So many books . . . Ugh . . .

I finished reading the book in my hand on the subject of Sage and Mental Arrays. I get up from my chair and count how many books I have left to read.

“21, 22, 23… 26.”

After confirming the amount, I grab the books I have read and begin throwing them up into the air, where clear icosahedra come and envelope every individual book and scroll. I then stretch a bit before walking over to the training room that was built into the side of the Kabbalah. I open the doors and sit down on the neatly placed cushioning mats on the floor. I then begin recalling all the things I’ve learned related to combat (as I’ve read books on every subject), thinking about what method to practice, when I hear someone knocking on the door.

“C-Come in!”

“Hello there, Maxwell. How’ve you been?”

“Huh?! P-Professor!”

I excitedly run towards the blacked-out figure shrouded in black fog standing in the doorway and throw myself at him.

“Whoa! Maxwell, careful!”

“Where’ve y-you been for the past 10 d-days? I haven’t seen y-you since you brought m-me those delicious foods t-to eat while reading!”

“Well, I’ve been very busy Maxwell, but I had a break, so I decided to check up on you. And I’m happy you’ve enjoyed those foods.”

“Thank you s-so much, Professor!”

“Well, of course. Well, anyway, today should be the day since you’re done reading, right?”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Hehe, well weren’t you having trouble choosing what to practice?”

“Y-yes! Can you help?!”

“Well, that’s also why I’m here. I have something for you to practice, as you are unable to actually practice any inner methods.”

“W-what?!”

“Maxwell, you have a condition where you are unable to practice anything, as any type of mana and energy will just flow out of you, so you’ll have to practice techniques that are very special.”

“R-really?”

“Sadly, yes.”

“Oh. W-well, it’s fine as l-long as you’re there to h-help me, Professor!”

“Then let us begin. What would you like to practice first?”

“Uh, I don’t know w-what to practice.”

“Well, then, let us by setting up some foundations inside your body.”

“D-didn’t you say any t-type of mana or energy w-will just flow out of my b-body, though?”

“Oh, this isn’t energy. Remember those sage and mental arrays you just read about?”

“Y-yes.”

“Well, I’ll be setting up a couple in your body to prepare your body for practicing other methods.”

“O-Okay.”

“Alright, let us begin with, uh, mental arrays!”

I follow The Professor who leads me to a dark red room. He opens the door and sits me down in a comfortable chair as he began drawing some arrays onto the ground around me.

“Professor, w-what are you doing?”

“Well, I’m currently preparing a special type of array called the Demonic Night Array.”

“W-wait, that doesn’t s-sound so good.”

“Well, it is. I made it myself, of course, so don’t worry. Now, I’ll need you to close your eyes tight and don’t open them at all, not for any reason. Okay?”

“O-Okay, sure.”

I close my eyes shut as The Professor continues moving around, drawing the array. After a bit, I eventually fell asleep.

Rex’s Perspective:

“Hey, Professor! Where are you?!”

I call for The Professor as I walk into The Kabbalah Library after feeling the entire Devils’ Palace shake. I slowly close the two huge doors behind me and walk around the library, looking for Him. I arrive at where Maxwell, that young child, was sitting, but he’s not there. I grab one of the books he was reading and check it out. As I was about to call out for Maxwell, I feel a tremor 10x more powerful than earlier, signifying I was closer to the source. I placed the book back onto the desk and began walking towards where I felt the tremor. As I was walking towards the source, another tremor hit, shaking even the floating books. I cast a spell of protection on all the Icosahedra floating with books inside them just in case. I continue walking, when I suddenly hear a very distorted call,

“Crauauaua!”

I break into a run, following the voice I heard, when a blast of energy almost knocked me off my feet. I began pushing and walking the strong winds that had come after the blast. After a couple of minutes, I stood in front of a wide-open door, dumbfounded. There I saw Maxwell floating mid-air as The Professor was controlling trillions of thin threads containing immense amounts of energy that were flowing into Maxwell.

“Rex!”

“Yes, Professor?”

“I need you to do me a major favor!”

“What do you need?!”

“Rex, release all the books in the library from their Icosahedra.”

“What?! I can’t do that! The books are danger!”

“Don’t worry about that! If this doesn’t work, Maxwell will die, and trust me, at that point, I’ll ensure the entire Palace falls!”

“Urk! F-Fine!”

