moment something that resembled a silent explosion occurred deep inside of the well, its wall collapsed from the inside. 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 glowing on runes at the ceiling.

The dark mage couldn’t believe what happened.

“My summoning ritual, my well of souls… over 20 years gathering power, and this boy destroyed it in an instant!” the dark mage fell down on his knees still staring blankly to his empty well.

Riou left the dark mage to its thoughts and went towards Maximilian. He touched the chains that were imprisoning his friend and the iron rusted and crumbled away.

Freed, Maximilian was still exhausted, the strange Emerald power had taken a lot of his energy, he wouldn’t withstand much more of it.

Riou helped him to sit down to relax his body for a moment.

Maximilian nodded and smiled at him “I’m fine…” but his eyes showed great concern as he glanced towards the cells.

Understanding his wishes, Riou quickly went to the only cell that had someone on it.

Rusting away the cell bars as he did with the chains, he found an old lady laying on the floor.

She was clearly over her 50 years, with gray hair and a few wrinkles on her face.

Riou turned her, putting her in a more comfortable position, she was unconscious but still breathing.

“She is alive Max!”

The great Magus sighed as his head fell down, a heavy burden was lifted from his mind and renewed him with relief. He stood up with certain difficulty and looked towards his former apprentice with burning eyes.

“You had fallen beyond redemption, Albert” Max’s voice was filled with disappointment and anger.

“Using Argonian Dark Rituals to defile the dead, consorting with evil entities from the Abyss, helping the Council… and for what?!”

He began to walk forward towards his former apprentice that was still on his knees looking at the broken well.

The Magus stopped beside the Dark Mage that didn’t even look at him.

“You wanted to force your way into my mind with that damn stone… After all these years, you still want to know my secrets. Is that how you justify all of this?” Said the Mage to his former apprentice.

But it had no effect on the old landgrave. Without the well, it was all lost.

“You want knowledge? Fine, I will give it to you”

Landgrave hearing those words regained some of his attention, he turned and looked at his former master.

Maximilian then continued “But instead of my mind, let me show you something else… After all, you chose to walk amongst evil entities and dark gods. I believe that you will find that I offer much more fitting, a much greater gift... I offer you a glimpse into a true demon’s soul”

Albert's eyes widened in surprise.

Maximilian removed the hood from his apprentice head and looked into his eyes.

Corrupted, distorted and broken. The young man Maximilian once knew was no more, there was no glimpse of him inside those old and weary eyes.

Maximilian put his hand on the Dark Mage head.

With his will broken and it’s curiosity sparked, the old dark mage did nothing to resist it.

The magus formed the mental connection, bombarding it with what he interpreted of the vast and strange information he was exposed to, the extremely disturbing images and events that had been forever burned into his mind, not too long ago.

Albert could see everything that Maximilian wanted him to see.

Unspeakable images that never, even in the dark mage’s wildest imagination he could have conceived.

Truly indescribable terrors, a power without limitation, far beyond his feeble mind capabilities. It was too much for a simple mind like his.

If an evil god existed, that was certainly it.

Mind bonding techniques like that were deadly dangerous and considered a taboo amongst the mages.

And by forcing those thoughts into the apprentice’s shattered mind, he condemned him.

Just a moment later and the dark mage eyes began to lose its light. Max stopped and let him fall to the floor, lifeless and with a completely terrified expression.

Killing his disciple took its toll on the Mage, a great sadness took him as the dark mage fell to the ground “I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you Albert… at least you’ve had a glimpse of the power and knowledge you sought through your whole life”

“True demon? You don’t mean...”

Max looked at him, forcing a smile.

“You certainly are the most frightening existence I know, my friend” Said Maximilian as he slowly sat down near the body, he was truly spent now after using his mana.

The old mage nodded a couple times and turned to the Riou “I started to fear you wouldn’t show up… what took you so long?”Riou was trying to wake up the lady inside the cell.

