A black sedan—ornamented with golden filigree and emblazoned with a symbol at both sides: that of a staff circled by a chinese dragon and a sword and spear that interlocked with each other in front of the staff, the symbol of the current Archmage of America—stopped in front of the Lukas Forn building. The driver's door opened and out came the bedazzled form of the most powerful man on Earth, literally, more powerful than a nuke. He wore a palish blue suit and trousers, and on his chest sat a ruddy checkered necktie.

A staff made of Narra tree—the best wood for conducting mana—floated at his side, following him wherever he went, turning left when he turned, never straying far behind or excitedly jumping ahead. It was just right at his side.

The Archmage strutted his way on a red carpet and a bazillion journalists and photographers vied for his attention at the sides, just behind the red tape.

“Sir Merlin, could you tell us anything about your new discovery?”

“...true that you've built an epic class device?”

“Did you really finally solve the FTL conundrum?”

Merlin II waved and smiled at the reporters. “All will be revealed soon enough.”

He kept on trundling with poise towards the elevator. Once in, he pressed the button for the second floor and the lift bolted up. He breathed a sigh of relief, stretching a little to relieve tensions on his body. The elevator’s door opened and the first to greet him was a smiling Dr. Io, so he smiled back. In all his two hundred and three-three life, Io had been his constant companion. Ever since he reached the pinnacle at ten thousand kyuls of mana, it was Io who had always been at his side. Io was also the second most powerful man in the world—at eight thousand kyuls of mana and boasting a repertoire of spells as varied and as powerful as Merlin.

In fact, if Merlin were to be honest, he would find it extremely difficult to defeat Io in a real fight. That's because Io was the more experienced mage; at an age of four-o-three compared to his two three-three, he was more than a match against Merlin. Merlin's only advantage was that if it became a war of attrition, winning would be in the bag thanks to his larger mana pool.

“I guess,” Io began, lifting his hands a bit above his pockets and then putting them inside. “Congratulations are in order, Oh great and powerful Merlin II.” Io giggled at his last addendum.

“Please, Oh unparalleled academic Dr. Io,” Merlin chuckled, “to you, it's just Winston.”

“Well, for this grand occasion, permit me the chance to call you by your official title, Merlin.”

Merlin guffawed, hard and deep. “I guess it won't hurt to be a little formal, just for today.”

The two friends continued their conversation, each talking a great deal about their discoveries, which they will be presenting today at the pressroom. They made their way across crowds of magicists and journalists walking their way, like them, towards the giant press-hall of the Lucas Forn building. Today, there would be three presentations. The first one would be the newest discovery by Dr. Ivo, regarding mana emissions from twelve ring engines. It was said that he had found a more efficient way to build an engine that had half the rings of a traditional engine, but with twice the horsepower by minimizing the mana emissions produced by the rings.

The next presentation, a groundbreaking one, was about the magna opulent lasers used by satellites to communicate with ground devices. Dr. Io had developed a newer, more robust design. Instead of using twenty mana crystals to power the lasers, Io has revolutionarily created a laser that used two mana crystals by using a lower frequency version of the mo-lasers.

The last presentation would be presented by Merlin, he did not reveal any overview about his device except that one snippet: There's no need for us to surpass the speed of light to reach beyond, I guarantee it. There were even rumors saying that Merlin had somehow created a never before seen epic class item. That would be something if it were true. Merlin and Io took their seats at the frontmost chairs, while their audience slowly swarmed inside. Merlin's staff stopped in front of him, a little to his right, standing there like a guard. Whispers buzzed all around; excited noises squeaked, and Merlin could just hear some little morsel of their conversations. He listened in and noted that many of them were there for his grand reveal. It brought a small smile to Merlin's face.

A quick turn of the head to the right brought Dr. Ivo to Merlin's view. Such a brilliant man who nevertheless was wasted on very banal subjects of study. The pursuit to contribute to the insipid workings of society were inane to Merlin's tastes.

To Merlin, it was only the pursuit of the greatest things that was worthy of his resolve and adamant persistence. To desire the greatest things, and to achieve them is the true meaning of one's existence.

When everyone had entered the hall, a man stood up to the podium and introduced the first speaker of the day, then Ivo stood up from his seat and took up the podium. He began explaining and presenting his research and ultimately ending with his astounding results.

“Quite impressive,” said Io, turning his gaze towards Merlin. “His research is quite… what to say…. Exciting?”

“Pfft,” Merlin scoffed, smirking at the same time. “Simply making an engine more efficient is no groundbreaking discovery. He needs more than that to equal you or me.”