I begin releasing all the books from their icosahedra when I notice one small book in a special icosahedron. It was The Tome of Jagal, a book about all of the devils’ sorcery. It was a gigantic book that we, the devils, have been deciphering to utilize the spells contained in that book. Every spell the devils have are all just diluted versions of spells we were able to translate, so I decided not to let that book go. All of the books that were floating moments ago began falling. Just as they were going to hit the ground, though, a powerful blast of thick, black aura suddenly grabbed all the books and brought them into the room like bees entering the beehive. The sea of books kept on flowing as artifacts, scrolls, and other documents also got swept up, and all I could do was cry in the corner as we, the devils, lost millennias of knowledge in minutes. Then, as the final few books were going into the room, I hear The Professor calling out to me.

“Rex, it isn’t enough!”

“What do you mean?!”

“Maxwell needs more!”

“W-We don’t have more!”

“Are you sure, Rex? Because if I finish this and I find there was more, I’ll f------- go through with my promise!”

“F-Fine!”

I release The Tome of Jagal and hold my head as the book floated to the room. Survival is more important than books, right? When the book entered the room, a black aura started oozing out of the room, breaking everything like acid. Suddenly, the room blew up. I run back over to see what happened, and what met my eyes made me doubt my sanity. It was as if a galaxy was in the hole caused by the explosion, and floating in the middle of it are The Professor and Maxwell. As I was gawking at the beautiful sight before me, though, I failed to notice the black, crimson, and white auras crawling around my body. I then saw my vision go out and my body go limp. I had blacked out.

Maxwell’s Perspective:

I woke up in the middle of the room I was in before I had gone to sleep. I look around and see nothing’s changed. I try to get up, but I hear a voice suddenly speak from the darkness.

“Sit down, Maxwell. Your body’s too injured.”

I look over and see Rex sitting on a chair with a toothpick in his mouth. It seems like he had just finished eating. He then sighs and whispers,

“Haa, I don’t understand him. How…”

“R-Rex?”

“Hmm? Yes, Maxwell?”

“W-Where’s The Professor?”

“He left, as he said he had business to attend to, but he gave me these to give to you.”

Rex puts his hand into his pocket and took out three pieces of different types of chocolate. Rex hands them to me as I pop all three into my mouth at the same time. Suddenly, though, right as I swallowed the chocolates, I felt a relaxing and smooth energy flowing through my body. Not long after, though, I felt the energy dissipate. I sat up, feeling rejuvenated. Rex looks at me and smiles,

“Ah, it seems those weren’t normal chocolates. He always does that, hiding medicine in candies. He always used to give me some sour chewy candy whenever I was sick to cure me.”

“R-Really?”

“Yep. Well, it seems like your fine, and so I apologize, but I must ask you to leave.”

“Why? D-Did I do anything b-bad?”

“Oh, no. It’s just the library is in shambles, as none of the books are organized. So come back in ten days. The Kabbalah would be ready for you then.”

“Oh, o-okay.”

“Well then, here we go. I’m going to teleport you, so prepare yourself.”

Suddenly as Rex said that, a dark crimson circle appeared beneath me. I looked at the smiling Rex and smiled back and waved

“G-Goodbye, Rex!”

“See you later, Maxwell.”

And the spell circle then activated.

After teleporting for a couple of seconds, a portal appears above the library in Mr. Sjorn’s library, where I fall from.

“Waah!”

I try to slow my fall, but I land on the table on my stomach, knocking the breath out of me. Thankfully, I wasn’t injured, so I got up, cursing Rex who was probably snickering at me right now. I dusted off my clothes and walked out, noticing it was daytime. I begin looking around, checking if the coast was clear. I sneak slowly to the kitchen, where I see Mrs. Culder working, but this time without her usual cheerful smile. I walk in and say hello to Mrs. Culder.

“H-Hello Mrs. Culder.”

Mrs. Culder looks up and drops her spoon as she looks up at me. With her face completely drained of color, her eyes shake as she says my name slowly and faints.

“M-Mrs. Culder!”

I run over and catch her before she fell over. Thankfully, the only heavy parts of her were her proportions, but the rest of her was very light. I lift her up, surprised at how light she was, and walk over to a bench and lie her down. I sit next to her making sure she was fine and check for any medical conditions that may have caused her to faint. I place my ear near her heart, when I notice that her heart and breathing rate are way too fast. I check her eyes and notice that she has eyes bags and slightly reddened eyes. I noticed her hands occasionally twitching. I check a couple of other things and finally make my conclusion.

“Mrs. C-Culder’s stressed. What’s t-the cause?”

That was when James entered the room looking terrible with red eyes, and the moment he saw me, his face drained of color as well, but he didn’t faint. Instead, James said something unusual

“H-How are you alive?”

