“Don’t think about it too much.”
Aiden turned away from the crowd to give Zen his attention. “Don’t think about what too much?”
“The jester,” Zen said, inclining his head towards the center of the ball where a man in a clown costume flipped and vaulted and performed tricks amidst rhymed jokes. “He’s designed to be off putting, yet entertaining.”
Aiden would’ve asked what would lead a man to become a jester in the king’s court, but he didn’t. In fact, that sounded like a question he would’ve asked eight years ago. Now, the answer was easy.
It was the class he had gotten and that was it. Most people in Nastild picked the path that suited their classes. [Knights] tried to be knights and [Jesters] tried to be jesters.
Aiden and Zen were at a ball being hosted by the king of Daltan in celebration of the defeat of the Demon King. All the nobles from around the world who could attend had come for the very celebration. It filled the hall with beautiful women as well as aging ones, and handsome young men as well as old ones.
It was an odd thing to see as far as Aiden was concerned. An audience of old and new all clad in the finest clothes and the most dazzling jewelry. His eyes panned towards the direction of four men in a conversation. Two were old men who stood with younger men.
Despite the age gap, the resemblances were there. Fathers and their sons standing in conversation. His guess was that they were introducing one to the other, continuing the possibly amicable relationship between their fiefdoms and kingdoms.
Like looking into the future, he thought before moving his attention along.
Even dwarves and elves were present. There was a Dryad, too. Their presence was as impressive as it was rare. The races rarely if not never interacted with each other.
Until the Demon King.
From how thick the mana in the air was Aiden could guess at least eighty percent of the jewelries currently in the room were enchanted in one way or the other.
This wasn't something everybody could tell. At least not people below level 200.
Auras were a different form of magic, and anyone could sense auras. But the actual mana in the air wasn’t something just anyone could sense, at least not the one from enchanted items that were yet to be activated. No. Understanding the strength of a dormant enchanted item without touching it was something only [Enchanters] could do.
“Still sure you want to do this?” Zen asked, drawing Aiden's attention.
Aiden found Zen's leg bouncing. It was only the left leg. It was a nervous tick, one Aiden had told Zen countless times that he had to learn to control.
“Forging invites wasn’t the easiest thing,” Zen continued, his attention everywhere but on Aiden. “I know you got it because you’re an [Enchanter], but we could’ve easily been caught. And are you sure the illusory enchantment will work that long? If anything goes wrong everyone will see your face. You're still kinda wanted.”
“I'm sure of what I'm about to do,” Aiden told him. “Haven’t been surer of anything in my entire life." Then he tapped the earring dangling from his ear. "And yes, the illusory enchantment still works."
The part about him being sure was a lie. Aiden wasn’t sure at all. In fact, every aspect of his being and his knowledge from the last five years of being in the Order told him to turn and storm out of the palace. Right now he was breaking one major law of the kingdom of Daltan, and was about to do something that would brand him an enemy of the entire world.
But he had to do it. He couldn’t not.
“Alright,” Zen said, his voice dropping into a lower whisper than the one they were already using.
Aiden had a solitude orb in his pocket, designed to keep the sound of activities happening within it from leaking out, but he knew it was considered discourteous to use one in the palace. What the instrument did was create a bubble around the user that kept all sound within.
In a palace ball with at least three kings present, that was all the suspicion a person needed to draw attention to themselves. After all, what could be so secretive that you needed to say it in a solitude bubble during a ball with kings present?
And if they drew attention to themselves, then there would be questions. Questions were never a good thing in Aiden’s line of work.
“Remember the plan?” he muttered, checking his belt and confirming his enchanted dagger was still there.
It was a force of habit, not like it was likely to fall off. Enchanted items didn’t just fall off their owners.
Zen nodded to Aiden's question. “I play the distraction while you sneak off and find the Demon King.”
“Good.”
They both fell silent as a server walked past them. He wore a simple white shirt with a velvet vest and carried a tray with glass cups balanced on it.
Aiden snagged one as the waiter passed and downed it in one go. “Have I told you how much I enjoy your world’s wine, Z?”
Zen rolled his eyes. “Countless times. Also, are you sure you should be drinking right about now?”
“Calms the nerves.” Aiden dropped the empty cup on the table next to him. “I’m about to be the second most wanted man in the human kingdoms. Again. Maybe even the world. I think a drink or two wouldn’t be so bad.”
