One day during a small vacation period we decided to go on a little adventure, exploring the area surrounding our village. We followed an overgrown path for about half a day. The sun was bright that day, but a slight breeze made the air comfortable. Eventually we made it to what looked like severely overgrown and decayed city walls, which were at least as tall as 5 men. The place was littered with skeletons, many in pieces, all of the wooden buildings were collapsed and charred, and the stone buildings were almost all partly crumbled and destroyed. Our friend Hakaze explained that we had entered the ruins of a city known as "Udara", which had been considered a cursed place. He didn't know much more about the place, but the thick layers of dust and the overgrown streets made it clear the place had been abandoned for a long time. He specifically wanted to visit this place because it was rumoured to be the last place a legendary staff was sighted.

We started target practice on the many old skeletons in the area, replenishing our mana with potions when we ran out. After some hours we got bored and decided to explore the place instead. Most of what we found was boring, just old broken weapons, scrolls and books about mundane topics and the occasional coin. The place had already been looted thoroughly, and we lost much of our hope of finding anything good. Nevertheless we enjoyed ourselves, exploring the ruins.

Eventually we made it to the center of Udara and entered the largest temple of the temple complex. Down the stairs heading to the basement, two stone doors blocked the path. Intricate symbols and a mechanism on the door intrigued Hakaze and he tried to figure out how to open the doors. I got bored quickly and explored the higher floors instead. The place was so thoroughly looted that gold had been stripped of the main church's statues and decorations. Yet when I climbed up the many stairs of the spire, I would make a discovery that would change my life. I opened the door to the spire's highest room, and inside it lay many skeletons in full warrior and mage gear, one of them lay against the wall holding a golden staff. The staff had two crystalline orbs at its tip which extended from separate crystalline arms that connected to an orb at the center which could rotate. The handle of the staff was made of a beautiful pure white stone. The corpse also wore a necklace and several azure blue robes with golden trimming. I picked it up and wore it, then tried to loot the rest but it was too much to carry on my own. Luckily Symania had followed me, and we started to pick up the rest and shortly afterwards we went to get Hakaze, who was at this point still trying to open the gates.

"I've made some progress, these crystals here have to be activated in a particular order, which would unlock the mechanism" He explained to us.

"Don't worry about it, we found a lot of good loot upstairs! You should come with us, there's still some robes and swords left you could carry" I said to him. Then I continued.

"Look at what I found, is this the staff you were talking about?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He turned his head away from the door and was shocked by the sight of the staff.

"That is... amazing!" He said excitedly.

"What is it, you know about this thing?" I asked him.

"The scrolls in the library said it belonged to an apex light priestess known as Soliana. She did many horrible and great things with it. Its power is immense, I have to admit, I didn't even think we'd actually find it here" He gleamed thoroughly at its sight.

Then he asked me:

"Can you give it to me?"

And regretfully I spoke:

"No, I found it, I think I should have it"

"But I made us come all the way here, you wouldn't have gone here on your own, you know that"

"Without me you wouldn't have found it, you were too busy with that door, so I should have it"

"Guys, please don't fight.." Symania said to us with a soft voice, she was barely audible. But we ignored her.

"Why are you so selfish over this? Besides you know I'm the better light mage between the two of us. I'll help you find some other cool staff!" He said more desperately.

"No, it's mine!" I said, angered this time.

Then he grabbed the staff and tried to wrestle it off me. I tried to push him off with both hands on the staff, but he wouldn't let go and we struggled.

As we fought the staff lit up and started to glow, then I pushed him down by swinging it down with both my hands.

The staff activated further and as Hakaze fell backwards and in a bright flash as the staff absorbed energy from him.

Hakaze's body collapsed instantly and it looked pale.

"What happened?!" Symania yelled, she was afraid and hid behind her own staff not daring to come closer.

I ran over to his body.

"Hakaze! Are you alright!" I instantly regretted what had happened. How could I have been so selfish?

We both casted our strongest healing spells on him:

"Sana corpus!"

"Restitutio maximus!"

"Resuscitatio fortis recuperatio"

But nothing seemed to work. His body lay motionless.

We ran over and held his already cold and lifeless body.

He was completely gone. We didn't know it at the time, but the staff had absorbed his lifeforce, as such healing him was entirely useless. In anger I threw the staff into the rubble in a corner. Symania started to cry and tears fell from my eyes as well, as she sat next to me while we hugged his lifeless body. It changed us, we had never witnessed death before, not so close to us. We lost a friend that day but also our youthful optimism. Many times I wished for the staff to have taken my life instead.