Sylvester knew not the meaning of these gibberish sounding words that were forcefully implanted in his head, and yet a vivid image of its transfiguration was created in his mind.
After invoking the alien chant, Sylvester was then suspended in mid-air forcefully taken out of his hat while being surrounded by a barrier of energy with a black hue. The sky completely blackened as if the sun just disappeared and yet the entire town was illuminated and clear.
Accompanied by the sound similar to a shard of glass being rubbed along the strings of a violin, four cracks then started to form around the empty space surrounding Sylvester and the monster as pure black hands made from a grainy and almost cloudlike material wriggled out of the small gaps. Soon these hands forced the cracks to grow wider, becoming large tears in space itself letting out more of the frightening dark appendages.
Soon a violent tug of war of almost uncountable hands ensued as the monster now tried to cling on for dear life as Sylvester’s spell threatened to tear it apart.
“What the actual fuck is going on?” Artian asked as he watched in fearful awe. He knew he wasn’t hearing things, he heard Sylvester say 8 lines before invoking the name of the spell, all of which were words and accents completely foreign to him. He knew an 8 line spell would be incredibly powerful, but this was far beyond what he had imagined.
At the same time, he knew deep in his heart that this was just no ordinary spell.
"What is happening?" Estelle asked in fearful awe, while Rossa was rendered speechless by the spectacle unfolding before her.
Even though this is the first time they have encountered it face to face, Rossa, Estelle, Artian, knew deep within their heart that Sylvester was using a dark spell. This entire phenomenon was caused by dark magic.
As the tares in space continued to widen something else could be seen peeking from deep with the black void, slowly moving closer and closer revealing themselves as large eyeballs, one on each tear, with constricted pupils.
These eyeballs were erratic at first, jolting and glancing all over the place as if it was trying to ascertain where they were until they suddenly stopped and stared at the grotesque tree monster made from hands and feet.
The monster, as if sensing the gaze of whatever lurks from within, let out a loud and fearful wail as it intensified its struggle and yet it seemed that its efforts were all in vain. The mysterious black hands began to overpower the monster pulling it closer towards the tears inch by inch, threatening to rip the monster apart.
Sylvester continued to remain suspended in mid air as he stared at the limp upper body in front of him when all of a sudden a large vertical slit appeared in the middle of the creature. This new tear was now slowly opened by a new set of black hands all working together to open it further.
This was the point where the monster was completely doomed. As it was torn apart limb for limb and then split open from within. The black hands greedily dragged back the masses of flesh it was torn apart from the monster, resembling a frenzied eat all you can buffet where people just take the food off the table in a very erratic fashion.
The new set of black hands then expanded the gap they created by pushing it outwards and around the monster, trying to completely envelop it.
Another large eyeball then appeared from the new tear directly in front of Sylvester, but this time it wasn’t as erratic as the other four. It simply directly stared back at Sylvester causing all the other eyes to do the same.
Sylvester then soon found himself being stared at by 5 large eyeballs that came from a black void. But in a stubborn attempt at maintaining his showmanship, he simply gave a slight smile towards his audience as he weakly tried to move his limp and bleeding arm, grabbing his top hat and raising it upwards by a centimeters.
The eyeballs seemed satisfied as they retreated back into the darkness and with their movement, a strong suction occurred but it only affected the remaining bits of the monster Sylvester was once facing.
Soon the tears closed themselves as if nothing happened and the once completely black sky returned to its previous stormy mood. The black energy that surrounded Sylvester also started to fade causing him to quickly plummet into the ground.
“Oh shit, I forgot to account for this!” Sylvester thought to himself as the ground grew closer and closer. He then tried to gather mana to at least change his trajectory via gravity shift but it was to no avail as he was now beyond the point of exhaustion, even losing his grip on the staff given to him by the headmaster.
Feeling too tired, he instead closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
However, the sensation of the cold hard ground never came to him and in its place was, he felt the embrace of 3 pairs of hands, followed by three bodies who all caught his fall. In that short period of distress, it would seem that he had forgotten that he wasn't alone.
“Sylvester!” a male voice screamed his name, prompting him to slowly open his eyes and sure enough, he saw the familiar faces of his three friends.
He saw that his friends were shaken up by experience as one might expect. Artian was keeping it cool but his weary eyes gave away his distress and although Estelle’s goggles hid her eyes, the trembling sensation of her hands revealed her tense emotional state.