“Second?” Zen asked. “I take it I’ll be the first since I’m going to be causing the distraction that leads to the escape of the Demon King, right?”
Aiden couldn’t help the smile that crossed his lips. Despite that fear, Zen was still here. The members of his team that were present were still here.
“Well," he said with an exaggerated nonchalance. "I was thinking more along the lines of the Demon King being the first. You can be the third.”
“I still don’t get why the gods led us to meet,” Zen snorted. “I also don’t get why the Hero was asked not to kill the Demon King. You’d think everyone would want him dead.”
Aiden frowned at his friend’s words.
Zen noticed it and grimaced.
“Sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
Aiden knew Zen meant it exactly how he’d said it. Chances were that apart from whatever demons were still left alive, summoned from their demonic world by the Demon King, he was probably the only person alive that was happy the Demon King wasn’t dead. Him and maybe whoever had truly passed the instruction that the Demon King not be killed.
Zen didn’t know why Aiden cared about the Demon King and he didn’t need to. All he needed to know was that he cared.
“Apology accepted,” he told Zen, standing up from his chair. “And the gods aren’t real, Zen. How many times do I have to tell you that? They are like the gods back in my world. You hear of them from their priests but you don’t see them.”
“Odd." Zen scratched the back of his head. "I remember hearing that you belonged to a religion that believed in only one god back in your world.”
“I did.” Aiden stretched like someone tired, hands over head, eyes scanning the ball. His long coat hid the weapons he kept on his person. “Coming to this world changed that. Also, whatever distraction you choose, stay away from the jester.”
Zen cocked a brow. “The jester? Why?”
“He gives me a bad vibe.”
At the center of the ballroom, to everyone’s entertainment, the jester was busy balancing three glass cups on top of each other at the tip of a longsword balanced on his nose. He was spindly and looked healthily malnourished. It was one of the greatest oxymoron Aiden had ever seen.
Aiden couldn’t sense a spot of enchantment on the fragile looking man and the man wasn’t using any active skills that he could sense, which told him the entire feat of balance was entirely of the man's own achievement.
“Jesters give everyone a bad vibe, Aiden. It’s how their class works. They are entertaining but somehow odd. I’ll be more worried about the Sage.”
Aiden was in agreement. Everyone did their best to stay away from the Sage of King Brandis of Bandiv. No one had seen him in a battle, but he had a history. It was also funny to know that a lot of people didn’t even know that he was a Sage. Rumors had it that magic was useless in his presence. Aiden had never fought him or seen him fight, so he couldn’t confirm the rumors. But if even the Order was wary of the man, then there had to be some truth to his strength.
“You do not want to face him,” Zen added.
“True,” Aiden agreed. “But I’d still stay away from the Jester if I were you. And I’ll avoid the Sage to the best of my ability. Anyway,” he tugged on his gloves, “hopefully, I’ll see you on the other side in a day or two.”
“Is there a reason I can’t come?” Zen asked, stopping Aiden’s departure. “You won’t even let me know the layout of the palace.”
“Because you don’t need to know the layout. And you can’t come so that if anyone gets a glimpse of me, you can at least go back to the Order without any serious punishment.”
Zen sighed. “It feels like the time chamber missions all over again.”
Aiden remembered the time chambers. It was one of the Order’s training methods for promising recruits. During the training, a recruit or a group of them would be given a task to accomplish within the chamber. Then a recruit would be marked and the time chamber set. The time period was never over two hours.
Failure of the mission would reset the time until the recruits learned to accomplish the mission. That level of time magic was supposed to be a taboo, but the Order answered to no one and worked in secrecy. Aiden never understood just how time reset in a confined space worked.
In fact, he didn’t understand how time reset worked at all.
“Not like the time chamber,” Aiden corrected Zen. “If I fail this one, there’s no do over.”
With that, Aiden walked away.
He’d barely taken ten steps when the commotion began. From the chaotic sound he could hear behind him, Zen had all but run himself into someone. There were one or two complaints about him being an oaf and Aiden could swear he heard a noble demand to know who had invited Zen.
Aiden allowed none of it to distract him. He had a mission and intended to see it to the end.
