“Oh, I forgot you’re not from this world,” Dillon recalled that I was actually summoned here. “This world’s called Pargat, and this country is the Baruum Empire.” He looked down, “I should return to the citadel soon.”
Citadel? I pondered, realising soon enough that he spoke of the temple we came from. “Why? So they can kill you?”
He fidgeted, soaking my words in. Just then, the inn’s wooden wall was blasted open. Dillon jumped, but August and I felt the amassing of mana from outside so it was no surprise. Three men clothed in black robes with literal decapitated goat heads fastened over their heads walked in. And that’s when August and I jumped. What the fuck?! I reeled. What kind of messed up shit is that?!
They looked straight at our table. Oh boy, that ‘citadel’ is a cult, ain’t it? They’re fanatics after all. Their hands glowed with magic. August appeared behind one of them and simply grabbed him by the collar and threw him a few buildings over. The other two split their focus. One produced a sizeable Ice Prison and captured August. The other threw a pike made of stone right at me.
My Reflect made it bounce right back, but he dodged. By the time he looked at me again, I was already in Voidwalk. He would only feel a hand touching his shoulder from behind and his innards freezing over from the fatal Glacial Embrace.
The last goat-head fashionista didn’t flinch, but it seemed the person was torn between maintaining Ice Prison and defending himself from us. Usually, I’d use Mind Break or Enthral to extract information, but I had a feeling this fellow wouldn’t lie. “Come, have some lunch with us,” I offered with a smile on my face. His robotic movements slowly cancelled his Ice Prison and he did as told when he realised it was more of an order than an offer. “I do hope we can see your attractive face. Besides, you won’t be able to eat with that headdress on.”
Without a word, he finally decided to take the goat head off, revealing that he wasn’t a he at all. She looked to be in her thirties, with red paint marks on her face, probably denoting that she was from a very particular group.
“I recommend the scallops,” August pointed them out whilst I used some void magic to put the broken pieces of wood back together and transmutation to merge them together again. “So, I’m August, the repairman there is Eric. What’s your name?” he asked her, showing her his polite side.
“B-Beth,” she answered. Her brown hair fell a bit onto her face, which she couldn’t be bothered with clearing.
I raised a brow, “Now, ‘Beth’, I suppose it’s only fair to tell you that I’m able to discern when people lie.” And that actually wasn’t a lie. Since I learnt Mana Perception, I was able to see when people lie, just like Donna could. Although, it took me a while to realise that. “So, if you don’t mind,” I gestured for her to give the man a truthful answer and made us all some wine. I sipped.
“I’m Miranda,” she admitted after sighing. “I know that, I’m the prisoner here but, can we maybe, not talk in the open like this?”
August and I looked at each other. “Alright, then take us to your leader,” the blacksmith suggested, earning quite the boisterous bout of laughter from goat-lover Miranda. It calmed the scattered patrons a little, giving everyone a piece of mind that the fighting was done.
After she had her fill, she realised August meant what he said. “Oh, you’re serious. I-I’m not in the upper echelons so I won’t have permission to get an audience.”
“It’s okay,” I comforted, “all you need to do is take us there.”
“But,” she bemoaned, “that’s a month’s journey by carriage!”
Certainly didn’t expect her to be the whiny type. We left, walking right out the door. As soon as the sun touched upon her, she went invisible and began scurrying away. I rolled my eyes. “So, listen, she’s running away. You wanna chase her down and have a whole ‘nother adventure in this world or nah?” I asked August.
“Didn’t you bring me here to help you with that?” he shrugged a bit. “Because if no, then I’d rather just go back home to Tara.”
“Hmm, I know what you mean. Let’s bounce, dawg,” I said, casting up Riftshear.
“You’re leaving?” Dillon asked.
“You’re leaving?” Miranda repeated with stronger emphasis.
August furrowed his brow, confuddled. “Weren’t you running away?”
The spotlight in our little group shone brightly on her, and she was at a loss for words. “Uh, erm, the markings on my face will show my affiliation, so I have to stay invisible. I was taking you to our leader.”
Interesting. She’s telling the truth. My casting stopped. “Why would you willingly take us there? Aren’t we your enemy?”
She scratched her cheek, “Yeah. No. I don’t know!” she shrugged in defeat. “I thought you were at first, but it’s hard to imagine that you’re really enemies with the casual way you speak. You were even going to leave. Do you care at all?”
“Nope. I was forcefully summoned here by this guy,” I patted Dillon on the head, “and some other baddies.”
She took a step back. “You were summoned here and broke free?” She then turned to Dillon. “What tier of summoning magic was this, lad?”
Dillon came in closer, beckoning us to do the same so he could speak as soft as possible. “Tenth.”
The fanatic’s eyes widened, “Tenth?! Tenth?! You had the materials to summon a tenth-tier creature?!”
“Yeah,” Dillon admitted a lot more casually than I thought. “You do realise we’re from the same order, right?”
