It was a stupid attempt! Garros knew that before he ever started trying to hide it. The military were the ones who had funded the research and that meant that they already knew of it. Still.

Garros looked around again, trying to find anything that he could light a fire with! If he could just get a fire started, he could burn all records of this bastard of a research project. It was the dead of night and he was here in his colleague’s research lab trying to burn it down. It would have been so much easier if he had fire magic instead of light magic!

Garros wasn’t jealous of the research, he was terrified by it. His former apprentice had come to him for help and instead he had been berated. Garros could still remember the look of pain on the boy’s face when Garros called him a monster for committing such vile research. It couldn’t be helped, it was true and the research was worse than Garros had read.

The military wanted weapons to use against the Cernians. They wanted sabatours and infiltrators who could wreak havoc inside the enemy’s home territory. This was a line of research that should never have been attempted, but a young magic researcher looking for a name would be easily persuaded to try this sort of thing.

As a follower of the god of knowledge, he was supposed to be neutral and open to any knowledge. That was easier said than done Garros found out. The research in question was over a spell that would corrupt the caster’s soul and invite demons into them. The caster would gain a sudden burst of power and ability. The cost though, well, the caster would go insane and go on a rampage. They would kill anyone they came across in the most brutal way possible!

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The little bastard had been casting it on unsuspecting victims in the city. He was the one responsible for the recent deaths. And then he wanted Garros to collude with him to finalize this abominable spell. His idea was to have suicide mages infiltrate enemy cities and cast the inflicted spell as often as possible before being caught, then cast it on themselves. The military loved it and couldn’t wait to claim it.

Speaking of the military, that’s them outside the building. Just when Garros finally got a fire started in here the military had to show up! Damn it, how would he get out of here now? He hoped maybe if he went to the top of the building he could jump across.

When he got up the stairs, the top of the building was already burning in a lot of places. He looked at the side that wasn’t burning and when he got close, an arrow spell just missed his head. If he was to survive, he would have to run across the roof and jump from the opposite side.

As he was running across the roof it suddenly shuddered and the whole section he was on plunged into the flaming torrent waiting below. After the sudden shock of a bone breaking landing, Garros realized that he wasn’t dead but he was dying. He had a spear of timber through him and smoke and flame were everywhere. He decided now would be a good time to pray. What he felt made him cold despite the flames all around him. He couldn’t feel any connection to the god of knowledge…