………
The stairs to the dungeons of the king of Daltan were as clean as Aiden remembered them the last time he was here. He had only seen them once before, and not in any good condition. But life on Nastild had sharpened his mind in the time he'd been here.
He was no longer the simple and weak young man who'd been summoned here eleven years ago.
How time flies, he thought as he strolled casually down the winding stairs.
The staircase was lit by orbs that housed tongues of fire that shined brightly. Each one, equidistant from the other, hanging from the walls, was bright enough that he didn’t even have to look down so that he wouldn’t miss his step.
Eleven years in a different world, and some magical things still amazed him. Not the globes, though. As an [Enchanter], it was his business to know how any and everything enchantment related worked. The globes of fire existed through a means of triple enchantment. One for [Flame Immortal] which kept the fire always alive until someone snuffed it out. Another for [Illuminate] which kept the flame at just the right brightness.
The last allowed whoever was in charge of them to put them out without having to come close. Aiden couldn't remember the name of the enchantment right now.
Personally, Aiden always thought there could be more efficient ways to set up the orbs. But his specialty wasn’t in domestic level enchantments so he never took the time to figure it out.
He came to the last steps as it led down a short path and on to a turn. He pressed his back against the wall at the end of it. If he remembered correctly, just beyond this point there would be more guards.
He fished inside his coat pockets and brought out two small orbs. They fit in the palm of his right hand. Translucent, they each had an enchantment inscribed on them. Notifications popped up above each one with indicators.
[Orb of Silence.]
[Orb of Greater Solitude.]
They weren’t the most powerful orbs, but they were what he needed for what he was about to do. With his free hand, he fished into his pants pocket and produced another orb.
[Orb of Greater Detection.]
This one worked on a level of the [Detection] skill of most [Trackers].
Aiden tapped the [Orb of Greater Detection] with a thoughtful finger as he prepared himself. He activated it then rolled it around the corner. He listened to it roll along stone floor then clang against metal. The sound was followed by a sudden gasp before it burst into life.
Even through the walls, Aiden could see the indicators telling him who was who and where. Guards filled the entire tunnel armed to the teeth.
[Knight Level 192]
[Spearman Level 129]
[Slasher Level 176]
The classes and levels went on and on as the numbers increased.
Those are a lot of people in the level hundreds, he thought, checking to be sure he still had his teleportation orbs. They were for combat purposes, allowing him dart across short distances in a fight. He slipped them back into the pockets of his jacket and stepped out of the corner.
Sixteen men stood in front of him, spanning the entire length of the hallway.
“Who the hell are you?!” one of them demanded, voice loud.
Aiden wasn’t sure if the man’s voice was loud for the sake of intimidation or if he was trying to draw attention to them. And, honestly, he couldn’t bring himself to care.
He held up the [Orb of Greater Solitude] and channeled mana into it.
Enchantments worked differently, depending on who was using it. A simple user channeled mana into an enchantment and got what the enchantment was set to offer. An Enchanter, however, used it differently.
Aiden channeled his mana, filling every line and curve of the enchantment fixed into the item. This way, he would get every single thing the enchantment had to offer. He would push it to its limit. The disadvantage of this method made the enchantment a one-time use. As for the advantage of his [Enchanter] class…
Well, I get to customize the effect.
You have activated class skill [Enchantment modification]
He dropped the orb and it activated as it hit the ground.
You have activated [Enchantment of Greater Solitude].
Effect: Activities performed within the reach of enchantment do not affect the outside world.
Duration: 00:12:00.
Radius: 1km.
Enchantments with AoE effects usually spread out in a perfect dome, but with [Enchantment modification] Aiden could tweak the effects.
And he did.
He limited it. Rather than have a dome, he bent the diameter, squeezed it down, so that it was shorter but wider, covering a larger horizontal space at the expense of vertical space, until it spanned the entire underground cell.
Now, anything that happened within the underground cells would have no impact to any other part of the palace. It would take a really powerful skill from someone in the level 300s to change that.
He looked at the confused but ready knights in front of him and he took a deep breath. Maybe I should’ve brought Zen with me.
Aiden dashed forward, attacked the man closest to him and thrust the dagger at his neck.
The knight ducked to the side but Aiden’s momentum carried him forward with the thrust as intended and he slammed his knee into the man’s helmet. The knight went crashing down, but Aiden wasn’t done.