After calming James down, he explains everything to me. Apparently, I was in The Kabbalah for ten days, but up here, that translates to 3 times that, meaning I had gone missing for a whole month, in which everyone close to me had gone mad looking for me. Once the 10 day mark had passed, I was declared dead. After a quick discussion, I decided to take Mrs. Culder up to her room after walking James to his room. James and I arrive at his door, where I ensure that James sleeps, and walk up to Mrs. Culder’s room. I open her door and lay her down on her bed and cover her up. After checking that her health is fine, I go into Mrs. Culder’s kitchen and make her a quick tonic with the ingredients in her room for refreshment and rejuvenation. After making her ten days’ worth of the tonic, I place it next to her and check up on her one more time, before writing her a note.

After placing the note and tonic in front of her bed, I walk out and close the door. As I was leaving, I look back at Mrs. Culder’s peaceful sleeping face and smile, feeling grateful for her. After leaving the room, I begin walking to Mr. Sjorn’s office. After walking from all the way from the servants’ hall, I arrive at the pair of golden doors, when I hear some loud footsteps coming towards the door. At that moment, I felt immense danger, so I immediately hid behind the statues either side the doors. Around the corner, I see a man with zealous red hair wearing a yellow cape and green armor. The man arrives at the door and slams the doors open, no, rips the doors open with his hands. The doors crash into the walls, shaking the entire manor.

“Calligpher Sjorn, today is the day you die!”

I slowly look into the room, only to see Mr. Sjorn held up by his collar with the man exuding immense pressure.

“Urk! H-Hello, Renild Skever (Ren-eld Skee-ver).”

“Hello? That’s all you have to say to me?!”

“W-What do you mean, Renild?”

“You told me she’d be cured! Why the hell are your doctors so incompetent?! HUH?!”

“Renild, m-my doctors, ugh! C-Could you let me down? I-I can barely breathe.”

Sir Renild looks at Mr. Sjorn with immense anger before dropping him. Mr. Sjorn lands sprawled on the ground, coughing for air.

“Now speak.”

“Renild, your 6th daughter has an incurable disease.”

“What do you mean? There’s no incurable disease except for- No. You don’t mean-”

“Yes, Renild. Your daughter has The Magician’s Tumor.”

“No, No, No. Impossible. Sjorn, are you sure? Is there no way?”

Sir Renild’s expression changed from angry to despair in seconds. Renild falls onto his knees and begins begging Mr. Sjorn to do something.

“Sjorn, please, is there no hope? Anything?”

“Renild, forgive me, but there’s nothing I can do. From what I’ve studied, there is no cure for the disease, and the only end for its carrier is death by biological disassembly.”

“What the hell is that?”

“A death caused by the body disassembling itself on a cellular level. The body basically rips itself into pieces, and the worst part isn’t that.”

“Sjorn, enough. I don’t want to hear more.”

“Renild, this is important, as I worry if you’re not prepared, you’ll break.”

“What do you mean?”

“Renild, the worst process about this disease… is the fact the carrier doesn’t die of pain nor being torn apart, but rather lives. The carrier at this point is just a clump of conscious flesh feeling immense pain every second and will stay that way until it is killed by someone.”

The moment Mr. Sjorn said that, Sir Renild’s eyes grew bloodshot as he started crying. He began slamming the ground with his fist while yelling out at the top of his lungs. After watching this scene for a couple of minutes, I suddenly remembered something that I had read while in The Kabbalah.

“Mr. Sjorn, I-I think I might be able t-to do something!”

I suddenly jump out as Mr. Sjorn turns to look at me with wide eyes. At that same moment, Sir Renild suddenly appears in front of me, shaking my entire body

“What did you say?!”

Renild asked before Mr. Sjorn could reply.

“Sir, I think t-that I may be a-able to do something a-about it.”

“Are you sure?!”

“Yes S-Sir.”

Mr. Sjorn stands there, completely dumbfounded, while Sir Renild was looking at me with hopeful eyes.

After much discussion, it was agreed that I would go to Sir Renild to the border, where the Skever Dukedom lied. Sir Renild left after we had finished discussing, where Mr. Sjorn and I sat alone.

“Maxwell, how’ve you been?”

“I-I have been well, S-Sir.”

“Maxwell, are you prepared to face the consequences if you fail in treating Sir Renild’s daughter?”

“O-Of course, Sir.”

“Good. Then you may leave.”

“I-Is that all?”

“Yes. As you can see, my office is a mess right now, or I’d had a much longer discussion with you.”

“Ah, y-yes sir. Goodbye sir.”

“Goodbye, Maxwell. Make me proud, son.”

I leave Mr. Sjorn’s office as Mr. Sjorn looks at me with sad eyes, as if doing his best to believe in me, while knowing I’ll most likely fail. It was a look of despair, joy, expectations, and coldness all combined into one, and it was a look that I had decided, after looking at it for a couple of seconds, decided to turn into a joyful one.

(To Be Continued…)