Riou got confused “I didn’t know where you were, it took me 2 days of searching just to get here… So what happened? Why didn’t you tell me anything before leaving?”

Maximilian pondered for a moment, recollecting his memories “That’s odd. That morning in the castle, I received a disturbing letter about Eleanor and Albert”

“A letter?” questioned the boy.

“It said that Eleanor was captured… and that they had eyes on the castle, watching my every move. they would kill her if I spoke to anyone. They ordered me to leave the castle immediately and come to the Landgrave”

“That’s why you disappeared then”

“I didn’t have much time to spare… I knew I was being watched. On the way out I managed to pass by your room before leaving the castle. So I slip the letter I received under your door with a bit of wind magic.”

“There was no letter Max. I went back to my room and there was nothing there. An after you left, the castle was attacked by the Twilight Council. And they almost managed to kidnap the queen and the princess.”

Max was surprised by the sudden turn of events. “They wanted me out of the castle… so this was just a distraction?” realized the old magus.

Riou nodded “They lured you out to weaken the castle’s defenses, by what I heard, I think they wanted to create problems between the north and Allard.”

Maximilian became extremely preoccupied. It took awhile for him to process the boy’s words “It makes sense now… they knew I would rush to help Eleanor and used Albert’s knowledge and hate towards me to accomplish it” He looked at Riou “Luckily for us they didn’t take you into consideration”

Riou nodded in agreement while his mind drifted back to the letter.

“The question now is, who took the letter from my room?”

Riou noticed a presence and footsteps coming in their direction from the corridor.

He left the cell to see who was approaching.

3 familiar faces appeared, weapons in hand. Judeau, Levi and Viktor. The trio relaxed at the sight of the boy.

“Are we too late?” said Viktor as he looked around “Shit, it seems we missed the whole party” he sheathed his sword looking at the undead corpses on the ground. Levi and Judeau followed him.

Riou smiled to the mercenaries' “You barely missed anything… but how did you get here so quickly?”

“Levi brought horses and a carriage to the riverbank, it sped up the trip back… after your disappearing act, we came 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 the mercenary walking towards the center of the room, looking at the well “A well of souls? There was a Defiler, inside Allard’s capital? How did Argos get so deep inside the kingdom?” Viktor was concerned while looking at 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.

“Unfortunately, yes… Albert Landgrave was my apprentice about 50 years ago, and unfortunately, his curiosity was greater than his ability”

Maximus sighed “He was a power hungry man, wished to be better than everyone else… but lacked the humility to recognize and accept his own flaws, he refused to see his mistakes and blamed others for his failures… 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, but in the end we fought and parted ways. I thought he was young and would grow out of his hate eventually…” Maximilian pointed to the surroundings.

“But I was wrong… he ended up being used. Seduced by the Argonian spellcraft… and to think he even got his hands into an Mind Emerald”

Viktor looked to the big green stone in the wall behind them “So that’s the stone that Argos uses to extract information from prisoners… I heard it exhaust the mind and body of the victim, slowly but surely breaking the defenses against mind reading techniques”

Riou looked once again to the green stone, before returning to Eleanor, she needed care and it was past the time to leave that fetid room already.

“Give me a hand, let’s take them both to Syldis’ tavern… they need a place to rest ” Said Riou to the mercenaries trying to pick up the old lady.

Viktor took Eleanor while Judeau and Levi helped Maximilian. Riou waited for them to go first, after they left the underground Riou turned around and faced the corridor.

“The council attacks and then the assassins. Why do I feel there are more than one party at play here? In any case… let’s not take any chances, better cover up what happened here”

Riou released his mana on the corridor, filling most of the underground passages with it. And combining it with the rotten smell he tried to transmute it into something a bit more explosive. Just enough to bring down the dome and bury the evidence without alarming too much of the city.

Without much effort the torches ignited the place up.

The mercenaries felt a small tremor as they left the house and were back at the city streets. They looked behind just to see Riou coming out the door as well.

“What happened?” asked Viktor.