The knight title, different from the class, gave a certain level of combat proficiency, but at Aiden’s level these knights were not an issue for him.
Aiden turned and kicked the downed knight’s helmeted head with enough force to dent the helmet and render the knight motionless.
“You fool!” A different knight bellowed. Above his head was the class [Spearman] and he held a spear. “Do you know what you’ve done? Do you know where you are?!”
The entire group of knights converged on Aiden as the man spoke. The knight didn’t waste time with any more unnecessary questions and darted at Aiden almost immediately.
Aiden had the option of avoiding the spear thrust at him but chose not to. Instead, he parried the spear that came at him with his dagger. The impact jarred his arm, but he had enough resistance to pain to ignore it. Coupled with his Agility stats, balance was not an issue.
The point of the spear was turned aside by the parry and Aiden stepped into the knight’s reach. With his empty gloved hand, he grabbed the knight by the head and squeezed.
The action was abrupt and instantaneous. The helmet bent in Aiden’s hold. The knight let out a very short and immediate scream before falling silent.
With no resistance from the man, Aiden released his head and let him fall to the ground.
The remaining knights gathered stood where they were, unmoving. For a moment, Aiden wondered why. Then it dawned on him.
They’re already afraid?
It was almost laughable. When he’d come to Nastild, knights were worthy of fear and respect. They were powerful enough to send tremors through the spines of their enemies. He’d never learnt the requirements to become a knight in the kingdom of Bandiv but he knew they were demanding. He'd assumed the same was the case for the knights of every other kingdom.
In his time in the Order, his missions had led him to fight a knight or two from different kingdoms. He knew their strength, even those not yet at level hundred.
But this?
This was pathetic.
Then again, the kingdoms had lost a lot of knights to the Demon King war and most of them had been scrambling to refill their ranks, knighting the children of nobles, reducing the requirements to become a knight. And the children of nobles tended to be spoiled and lacking in true experience. Some Nobles had the habit of raising the levels of their children in the safest ways possible. They sent them to train and hunt under the guide of powerful protectors.
They didn’t know true hardship.
The children of nobles would’ve seen the possibility of death once or twice if they slipped up significantly during these training periods, but they wouldn’t have seen the certainty of it. The outcomes were powerful bodies and classes.
But weaker minds.
The men around him had just seen two strong knights get defeated very quickly. In fact, they most likely thought each of them was dead.
Aiden could inform them that their friends were still very much alive, but he chose not to. Death was a greater thing to fear than a mysterious man who’d shown up out of nowhere and defeated two of their strongest.
Aiden dashed forward.
The knight he charged at jerked instinctively. He swung his sword in an upward arc, whether it was intended to kill Aiden or simply keep him away was anyone’s guess. Aiden, however, couldn’t be bothered to care.
He deflected the sword with his dagger, placing a hand behind the blade to compensate for the difference in weight and, as such, the difference in clashing power. The parry sent the sword going up and to the side, leaving the knight completely open for an attack.
Fear had led the knight to a stupid mistake. Now, Aiden had more than enough time and space to kill him, but did not. Instead, he brushed the man’s legs out from under him with a vicious kick.
He followed the knight down, and once the knight hit the ground, he grabbed the man’s helmeted head in his hand.
“Please don—”
Aiden had no interest in the Knight's words or the fear in them. He squeezed hard enough, felt the metal helmet bend under the force of his grip, and knew when it pressed against the knight’s skull.
Careful now, Aiden, he cautioned himself. You don’t want some Noble kid’s death on your hands just yet.
Experience had taught him the moment there’d been too much force on the knight’s head and he released him almost immediately.
Aiden got back to his feet and checked his surrounding in quick glances. The other knights continued to hover, moving back. No one was willing to die just yet.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It disgusted Aiden to see what the knights of the human kingdoms had been reduced to simply because of some war.
Not some war, he thought, checking his gloves. The war against the demon army.
[Enchanted gloves]
Effect: Enchanted with the strength of giants. Gives plus 200% grip strength to levels below 50 and 20% grip strength to levels above fifty.
Durability (Left): 30%.
Durability (Right): 12%.
Aiden wasn’t sure how much more he could get out of the gloves. But that was something else to be worried about. At some point, one of the men in front of him would realize that help wasn’t coming and would try and leave the underground cells.