“You’re in the Order of Warlocks?! I have so many questions!” Her eyes lit up. “But, that’s for a more private place.”
~
We were pulled by horse in a carriage on an old dirt road. Miranda and Dillon sat on one side, August and I on the other. She fired off a barrage of questions at him, and I just let it happen so I could soak in as much information as I could. “Wait, if the materials were meant to summon the Avatar of Chaos, then why did he appear?”
“I used my blood, instead of my master’s. It threw off everything. I figured the summoning would simply fail, but this mage came through.”
“So,” August interrupted their beautiful conversation, “what’s this star relic thing and why does the Order of Warlocks want to destroy it?”
“An artefact,” Dillon explained, summoning some sand and placing it on the floor of the carriage. He drew a huge circle. “In essence, it’s a barrier. Let’s say this circle is the Baruum Empire,” he drew another circle, about quarter the size of the first, “then this is around what the Star of Fahzul’s barrier covers. The capital is smack dab in the centre, meaning the Star Sorcerers can change where the barrier is focused on. To really invade the Baruum Empire, other countries would have to destroy the star, or kill the Star Sorcerers – which is more difficult.” At this point he was basically talking to Miranda again, “That’s why the Order wants to summon the Avatar of Chaos. Without its help, the Baruum Empire cannot fall.”
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I pondered why the Order of Warlocks would want their own empire to be vulnerable, but I can’t say I cared enough. “I’m putting a Light Link in both of you,” I told them. “As long as I’m connected to you, I will protect you. If you choose to break the connection, then it’s the same as saying you don’t want my protection.” I basically told them – or Miranda specifically – that they weren’t prisoners and free to leave. I then proceeded to take a nap.
When I woke up, a stupendous amount of power was being emanated. August was deep in concentration and the other two had fallen asleep on each other.
“Halt!” a voice said from outside. “Reason for visit?”
I poked my head out and realised we were actually pretty close to a big town. “Well, we’re travelling, but I figure we’ll need to restock and find an inn to spend the night.”
He nodded his head, and proceeded to inspect the carriage. For those of you who can’t remember, when August goes past a certain amount of quint usage, he begins to emit a strange yellow glow. “Pull to the side and wait!” the guard commanded.
Ah, we’re in trouble. I sighed. Other carriages and travellers passed on by, some going by even without being searched. A march of soldiers paraded down the road to us, their noisy sabatons had woken up August and the lovebirds. August decided to step out, giving his arms and legs a little stretch. Something about that set them off, and they assumed battle positions immediately.
August, baffled, looked at me, then pointed to himself. He placed his hands up in surrender, “Am I being arrested?” he asked the approaching man, clothed in robes. The man didn’t speak, but simply inspected August.
“Restrain him,” the pointy-bearded man told the soldiers and turned his back to walk off, but then looked back, “take the other one too. The boy and woman are to come to my quarters.”
So, he’s from the Order of Warlocks too, huh? But… I stopped and pondered why a group like the Order of Warlocks who should be enemies of the state, had a man with power over city guards. Either his affiliation was being kept a secret, or the Order of Warlocks was an actual legitimate and recognised group with secret intentions.
They threw August and I in their dark and damp dungeons. “Why were we arrested?” I asked the prison guard.
“Why?” he scoffed. “Because of him,” the guard pointed at August.
“Wow! I guess that means you’re too ugly for the general public to see, Aug!” I barely kept my laughter in.
“How ‘bout I make you too ugly for the public as well?” He hit his fists together.
“Alright, alright,” I gave up, “keep your panties on. So, how long you wanna stay here?”
“Eh,” he shrugged. “Make our stay as comfortable as you can, and I’ll stay forever.”
The minute the guardsman left, I equipped our cells with a luxuriously small bed, snacks, beer, hammocks and air-conditioning with ice and wind. We conversed lightly whilst I fed Celosia some grapes. She climbed onto my shoulders and was more intrigued by playing with my hair than actually eating.
“Where the hell are you?” Dawn suddenly questioned.
I was summoned to this new world by mistake and now I’m in prison having a pint with Aug. How’s Aviana and Tacari?
A gathering of light suddenly appeared. Oh, boy! Here we go!
Dawn formed in front of me, took a few seconds to look around and digest her surroundings. “Celosia, honey, block your ears.” Once she abided, Dawn glared at me. “What the fuck, man?”
I shrugged, “Wanna join in?”
“Nah, I’ve got some requests to do at the Order and I’ll never hear the end of it if I ditch Pyro. Send me back, will you?” And so, I did.
August burped so loudly, it jumped me. “You oaf…”
“I’m going for a walk,” August said, stretching his arms. He got up, pushed the iron bars aside, and simply walked out.
“Wanna go?” I asked Celosia, and she nodded gleefully. We traversed through the bars and followed August. When we climbed out the dungeon and into the guard barracks, we noticed that August was being confronted by four guardsmen.