A roll of the eyes met Merlin's puffed up remark. Merlin twitched and felt slightly embarrassed, but at what exactly he could not tell; it could not have been his words for he believed them entirely. But nevertheless he felt uncomfortable with Io's looks.

“What?”

“Nothing…. Have I ever told you how dumb you are?”

“As a matter of fact,” Merlin beamed an awkward smile. “You have, exactly one hundred and eighteen times.”

“Very good,” Io said, wiping his sweaty hands on his trousers. “You’ve been keeping count. As I’ve been saying, you're dumb. You're somehow elevating my research beyond what it is in reality. I am not that good, boy.”

There was a tinge of anger in Io's words. Whenever Io called Merlin boy he was certain to have messed up. But as stubborn Merlin was as the skin of a crocodile is rough, he pushed on with his belief.

“Yours, Io is a noteworthy research. No magicist in history has ever lowered the frequency of a mo-laser. It was thought of as impossible based on the nature of mana crystals but you…”

Io coughed, cutting Merlin off from finishing his sentence.

“As I was about to say. My research is not entirely my own. It is built on the research of others in the past and concurrently. I was able to reach my conclusion simply because I learned from my forebears and peers. My research, as you would say, is banal and worthy of a sneer.”

Io’s remarks irritated the hell out of Merlin. He was about to launch into a tirade when suddenly, the man at the podium called Io’s name. Io patted Merlin's shoulder and stood up, smiling at him.

“Wish me luck,” Io said.

***

A loud standing ovation met the end of Io's presentation. Io smiled brightly and bowed before his audience. Meanwhile, the stubborn Merlin harrumphed and frowned. He was not happy at having been the recipient of Io's counsel earlier, nevertheless he reached his hand out to the old man and they both shook hands.

“Despite the fact that I'm irritated at you right now, you still did well.”

“Thanks,” Io professed, smiling buoyantly at the youth, at least relative to his own age. “Wipe that frown on your face already, or you'll scare the audience.”

“...please help me welcome everyone, Merlin II!”

The crowd clapped as hard as the stomping of an elephant's foot on a hardwood floor. They cheered vehemently to the utterance of Merlin's name, or to be more exact his titular name. Merlin grabbed his staff and strutted pompously towards the stage. He stood at the podium and grabbed the clicker. He pressed a button and the projector projected the title of his presentation.

Interstellar Travel: Possible and Here.

Merlin spread his arms and called to the crowd.

“Have you ever thought of interstellar travel? Of traversing this known part of our galaxy, of our universe, deep into the unknown? Deep into the fringes of our galaxy, or another galaxy? You are aware that as of current, interstellar travel is still considered impossible as our theoretical avenue to reach the stars is still through normal propulsion. Others would argue that if we developed teleportation enough, we could use it to advance deeper into this known galaxy. But we all know that long distance teleportation doesn't work without the destination point of the traversal being already marked or known. That leaves us with only normal propulsion, which takes years to even exit our solar system. But I have discovered something that will circumvent all of that.”

The clicker clacked and the presentation slid to show a new slide containing an object within its blue themed page. It was a necklace ringed with a bronze chain with a golden pendant that was shaped into an oloid. One of the oloid's sides was made of transparent glass giving a view of a glowing blue core encased within the very shape.

“I present to you, the Seraphim.”

Merlin walked away from the podium and towards the center of the stage.

“My theory began with the idea that perhaps instead of surpassing the speed of light, we could rather punch a hole in the fabric of our universe and connect two places at the same time. A portal if you will. A portal that is only possible by elevating a focus outside the third dimension and from there activating it so that it would fold two separate points in the dimension below it and connect those two points.”

Murmurs of surprise propagated from the audience, which brought a smile to Merlin. He walked to the side furthest from the podium and began addressing the people seated at the far right (from the perspective at the back) where Ivo sat. He winked at Ivo.

“You’ve heard of the spatial aspect of mana, used to power teleportation spell circuits. To instantly disappear from one place and appear in another. People think this to be equal and the same to the never before seen dimensional aspect, which is an idea, as your astute minds know, that is blatantly false. This aspect is not a true dimensional aspect. For in truth, teleportation of this kind happens by making the human body, or any object, intangible, thereby making it invisible to the naked eye, and by accelerating it so fast that it reaches the speed of light, it arrives at its destination in an instant. It is an illusion of teleportation. In reality, the object teleported never traveled instantly, it traveled in space at impossible speeds. But I have developed the first ever real dimensional aspect and a spell circuit that can harness it. The first ever FTL transportation device, if you will.”

Merlin called out to his staff that was floating at the side of the podium, and the staff jumped to his hand. He slammed its tip to the floor and a shockwave emanated, rippling all throughout the room.