Aiden had other members of his team working on that as well, though. Zen was the distraction. Olstead kept watch of the second entrance to the underground cell. His job was to ensure no one got in or out. There was the issue of the Sage, but Tanor’s information was top notch. There had been no actions from King Brandis' Sage recently.
There were other members doing other things but the team wasn’t complete. Aiden had been forced to improvise the plan when Shewa had refused to help.
Her refusal made things difficult for him, but he couldn’t hold it against her. The entire plan was a suicide mission even if it was successful.
“Three men in nineteen seconds,” he muttered to himself, adjusting his shoulders as the knights around him continued to hover in fear and confusion. “Thank God Zen’s not here to see this. I won’t hear the last of it.”
He returned his attention back to the remaining group, still flabbergasted by the sight. At this point their fear was unnatural. Aiden had been ready to end this fight with a lot of injuries. If they rushed him at once, didn't they know they could stand a chance. Why were they...
Wait a minute.
Aiden's interface flashed in front of him at a single thought.
Aura skill [Terrify] is in effect.
Oh.
That made more sense. [Terrify] made any opponent twenty levels or less than his level within a certain radius too terrified to do much, and he tended to forget about it since it was a passive skill. Lesser levels would've turned and fled by now.
Ignoring the unconscious knights on the floor, Aiden held his dagger up and took a combat stance. This would probably not be a long fight.
To the knights in front of him, he had only one word.
“Next.”
…..
There was a loud thud as the guard hit the ground.
Since the knights before, this was the fifth opponent Aiden was facing. None of the rest had had any truly strong class. In fact, they didn’t even have the knight title. Some of them even had the most common and basic combat class. [Soldier].
Most people chose it when they didn’t want domestic classes but weren’t offered the classes they were looking for.
Everybody gets the soldier class, Aiden thought, stepping over the fallen soldier to stand in front of his destination.
In front of him was a stretch of brick colored wall with a thick metal door built into it. Above it was a simple inscription in the common tongue of Nastild and it read: Here Lies the Demon King.
“More like here lies the bane of my existence.”
Aiden squatted in front of the door and placed his hand on the key hole. Whoever had suggested keeping the Demon King alive instead of killing him knew a lot. For instance, the Demon King had a skill that could scale his level and stats to that of the strongest person present if he used it.
By keeping only the lowest levels in the hundreds around him, it stripped him of his ability to suddenly grow stronger.
Did he have a traitor in his ranks? Aiden mused, wondering how whoever had designed the prison knew of it. If he wasn’t mistaken, the skill was supposed to be a secret. Unless he suddenly went around telling people.
Aiden triggered his skill, and got the information he needed on the lock.
You have activated skill [Advanced Appraisal (Mastery 98%)]
Information rushed into his head in an instant. Once upon a time, in his lower level years, he would’ve had to read the information and understand it himself as his interface displayed it for him, but not anymore. A lot of things changed when you scaled the level 200 wall.
“That’s a lot of enchantments they’ve got you behind,” Aiden muttered, wondering if the Demon King could hear him through the door.
There was an enchantment for almost every scenario built into the door. For someone trying to break in, for someone trying to break out, for someone trying to sneak something in, for someone trying to sneak something out.
It was crazy.
It turned out that the Demon King could also hear him through the door, because he got an answer a moment later.
“Weak enchantments,” a hoarse voice said.
The sound was bad, strained. Yet it took Aiden back to eight years ago when he had last seen the Demon King. The day he’d found out who the Demon King actually was.
Aiden paused, allowing old feelings well up inside him. It took him a fraction of a second to shake them.
You’ve got work to do Aiden. Let’s do it and get done.
“I know it’s weak,” he replied as he went to work disabling each enchantment. “It’s just that there’s a lot of them.”
You have activated class skill [Enchantment modifier].
Enchanters could disable enchantments if they knew what they were doing. But with [Enchantment modifier] at his level, there was scarcely an enchanted trap Aiden could not get rid of quickly.
The Demon King snorted. “Not like enchantments have ever been a problem for you. I heard you joined the Order. Broke my heart really.”
Aiden chuckled lightly as the first enchantment broke under the weight of his mana.