Their shields and weapons were drawn after warning him multiple times to surrender. The minute they began charging, he cast Frost Nova, then simply walked around them. Wow, he used a spell. Don’t see that much.
Celosia began leaning to one side, falling asleep after having a meal. I floated her around to me and held her to my chest, that way she’d sleep better. A little sleeping spell would also make sure she won’t wake up because of a sudden jerk.
“Connor, what the hell’s goi–”
Another guard paused when he saw the prisoners simply walking toward him. His eyes kept shifting between us and the other guardsmen stuck with Frost Nova. He must’ve had some good instincts, because without showing him any power or reason to fear us, he simply stepped aside and let us pass. “W-who are you people?” he questioned.
“Well, I’m Eric, and he’s August,” I pointed with my chin. “Hey, man, do you know where the guy with the robe lives?”
He nodded his head, a bit fearful. “Just a few blocks down, there’s a large red house. Hard to, miss.”
I thanked him and quickened my pace to catch up to August. The city was quite a peaceful one it seemed. “You got any interesting enchantments recently?”
“Actually,” he paused his stroll and looked to me, “I do. I keep forgetting to remind you, but remember when we beat Earth-Sky Tower in Yunaris?”
I nodded, wondering what that dungeon had to do with enchanting. So, I questioned him about it, and a rather mischievous smirk adorned his face.
“Living enchantments, remember? I can enchant organic material, but all I could do so far is a sort of supplement to magic types. So, you know how that puppy you gave me has a part of its body infused with mana?” He questioned as we encroached the big red house.
“Mhm, what of it?”
“Well, instead of infusing the body with mana, a part of your body is imbued with a particular magic type. So, say I replace a percentage of my body with fire magic, then my competence with fire is gonna get a big boost. The only problem is, the higher percentage fidelity in the enchantment, the easier it is for its weakness – say water – to mess you up.”
“Do me, then,” I encouraged.
“Ew! Dude, no! That’s nasty!”
I rolled my eyes, “Don’t make me force you.”
“You’re gonna force me to do you?” he gasped, putting a hand over his mouth in abject horror. But he quickly returned to being serious, “Which magic type?”
We encroached the carmine house and a small staircase led to a large brown door. “Uh, can it be changed to another magic type later on?”
He nodded.
“Void then.”
“Give me your body for a couple minutes,” he placed a hand on my shoulder and looked me deep in my eyes.
“C’mon, dude. You can’t say you don’t know how that sounds…”
Wordlessly, he simply smiled and began his living enchantment. My body felt a little tingle, but nothing to speak of. He really was done in a minute or two. I shrugged, “I don’t feel any different right now. Anyway,” I had Celosia return to her flaming form on my hand, “let’s go find Dillon and Miranda.”
Turning the doorknob was quite useless; it was locked. August put a leg up, prepared to kick open the door. I stopped him, and simply Voidwalked. It was easily opened from the inside. The house was quite a simple, yet beautiful one. Tiled walls and flooring in a calming beige hue and the columns and other such things in a wine-red accent.
August followed his ears as he heard some talking, going off to a room to the far end of the spacious foyer. Sneaking up to them, we noticed the robed warlock peering out the window whilst Dillon and Miranda sat quietly like a couple of kids in trouble. Suddenly, the man’s fist smashed through the window, breaking one of the glass panes, “That damned old fool!” he cursed. “He had materials to summon the Avatar of Chaos and still failed! Unbelievable!”
His fists clenched tighter and he gritted his teeth, speaking ill of the Dillon’s master. With an audible exhale, he leaned onto the windowsill. “Boy, you mean to say, instead of the Avatar of Chaos,” he looked around, “a young mage was summoned instead?” He suddenly paused, noticing August and I leaned comfortably against the doorframe.
“Yes,” Dillon confirmed, “we’re not sure why he was summoned instead.”
“I see,” the robed man looked at August and I, and simply continued as if he never saw us in the first place, “does that mean he’s as strong as the Avatar of Chaos?”
“We’re not sure, grand warlock. However, he dealt with my team and I very easily, and even spoke to me as if I wasn’t an enemy to begin with.” She fiddled with her thumbs, “I can’t say how powerful he is but, we should not make an enemy of him.”
“Why?” the grand warlock questioned. “Do you think that he’s able to overcome to collective strength of the Order of Warlocks?”
She hesitated to answer, showing a clear fear about her. “N-no, grand warlock. But if we’re not careful, he’ll be quite a threat.” After a deep breath, she lifted her head up and properly looked at the man, “If I may, sir…” she asked for permission to say something that she probably shouldn’t. The man nodded slowly, placing quick glances upon August and I occasionally. “The Order should try to get him on our side. He may not be the Avatar of Chaos, but I’m certain he’s more than strong enough to procure the materials needed for another summoning.”
“I see. That’s a good observation.” His eyes looked up at August and I, “And what do you two think?”