Otto and the Archmage sat in the middle of a small forested patch under the cover of a large, collapsed tree.

Above them, large rainclouds lingered and battered their wooden shelter with speeding water drops.

A small campfire stood between them, it crackled occasionally bringing attention to the silence between them.

“So… you never finished the book?” Abel asked finally breaking the silence.

“…”

“Yeah…” Otto replied.

Abel breathed a sigh, “You haven’t planned much of this out, have you?”

“Besides, why not go back to your magic bubble? You used magic there this whole time and nobody noticed, a mana-vacuum ripple can’t move through mana-less space after all!”

Otto shrugged uncertainly.

“I mean, there isn’t much point now, since I can create new spells!” he replied.

Abel raised an eyebrow.

“Just because you can come up with new words on the spot doesn’t mean you can become a writer, besides, the more spells you take from the old Murlin the less time you waste coming up with them now!” Abel explained.

The two sat around awkwardly.

Once again, the silence was broken by Abel.

“Here’s my suggestion…” he began.

“We’ll head east and travel over the wastes back to the tower, you’ll be able to practice your magic there as intended from the start!”

“In the meantime, we’ll be able to come up with a plan to deal with the king…” he continued.

“Can’t I just come up with a spell that… like… annihilates the king and make it have infinite range?” Otto asked.

Abel scratched his chin as he looked to the fire.

“While I don’t know much about custom spells, reviving a target next to you almost drained you of all mana, I doubt you’d survive a long-ranged spell like that,”

“I can only assume the price for custom spells is somehow greater than the ones used by others,” Abel explained.

“Though, resurrection is a more impressive feat than murder”

The Archmage finally breathed a sigh.

“Perhaps you should keep that idea in mind as a plan-B, in case something goes wrong you can give it a shot, though I would rather plan a solution with a better success rate,” he replied.

Abel looked back to Otto.

“Speaking of which, I’d recommend you stop creating new spells while we stay in the bubble,” he said with folded arms.

“Because it’s a smaller source of mana… we could be left stranded without a life-line…” Otto answered his own question of “Why?”

“Exactly,” Abel nodded.

Otto breathed a sigh and looked down to the leaf-covered soil on which they sat, that was the one trick he hoped would carry him to victory.

Seeing Otto’s gloomy demeanour Abel smiled.

“But the Murlin never expected you to come up with a new spell, right? So, if anything you can consider me being able to help you a sizable advantage!”

Otto nodded.

“Yeah, guess you’re right,” he replied visibly in a better mood.

Otto leaned back on the dry soil observing the wood above him.

He thought about the sand and rock making up most of the world, the stinging feeling it would leave on your skin and the need to wear big, uncomfortable gasmasks.

“Do you think killing the king will fix the fact most of the world is a shitty desert?” Otto asked.

Abel turned to face Otto, unsure how to reply.

“Perhaps…”

Abel contemplated the idea some more.

“The desert hasn’t moved towards us in the last two hundred years even though magic was still being used,”

“How does magic even work?”

“What mechanism lies under the system that allows some to create spells on the spot and others unable to use magic at all!” Abel questioned.

“Perhaps it’s belief…”

“Maybe if everyone thinks killing the king will solve all their problems, killing him will solve the problems?” he smirked not truly believing his own theory.

“That seems a bit far-fetched though, doesn’t it?” Abel laughed.

Otto didn’t reply for a while as he tried to go over what Abel said.

“Yeah…” he finally agreed.

“Though, isn’t all of this a bit far-fetched?” he asked.

“Souls, magic, spells and the fact that animals can use spells…” he continued.

“If magic worked like gas or water it wouldn’t be forming bubbles, it would be dispersed throughout the world and most likely reach numbers so low it wouldn’t be able to power strong magic…” an idea was slowly forming in Otto’s mind as he turned to face Abel.

He looked at Abel quietly for a few seconds going over his plan in his head a few times.

Abel raised an eyebrow.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I think I have a plan…” Otto explained.

“But I need to know something, first…” he added.

“Alright, what do you need to know?” Abel asked; he turned to face Otto.

“If we managed to free the other Archmages, would they side with us?” Otto asked.

He was met with a long pause as Abel brought his hand forward, he extended three fingers.

“Shadow, Water and Nature, I’m certain those three would side with us if we could free them, though without my armour I doubt I’d stand a chance against them…”

“Lightning, Fire and Ice might side with us… but I can’t be certain…”

“I haven’t spoken much to the Archmage of Ice, but Fire and Lightning seem pretty happy slaying people… though perhaps when faced with the chance to kill the king they’d reconsider…”

Otto nodded.

“What happens to a spell in the vacuum?” Otto asked.

“It’ll slowly get drained of mana until it disappears,” Abel replied.

“So, what if we travel to the border of the wasteland, cast some spells to get their attention and then make a run for the sand?” Otto asked.

“They’ll follow us and the chain will disappear!” Otto continued.

Abel shook his head.

“It’s a good idea, though if it were that simple, we would have done it,” he replied with a sombre smile.

“The mana flowing through the chain is too much to be even close to being absorbed by the mana-dry air in the wasteland,” Abel explained.

Otto scratched is head.

“What if we lead them really far into the desert?” Otto asked.

“That way the surface area of the manaless air will increase!” Otto suggested.

“At that point, we’d die before them since they’d have a mana supply for longer than us,” Abel replied.

They went quiet for another while.

Otto scratched his head.

“So, their chain works like a mana-cable?” he asked.

Abel nodded.

“Yes,”

“But their spells won’t work in the wasteland?” Otto continued.

“Right…” Abel nodded again.

“Then I still have a plan!” Otto smiled.

“We’ll drag them into the waste,”

“We’ll pretend our plan is to make the chain disappear, they’ll go like ‘haha – that’s not going to work’ and they’ll follow us!”

“Then you’ll fight them in a fair-and-square melee fight, kill them and then we’ll drag them back to the man-filled land, resurrect them and use the big mana-vacuum created to attract more Archmages!”

“The resurrected mage will help you fight the next person in a melee fight!” Otto explained his plan.

Abel’s eyes widened as Otto concluded his suggestion.

“That might actually work… though I’m not strong enough to take any of the remaining Archmages in a one-on-one fight without armour, it’s still our best shot!”

Otto scratched his chin.

“What if I could hypothetically get you two Archmages before we start?” Otto asked.

Abel cocked his head uncertainly.

“What do you mean?”