“Behold, the Seraphim!”

In the air, in front of Merlin, a necklace that looked exactly like the one shown on the projector screen materialized in a blue aura like hue. Its blue core was visible to everyone present. Merlin grabbed it and wore it around his neck.

“Now to explain how it works…”

***

[Two hours before the event began]

In some underground shelter somewhere in the city, a group of men congregated. Some conversed with each other while others sat melancholically on the floor. One of these latter men sat, resting his back on a wall near the corner.

Alexander was the only Russian in this team assembled by the organization to do the impossible—or at least he thought he was the only one as he saw no one else that looked Russian. A glimpse here and there revealed some southeast Asians, and some Indians; there were, though sparsely scattered, east Asians as well. There were towering caucasians in the group which he guessed to be mostly Americans as they were too jovial for his taste. This strike team was built to steal something, an impossible task considering they're stealing from an Archmage. He could only laugh at the thought, since their target is not anything like any other Archmage; he was the greatest of them all!

But the organization promised that the newest device wrapped around their forearms would solve the problem entirely. Taking on an Archmage would become all but too easy thanks to these newly built spell-circuit cancellers. One which the organization assured would work on Merlin II. Plus, the killing blow, they said, would be delivered by someone powerful. Alexander wondered who it would be. In all his years working for the organization he never saw the faces of those at the top, maybe this time he'd finally catch a glimpse of their superiors.

Alexander pulled a locket from the cover of his black shirt and opened it up. There were two pictures inside: one where he stood side by side with his wife, and one depicting their daughter smiling, now three years old. He promised that this would be the last time he'd be working for the organization. He would leave this shady life behind and begin a life with his family. Plenty of cash sat peacefully in his bank account, a result of all his 'underworld’ dealings. But enough is enough—it is time to turn a new leaf and live happily with his family. When he left them, his daughter could not stop crying, screaming things like, “I don't want Dada to go!” Those words hurt more because Alexander knew he was leaving them with a lie: that he was going on a business trip somewhere on the other side of the world. But in truth, he wasn't sure if he had signed his life away or had finally hit the jackpot. If all goes right with this escapade of his, his family would live comfortably until he and his wife die and their daughter outlives them.

Alex noticed that the crowd began to quiet down and heads were turning towards a specific direction. He too turned his head to his right and saw a burly man in a gray tank top and camo pants. His hair was perfectly cut flat at the top. The gaze that issued forth from his eyes seemed to almost penetrate Alex's soul. He knew right then and there that this man was dangerous. The aura that the man exuded, if his estimation was correct, indicated about more or less two thousand five hundred kyuls of mana and a mastery of quite a hefty amount of spells.

The man folded his arms across his chest and bellowed with a thundering voice.

“Everyone!”

The crowd heard him and began gathering in front of him; that goes without saying that Alex, too, crammed in with the crowd.

“I am Socuy, the team leader for this mission. I'm going to go over the plans the other officers and I have created. So listen carefully, I'm only telling you this once.”

The burly man, Socuy as he called himself, waved his hand and a three dimensional depiction of the target building, its surroundings, and the people going in and out of its doors appeared in the air.

“This is a real time feed of our target location, made possible by the earnest work our spies in the Lukas Forn building have done.”

He stretched his thumb and index finger from a single point on a specific area and the whole projection zoomed in on the entrances.

“There are specifically three entrances, each guarded by three guards. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? Well, I don't want to burst your bubble but there are more guards beyond the entrances; they've amped up their security just for today's event. There are approximately thirty guards and there are fifty of us so we outnumber them five to three but don't get cocky. We may have better equipment than them but cockiness cancels preparedness, remember that rule.”

He zoomed in on a single guard and pointed out a wand slung on a holster at his hip. The wand seemed to be made of polished ebony.

“They are equipped with merely a type-2 rare wand. ‘Got a lot of capacity but little impact. Your shields should hold down against an onslaught from these wands. The first step is to overwhelm them with numbers—eliminate all guards, we can't tempt fate. The second step is to hold all staff and employees in the lobby hostage. This is important, because we can't just barge into the second floor; fighting in the hallway would be setting us up for failure. There will be academics who are also powerful mages present in this event, and a narrow passage gives them the edge in terms of taking us all out in one fell swoop.”

He zoomed into the building and the giant lobby appeared in sight. Numerous staff bustled around, going into rooms while others took the elevator to some unknown floor. Employees of various companies renting the building went in and out while some drank coffee at a café at the side.

“This is their lobby, impressive right? This is our edge. Fighting in this area will give our numbers a chance to overwhelm powerful opponents. That is the reason why we take hostages. We want to draw in the powerful men on the second floor down to the lobby and there we fight. And remember this, this is very important, if Merlin doesn't come down with the others, do not turn on your spell-circuit cancellers, we conserve ....”