But among all of them, Rossa seemed the most affected. Her eyes were now watery red, her face flushed too while her hands trembled uncontrollably. She looked pitiful and scared, and yet these emotions didn’t seem to be directed at her own well being.
After seeing their sad state, Sylvester could not help but feel a little guilty. So in an attempt to appease their weary souls, he flashed them a wide smile.
“So, what did you guys think? A fitting finale if I say so myself.” He said in a cheerful voice, causing Rossa to wipe her eyes clean and calm her when all of a sudden she felt someone drag her close.
“We’re alive! We’re alive!” Estelle yelled as she hugged everyone within her reach, crying and bawling her eyes out. Sylvester thought that her goggles must have been flooded by now.
A flood of relief surged through all of them until Sylvester noticed a warm liquid on his face that smelled like metal.
Now he had to pay his dues.
Mustering all his will power he used mana fortification to push all three of his friends away much to their surprise. But before they could even react, Sylvester let out a pained plea.
“Stay away from me!” He yelled as black energies began seeping out his body and quickly engulfed his figure. Soon this dark hue expanded outward as Sylvester let out a twisted scream of pain.
An excruciating pain then spread all over his body, like his very muscles and internal organs were being pulled apart by unseen hands. He rolled on the floor, wriggling like a worm, as his left hand clasped his face as blood continued to drip from his forehead as a vertical wound that split his face right in the middle was clear for all to see.
“No! Sylvester!” Rossa screamed as she ran forward towards the violent black haze of dark energies. She could not believe that even now, even when the enemy was defeated her newfound friend's life was still in grave danger.
Her thoughts then lingered to the past, to the time when the headmaster explained the mechanics of the knowledge sign. She recalled that he said something important in a passing sentence, something that explained what she was seeing right now.
“It can’t be. Is this the price of dark magic?” Rossa thought as she heard Sylvester suddenly scream out.
“Stop, Rossa! Stay back!” He commanded as he continued to scream and bleed on the floor. Rossa however did not listen and continued to move closer until a female voice grabbed her attention.
“Rossa!’ Estelle yelled as she threw an item towards Rossa’s location. It was the magic staff given to Sylvester by Leonardo and she immediately remembered that he explicitly said that the staff would be of great assistance to him.
Without any hesitation, Rossa caught the staff and stabbed the dark energy field surrounding Syvlester with the end that nested the magic stone.
The staff then quickly lit up with a bright and almost blinding light as it forcibly freed itself from Rossa grasp and flew quickly towards Sylvester’s body. The dark aura was then swiftly sucked in by the staff as the bright light began to fade.
Soon the dark energies were completely absorbed, leaving the once pristine and clear magic stone to be stained completely black. However, this was of no concern to Sylvester’s friends as they rushed towards their friend.
Sylvester then tried to stand up, planning to bow to his friends but, unfortunately, he did not have the energy even though he was so eager to see his friends now that the ordeal was finally over. He touched his face and realized that the wound was completely gone, but his face was still stained red.
“Oh god, I’m probably a mess right now.” He complained to himself.
Giving up on trying to maintain his whimsical magician appearance, Sylvester decided to just sit down on the floor and smile at his weary friends who were rushing to his side.
“Magician's are supposed to make people smile.” He thought to himself as he stared at the worried faces of this friends yet again. “Ah dammit I still have a lot to go it seems.”
"Well, at least now it's over."
But, just like before, it wasn’t over.
As he looked on towards his friends with the landscape was then suddenly devoid of color except varying degrees and shades of grey. His friends were all suddenly stuck in place, stuck in their awkward in motion position like a candid photo that was taken as a joke while their bodies themselves lost all color and looked like they were made from TV static.
Sylvester’s heart skipped a beat as he tried not to panic when suddenly he heard clapping from a distance, followed by a voice that could only be described as a thousand person choir all speaking in unison.
“Bravo! Bravo!” The voice said
“Simply stupendous!” It continued as a figure started to make its way towards him. Sylvester’s heart almost stopped when he realized what exactly it was he was looking at. For he didn’t pay attention to the clothes or height or anything else.
He only saw a mask with a face down crescent the top and two slits at the bottom. A mask with an upside down smile.
Instantly he knew what it was. It was the man from his dreams, the man from that one incident during his past. And now, it was there walking over so brazenly towards him, stopping a meter away from Sylvester.
“What a terrific performance! Just as I had hoped.” The figure said in a happy and praising tone while Sylvester sat there frozen and in full alert.