“I think that underground dome gave under the pressure”

“Then let’s get out of here, that noise will get the guards attention, it will be better if they don’t find us here” Viktor continued on his way followed by the others.

-------------------

Syldis was tending to Eleanor in another room while Viktor and the other mercenaries were at the main hall drinking and eating.

Riou was with Max in another room.

“So you prevented the kidnapping of the princess and the queen without using magic?” said Maximilian, very impressed from the bed while Riou was on a chair nodding.

“Impressive, your physical abilities must be increasing, your body is getting used to the mana flow. It’s actually frightening to think you are able to do so at this stage already.”

“I don’t know, I feel weird to be honest… It’s like I’m not quite myself, I don’t know how to explain it”

Max nodded “Your body had gone to a severe change, it’s natural and logical to assume that there will be side effects to your mind as well... and probably some discomfort if it ever returns to its original form”

Riou nodded “Have you seen or known someone that went through this? Or something similar?”

Max shook his head “No, I’m just taking an educated guess at best.”

“Great…” said the boy not too excited with the prognosis.

Max went silent for a moment, “Thank you for saving me and Eleanor” he was in a very serious tone.

Riou smiled “What are you saying? The great Magus had everything under control, I’m sure you would get out of that situation without any help”

Max shook his head “I was done for… I’m not the young man I once was. And Albert was well prepared, he knew he couldn’t face me head on, so he created that... dome… I didn’t realize it until it was too late, I never expected such a thing in Allard.”

“I see… so what was that all about? Why can’t you use magic there?”

Max chuckled “I don’t know the exact theory behind it, it’s an argonian mage trap. The dome is supposed to interfere with the spells, disrupting mana and nullifying it, ultimately rendering the mage completely powerless.”

“And the ring he was using somehow avoided that interference?”

“The Magehunter ring, yes… the ring and the trap work together. It would allow the mage to channel mana properly through it”

“So why did my magic work?”

Max shook his head “Well, my best guess would be because it’s fundamentally different from ours, remember the fire tornado incident?”

“Yeah… I thought that was the case.”

“Indeed, Your understanding of the mechanics behind the spell were so deep that the interference just wasn’t enough to prevent it… you really need to teach me some of those spells, you did use spells right?”

“Yeah, I did… I created them on the spot thought” replied Riou with a smile.

Max laughed “I guessed as much, but could you tell me in detail what you did back then?”

Riou smiled “First was a purification spell based on holy attribute. I guessed it would be very effective against undeads, in theory it would free them from the necromancy and prevent them from being corrupted again.”

“Holy attribute?” said Max, unsure of its meaning.

“Yep, I didn’t have any deity in mind, just use a blessed essence, something that I thought would oppose necromancy. But it worked. And the fireball, well, fire needs oxygen, I created a barrier around it and constricted it making it consume itself”

Max frowned “Ox.. oxygen?”

“Yeah, the ice was a bit underwhelming, I just heated the air molecules around me, maybe too much... while he was trying to freeze me. So it kinda prevented his whole spell from taking place.”

“Molecules?”

“The lightning was easy, just a matter of charging myself properly to repel the also charged lightning, basic electricity polarity principle.”

Max widened his eyes unable to understand anything that he was speaking.

“The well was something I remember on the spot, You know, nature hates vacuum, so I created a little bit on the bottom of it.”

“Vacuum?” Max just laughed to himself at that point. “I have no idea what you are talking about… we will have to go over this in much more detail later on”

Riou nodded and in a more serious tone he continued “Sure, but let me ask something then, your apprentice… Viktor called him a Defiler”

Max sighed “It’s what the soldiers call the Argonian mages specialized in dark rituals, especially those that require the well of souls.”

“So they are powerful mages?”

“Very, for you to understand their concern… Those two undeads you dealt with, normally they would be strong enough to take out a group of elite soldiers and mages. They were created to be immune to physical and magical attacks”

Riou was surprised, he didn’t think those experimented undead would be so powerful. He was glad that the light based spell worked.