Socuy paused for a moment then his face lit up in realization and he nodded. “You know what, wait….”

The man typed something into the screen at his forearm and multiple beeps sounded all over the room.

“I've already modified your cancellers. All of it will now only work if the operators monitoring our mission sees Merlin coming down with the other mages and activate it, if not, you will not be able to turn it on. Remember that it will only last for thirty minutes, which means we have to save it for only Merlin; we desperately need it for a mage his caliber. Now on the off chance that Merlin doesn’t come down, we will risk it and hunt him down.

“Our spies will lock the elevator from going up during the attack. The organization is also deploying an item that can produce an enveloping shield around the building and between each floor, which doubles as a preventive measure against teleportation. Just in case Merlin decides he couldn't care less about the lives of the hostages and just suddenly bolt out. This will last for only sixty minutes. It will activate exactly five minutes after we enter the building. So to be more efficient make sure to bring down the guards at least in five to six minutes after entering. This plan all goes south if the other mages decide to just abandon the hostages, but according to our intel, they’re all likely to go down. Only Merlin is the real wildcard here. There’s also plan B for when we fail to take down Merlin….”

Once Socuy finished briefing them about plan B, he swept his gaze around him.

“That is all, understood?” He said.

“Yes Sir!” All members of the team shouted.

“Now, let's hope Merlin doesn't go crazy and just blow the whole building apart. Move out.”

***

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Motes of light began appearing one by one in front of the Lukas Forn building. Some ended in the road, others on the sidewalk while some flashed on the other side of the road. Alex blipped on the sidewalk in front of the bookstore just next to the building. They had teleported outside because teleportation into the building was prevented by the anti-teleportation mechanism employed by Lukas Forn.

Immediately, when the guards took sight of them, they let loose a barrage of spell fire towards their direction. His group promptly deployed their shields, a solid translucent film made from force-aspected mana guided by spell-circuit shapes that formed it into a rectangular barrier in front of their forearm. One unfortunate soul however, deployed his shield too late and his head disintegrated from the spell fires. Alex shuddered at the sight; even after five years of fighting bloody micro wars, he still could not get used to death.

A deluge of adrenaline washed over his body and his heart beat faster, his breathing quicker, and his mind alert to any threat. He bent his legs like a frog then began creating a spell-circuit he had by now mastered around his legs; like a spring winded down so tightly, his legs decompressed and a loud pop reverberated in the air. He accelerated towards one of the guards.

The guard was caught off guard by his sudden acceleration and was about to duck when suddenly, Alex took a knife with his hand and reached out to the ducking man and sliced his neck clean. The guard fell down in a pool of blood.

Quickly, having taken his first victim, he surveyed the area for more guards. But it seemed his colleagues had already taken care of them. A quick raise of his forearm brought the digital clock to his attention. It took three minutes to eliminate all the guards. A commendable record, but it's not the hardest part yet.

The whole group started rounding up the hostages at a corner. Some were screaming and pleading for mercy while others closed their eyes in prayer. Alex didn’t want to hurt them, so he hoped none would start acting up and play hero..

“Alright everyone!” Socuy shouted, sauntering to the center of the lobby. “Good job! And to the hostages….” He turned to look at their shuddering captives. “No funny business or you'll soon lose your necks.”

Socuy took a phone from his hip and began dialing a number of some sort. He raised the phone towards his ears.

“Let's get this show started.” He spoke loudly to the phone's microphone with a cunning and devious grin.

***

The speakers on the ceilings cackled and a gruff male voice spoke from them.

“Let's get this show started.”

Merlin was halfway through his presentation when this occurred. A big frown messed up the contours on his face. Murmurs of speculation dotted the entire room.

“Attention everyone on the second floor! Specifically you mangled living corpses of mages. I come before you with a proposition. Your lives in exchange for the lives of the hostages we have at the lobby. In exactly ten minutes from now, we would start beheading hostages every minute. Your call.”

The crowd of magicists and journalists broke into an argument. The journalists argued: whoever the guy on speaker was, he was simply bluffing, there was no way they could take on thirty guards armed with rare wands. The mages on the other hand didn't want to tempt the idea that perhaps the guy on speaker was telling the truth until…. The ground below them started turning transparent, showing them men armed with exoskeletons and various other items and a slew of hostages cowering in the corner.

“As you can see, they're telling the truth!” Rumbled Dr. Io who had cast the spell. It was a very simple spell that no one in the room, possessed by panic, even thought of casting.

Merlin was about to cast one himself, but got beat to it by his friend. Very impressive how cool headed the experienced mage was.

Io stood up as the translucent ground began to solidify again, confident and unafraid.

“We don't have much time, everyone. Journalists this is not your fight; I know you're scared but you can't do anything about it. These men came here for us mages, more specifically, I deduce their real target is Merlin; all of us are merely collateral. I want all journalists to stay here while the mages take on whoever these lowlives are. I'm sure you'll be safe; they came for us, and we will strike back.”

***

Alex waited anticipatingly in front of the elevators along with his group. The two elevators dinged and out came about twenty-two powerful mages.

A fire blast met Alex's team, but a siphoning spell from Socuy sipped the fire and extinguished it. Immediately after, a man, whose looks matched that of Ivo in the files, lunged at Alex, a glowing sword in hand. Alex panicked and forgot to turn on his shield. He sidestepped and got a considerable portion of the left arm of his exoskeleton slashed off. The exo-arm along with his left arm hung limply at his side. He jumped back making distance between his aggressor.

He clicked his tongue and ripped the left exo-arm from its attachment, freeing his left arm for movement. Ivo ran towards him again but this time a team member blocked him midway. They were locked in battle, but it was clear that Ivo was winning. Whenever the man got blown away by one of Ivo’s spells one of the other members would replace him, then when that other one got overwhelmed the other one would take his place. Afterwhich, as if on cue, the two of them attacked Ivo all at once. But a force blast pushed them a distance away and down to their backs. That was Alex's cue. He bent his legs and began preparing the spell circuit for his signature spell. Afterwards, he launched towards Ivo at incredible speeds. He brought his knife in front of him and readied to pierce through Ivo's heart. But Ivo was quicker, his eyes flickering in blue light, indicating some sense enhancing spell.

Ivo pivoted in place and when Alex's stretched body passed, Ivo caught his collar and spun him with him. Alex felt the force of gravity churning his insides. Ivo released his grip over him and he flew towards the lobby's counter. This all happened in under two seconds. Alex's exo-suit broke his fall, but he still felt some aching from where the suit met his body.

A simple glance to his left brought the two other members to his attention. They were now back up on their feet. They launched balls of kinetic force towards Ivo, but Ivo simply canceled them by applying a greater kinetic force at them. The leftover force from Ivo's attack pushed one of the men towards the wall. A loud crack sounded as the exosuit the man wore crumbled to pieces and the man fell to the ground limp and possibly dead.

A tinge of fear ran through all over Alex’s body. They weren't fighting any ordinary mage right here, he reminded himself. He instantly stood up and extended his knife. A surge of mana came out of his pool and they formed the necessary spell circuit on the surface of the blade. Then, the spell circuit siphoned the ambient mana and converted it into the light and solid aspect, quickly forming a hot blade made of light around the knife, with the solid-aspected mana acting as the solidifying factor on the blade.

Alex jumped to his colleague's rescue and blocked Ivo's light sword from decapitating him. The two danced with their blades producing sparks in the air. Ivo relentlessly attacked Alex, but Alex was able to barely parry all his attacks. It seemed Ivo was the better swordsman of the two. But when Alex held his ground; Ivo summoned a pole of hardened rock made from earth-aspected mana. The pole struck Alex's sternum, the part that his exosuit left exposed, and he buckled from the pain. That slight opening gave Ivo the chance to strike a horizontal slice towards Alex. Alex closed his eyes and prepared for the worst, but when he opened them, he saw that his body was still intact. As it turned out, his teammate had pulled him away from the cutting blade.

“‘Still got to finish this.” The man winked at Alex.

Alex smiled. “Indeed,” he said.

The both of them stood side by side, with Alex holding his light sword and the man turning on his shield. Ivo made a move to strike Alex but his teammate blocked it with his shield, afterwhich, he pushed his shield up, catapulting Ivo's sword above his head. He then backed away, and Alex moved forward. Alex launched the point of his light sword towards Ivo's stomach. But for a split second, Ivo phased through the sword as if his body became like that of a ghost. Ivo then stepped back lest the sword remained in his body as he solidified.

When Ivo became tangible again, Alex's teammate activated a spell that summoned thousands of sharp nails in the air, which he directed towards Ivo's direction. The nails clumped whenever they hit each other as if they were magnetic. Seconds later, Ivo's whole body got covered by these nails. Alex thought that was the end of it, when suddenly Ivo's body deflated, leaving only a heap of useless nails which evaporated when his teammate stopped feeding it with mana. They looked around to where Ivo could have gone until Alex noticed a slight vibration underfoot. Realization dawned on Alex and he pushed his teammate to the side while he jumped opposite him. The ground broke into pieces a moment later, while Ivo exited with his hands gripping a giant drill made of rocks which disappeared once his foot hit the ground. That was too close, had Alex not moved in time he and his teammate would have become minced meat against Ivo's summoned drill.

Alex's teammate was the first to stand up, shield on one arm and light sword on the other hand. He attacked Ivo with a vertical slash, which Ivo deflected to the right. Then, Alex's teammate offered a backhanded strike from where his sword got deflected, aiming for Ivo's ribs. But Ivo jumped so high, possibly with the help of some physical enhancing spell, that the man's sword merely passed under his feet.

Ivo, from the height of his jump, lunged at Alex's teammate, tip of his sword forward. The man got lucky and was able to sidestep in the split second window before the sword impaled him. Alex jumped to action, preparing to slice Ivo in half with his light sword. But Ivo struck his palm in the air just in front of Alex, and a gust of wind exhaled from it—not enough to hurt Alex but enough to push him back, making him slide on the floor.

At the same time, Alex's teammate brought the hilt of his sword above his head while the tip of it pointed down, towards Ivo's back. But Ivo, without blinking, extended multiple light swords—above the skin on the line of his spine—outwards, skewering Alex's teammate. The man coughed up blood, and as the swords dimmed and disappeared, the man fell to the floor, eyes unblinking, and dead.

Alex, angered by the death of his co-criminal, tried to stand up from the floor when he realized that he could not lift any part of his body up. That's when it registered to him that some sort of sticky substance held him down to the floor, no doubt a trap Ivo had devised during who knows when. Ivo walked towards Alex ready to decapitate him to pieces. Alex was prepared to meet his end, his one and only regret that he never quit the organization right after he had gotten married.

But before Ivo could do the gruesome act, the tip of a metallic blade appeared to jut out of his chest. Then the blade extended as if it was being sheathed through Ivo's chest. Ivo retched out blood, and the blade retracted and Ivo fell to the floor, dead. Behind Ivo, now visible to Alex, stood the towering facade of Socuy now cleaning his blade with a handkerchief from all the blood it accumulated today.

“Good work,” he said. “Now onto the hardest part.”

***

“He what?” Socuy screamed into the microphone.

The operator's reply was broadcasted to everyone including Alex.

“He disappeared from the feed, Sir.”

“Impossible, did he teleport?”

“No such traces, Sir. Apparently no traces of invisibility either.”

“How is this possible!?” Socuy screamed, scratching his sideburns. “He couldn't have known we were monitoring him, and the live feed is all but impossible to tamper with. Where was he last seen?”

“In the press-hall, Sir, right after the journalists vacated the room and hid in the bathrooms. He vanished amidst the chaos.”

“I guess we have to do this blind. Everyone, move out.”

Alex and the rest of his group boarded the elevators. From a strong fifty, they were now down to thirty-seven—info that he learned after their head count earlier. He didn't know if that number was enough to handle an Archmage. He heard Archmages were capable of toppling down a whole city. Merlin in particular had been known to destroy vast areas of land when testing out his new spells. Could the cancellers really bridge that gap in power? Alex pushed that thought away, he needed to focus. The elevator dinged when they reached the second floor, and the whole team exited them.

They walked in a steady staccato, snake-like as they traversed the hallways. Their shields were up, and their attention ready. When they reached the double doors of the press-hall, Socuy kicked them and they flung open; the other door seemingly aslant as its top hinge broke down.

They entered one by one with no one catching sight of Merlin. They searched the area, kicked some chairs, thinking he might have morphed into one, but still no luck.

When suddenly, behind Socuy, cracks in the air emanated from a single point and green energy started leaking out of it. Socuy turned but he was too late; a hand holding a light knife slit his throat open and Socuy fell to the ground convulsing, then dead.

Alex suddenly became alert and scared. What just happened?

From the cracks in the air emerged the confident form of their target—Merlin II in the flesh.

“HE CAME OUT OF A POCKET DIMENSION!” Someone screamed.

Immediately Alex realized the impossibility of the fact. It was impossible for living creatures to continue living inside a pocket dimension. Pocket dimensions were quite handy for storing objects. It did this by creating a small pocket in space, which expanded internally but never externally. All objects inside a pocket dimension were wrapped tightly within this space. No air could possibly exist inside such pockets and the tight wrapping of space could suffocate any human inside. How in the thousand stars could Merlin enter a pocket dimension and exit out alive!?

“I see you're surprised.” Merlin cackled like a harrowing witch. “Don't be. ‘Have been developing this technique for years at the behest of the military. ‘Expect the unexpected,’ that's the rule of soldiers is it not?.”

At the end of Merlin's sentence, everybody's cancellers immediately beeped and turned on. Merlin looked annoyed at first but stroked his chin after.

“Would you look at that, can't believe your underworld tech is capable of blocking me. Set specifically to block my mana control and coded to specifically affect my mana's frequency, quite inventive.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, looking around it seemed his teammates were similarly relieved as well. Their little gadget worked….

“Locked me away from twenty percent of my power. Quite impressive.”

The relief turned into desperation as they heard Merlin's words. Two of Alex's teammates started bolting out, afraid of dying a quick and worthless death. There was a world of difference between fear, knowing you have a chance at winning, to fear, knowing everything is hopeless. The latter made you want to run away, it made you fear death itself. When the two men were about to cross the doorway, they hit an invisible barrier, the surface of which rippled outward from the area they hit.

Merlin laughed. “There's no escaping for the two of you.”

Merlin gestured with a finger and the two men combusted into raging flames. Alex saw the whole thing and he started doubting his life choices. He really did sign his life away. But forget all that, right now he must not die without a fight. So Alex extended his knife and summoned his light sword. He sprung to action, arching his sword for a simple vertical slash. But when the sword closed in on Merlin, he stopped the sword with just a finger, the finger staying healthy without showing signs of getting cooked under the heat of the sword.

“Tut, tut, tut.” Merlin glared at Alex, but the glare was rather playful than one where he recognized someone as a threat. “We can't have you attacking now.”

Some invisible force started wrapping around Alex’s body; it constricted him and forced him to back away from Merlin. The sword in his hand fell as he was forced to let go of its hilt. The invisible force made him sit down on the floor, unarmed and helpless. From his position, his colleagues who were in his field of vision were also being forced down to the floor like him. It was safe to say that this invisible force was forcing down everyone, including the teammates he couldn't see.

Slowly but surely, one by one, the rest of his team died. Some died while acid ate away at their skin, leaving only skeletons. Others died by combusting into hellish flames. There were those who got impaled by metallic spikes that protruded from the floor. One by one Alex's teammates died. Then finally, only Alex was left.

“Saved the best for last,” Merlin taunted, grinning from ear to ear, devious and merciless. “You have heart. It's a shame I have to dispose of you.”

Alex trembled where he sat, life flashing before his eyes. His wife…. His daughter…. He wished he could have at least told them the truth. That he was not truly the hero his daughter thought him to be. He thought about doing it: telling them the truth. However, he feared his wife would leave him, and his daughter scarred forever. What daughter or wife would be proud of a father working for the criminal underbelly? He wished… he wished to turn back the time and quit the organization right after he had gotten married. Then perhaps his daughter wouldn’t grow up to be fatherless.

“I'll give you one free punch,” Merlin announced as he moved his face closer to Alex.

Suddenly, the grip on him loosened and he could finally move his arms. He had a fighting chance, not in the sense that he could beat Merlin but in the sense that he could do plan B—mark Merlin for teleportation. The barrier that encased them and prevented teleportation to the outside would also turn off during Merlin’s abduction. It was in the plan, he only had to perform it. Just a single touch. Merlin's ego would be his undoing. Loosening Merlin's grip on Alex was his biggest mistake.

Afterward, Alex clumped his right hand into a fist, punching Merlin in the face, marking him at the same time. Merlin realized what he had done a bit too late and his body’s contours started dimming and getting blurry.

Alex felt happy, he survived this….

Suddenly something solid—no, it was pressure—brushed his chest for an instant. He then felt hollow in that portion of his body. The culprit? Merlin's force spell that escaped him at the last moment and punched a hole in Alex. Blood oozed out of the wound, and Alex coughed up blood. The joy that had possessed him not long before now turned into despair. He fell to the floor face first and died.

***

Merlin appeared later inside a glowing blue orb that rippled on its surface. That maggot of an expendable underbelly soldier, he had the gall to imprison this great Archmage who had never even once succumbed to anyone's traps—not even during World War IV when Russian spies tried to set up an elaborate trap within a forest just to capture him, but which he easily evaded and dismantled. Just a simple punch and he was abducted. Thankfully, a well placed spell, that had activated just before he got completely snatched, killed the bastard on the spot.

But now he had to find a way to get out of this place. He looked around and saw that on the other side opposite his orb sat another blue orb containing a woman. On closer inspection, Merlin realized that their orbs were attached to a metallic beam, the center of which was fastened on another metal. It was a lever that balanced the two orbs. His orb, since it seemed that he was heavier than the woman, was placed at the furthest end of the beam while the woman's orb was a little closer to the center. It then clicked to Merlin at that point that he was in one of those so-called sacrifice-one-to-save-yourself traps. It was a simple mechanism: whoever teleported first out of their orb would be the one to live. The act of teleporting out would mess up the balance in the orbs’ energy, which were kept balanced by the energies within both its captives, causing them to explode. That is why these kinds of traps only worked for two or more captives. Whoever built this thing… whoever trapped him here was a sick psychopath.

If he teleported now, the woman on the other side would die—hold that thought, scrutinizing closer he realized that the woman was actually a child—a girl in tattered clothing. Probably an orphan. Her body was covered in bruises and scars while she laid on the floor of the orb limp and weak. Sometimes, her body throbbed, as if in pain, and sometimes she groaned.

He weighed their worth. What was an orphan in the grand scheme of things? Could saving one now ever attain any great impact in the machinations of the world? But saving himself meant he could continue to pioneer impossible breakthroughs, carrying humanity to win in the grand race of the universe. His worth outweighed the worth of the child. Somehow it didn't sit right with him. No, it's the truth, he was by all accounts the better choice for survival.

But then what if he tried a method that would save both him and the girl? Such methods would mean performing meticulous spells that would undo the trap. But he knew that doing so meant risking messing up the energies in these orbs and killing both of them. That mechanism was what hindered him from brute forcing his way out of this trap.

No. His life was too precious to risk killing himself. He needed a simple and sure way to escape alive. Merlin chose life and teleported from the orb. His body petered out, feeling the pull of a tether to a destination he had already marked. Then suddenly, an unknown force pulled on the tether, yanking it out of its intended direction towards somewhere… near.

In an instant Merlin disappeared and reappeared on an uneven floor, looking around, he could see the trap hanging above him. He thought the trap was in some facility inside the city, but as it turned out, it was in a cave, and now that his eyes had adjusted, he could clearly see the stalactites of the whole cavern.

“What the heck!?”

A crusty and hissing sound brought his attention towards the trap. It wasn't an exploding trap afterall. Instead, the walls of the orbs began turning into acidic gas as he saw it envelop the girl and corrode her flesh slowly but surely. Merlin felt a pang of regret, yet nevertheless decided the choice was worthwhile and necessary.

“H-help…” squealed the little girl.

Merlin felt bile rising from his stomach. A tingle in his head told him… something. But he brushed it off. He clenched his fists and vindicated his action. I have done the right thing, he told himself. He gritted his teeth and stood up. He began pulling mana from his soul… from his pool. Nothing.

Digging deep with his spiritual senses, he noticed that his meridians had been severed—the only pathway that the mana in his soul could go through to reach his body, and from there the physical world. Regrowing his meridians would possibly take him at least two years, but he didn't know if he had that amount of time. Merlin was within enemy territory; escaping without magic was impossible, even for him.

“I'll say it again,” a voice within the darkness pronounced. “You are utterly hopeless. Dumb beyond any hope of improvement.” The voice cackled, with intermittent bursts of grating sounds—like a snoring man—surfacing from his laughter.

A silhouette of a man appeared from the darkness; then the dim light from the trap, which had finally stopped killing the little girl, who was now skeletons, shone light to it, revealing a man he knew all too well.

“Io!”

“Indeed, I am,” Io said, smiling shrewdly. “The most convenient spell in the history of mankind, and also the greatest weakness of the greatest mage to ever live.”

“What do you mean!?”

“Teleportation my good friend sets lose the protection a soul has from tampering—i.e. the human body. When a man teleports, if he is standing on a dedicated spell circuit, it is possible to tamper with his soul, such as, and the easiest, most cost-effective, thing to do, severing his meridians.”

Merlin’s eyes widened in shock. “Tampering with souls is a forbidden art!”

“Forbidden for sticklers like you, probably, but what's stopping me from doing it? The government? The world? You? Right now, I'm the strongest mage alive and I'm planning to make it permanent. But first, my prize!”

Io pulled the Seraphim from Merlin's neck and examined its glowing and peaceful core.

“It was too easy to predict your decisions boy. Hubris to fall into a trap. And self-importance to take the easiest, least risky path.”

Merlin opened his mouth to say something but a pressure wrapped around his body, forcing him to kneel down. A metallic spike then appeared in the air and struck Merlin through his chest. Blood spurted from his mouth and he fell to the floor, dead.

“Finally, the greatest threat to world domination has been eliminated.”

Io lifted up the Seraphim and looked at it once again, wallowing in his bonus prize. But wait… the core was no longer beaming! A dud perhaps? Io laughed.

“Died a failure, eh?” He threw the Seraphim on the floor and walked away. “Nevermind that. After I take over everything, I'll have all the toys in the world.”