“Would you have wanted to run into me on the battlefield?” Aiden asked as the second enchantment broke under his command. “Ooh, they set up an enchantment to block out ambient mana, too. You must’ve really terrified these guys.”
“I’m the Demon King, Aida,” the voice snorted. “They can’t be too careful. And no, I wouldn’t have been happy to meet you on the battle field.”
Aiden hated that name, yet he smiled as he looked up. Squatting, he wasn’t tall enough to look through the square opening at the top of the door.
“You think you would’ve won?” he asked.
“You’re an Enchanter.” The Demon King chuckled easily. “Your class holds the lowest magic rank. Without your items you’re cannon fodder. I’m the Demon King, standing at the epitome of physical and magical prowess with a wide range of summons at my side.”
Aiden broke a fifth enchantment and ran into one that was nothing but an alarm. “Still haven’t answered the question, though. Think you could’ve won?”
There was a thoughtful silence as Aiden deactivated the alarm enchantment. He rummaged through the rest of the door and didn’t find any other enchantment.
“I was advised not to make an enemy of the Order,” the Demon King said after a while. “Seeing as you became one of them not long after I left… No. I can’t confidently say I would’ve won.”
Aiden nodded as he stood up. Then he pushed the door and it opened inward.
Inside, the cell was pitch black. Not even the lights from the hallway he stood in leaked inside.
“One moment,” he said, pulling out a small orb from his coat.
He channeled mana into it and rolled it into the room. There was a two-second delay before it released a soft glow.
At one end of the room was a man with long disheveled white hair where it had once been brown. His wrists were fastened with chains on both sides that kept him on his knees. There were countless markings that ran all over the man’s body, extending even to his arms and covering his torso. Only his face was free of them.
Black eyes watched Aiden and the man wore an annoying grin.
Aiden folded his arms at the door and stared at him.
“Like the trench coat,” the man said. “Gives you the whole Constantine vibe. And I see you’ve grown out your hair as well, can't say I'm a fan.”
Aiden resisted the urge to touch his hair. He kept it held back so that it didn’t fall to his face. And the little squabble he’d engaged in on his way here hadn’t been enough to knock it loose, so the few loose strands didn’t need much of his attention.
Aiden returned the Demon King’s grin with one of his own as he walked into the cell. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look this bad.”
The Demon King scoffed. “Jaws in 2009.”
Aiden laughed, shaking his head. “So true. How could I forget. You wouldn’t enter a pool for months. Ran into that big bully who tried to shove you into the water and you just had to throw hands.”
Aiden moved the door behind him but didn’t close it. He left enough space for his fingers to fit in. The last thing he wanted to do was lock the door and find out there’s a hidden trigger for such an occasion.
“If I remember correctly,” the Demon King said, “you were also a part of that fight.”
“In my defense," Aiden replied. "I couldn’t just watch you get your ass handed to you. And there were no adults around to save you.”
“Still got our asses handed to us, though.”
“Yeah.” Aiden studied one of the chains holding the Demon King up. “It was wild. But not very surprising.”
“True. The kid was like four of us. I have no idea what we were thinking.”
Aiden frowned at what he learned about the chains. Not only was the metal unique, every single link was enchanted. And he didn’t have anything he knew that could brute force its way into breaking it.
“You were thinking that you didn’t want to enter the water even though there weren’t sharks in it,” Aiden said. “And I was thinking that no one got to pound on you but me.”
He looked down at the Demon King and their eyes met. It was time for the bad news. “I don’t think I can get these chains off you in time.”
There was a moment of silence that stretched between them as they both accepted what it meant. Aiden’s rogue mission was a bust. No one would be saved today.
Whoever had designed this prison had known what they were doing.
A slow smile crept into the Demon King’s cracked lips in the silence between them. When he spoke again, his voice was gentle and fond.
“It’s been a while, brother.”
…………….
“You don’t sound worried for someone who’s supposed to be executed tomorrow, Ted,” Aiden told his brother. They still had a few more minutes before their escape became strapped for time. At least half an hour.
“Because I’m not,” Ted said.
Aiden couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You do know that they’re throwing a party upstairs because you lost, right?”
“Can you blame them? I was the Demon King. Scourge of the land. Do you have any idea how many lives I took?”
Aiden knew. The Order’s archives kept extensive records of everything that had been happening during the war. What he didn't know was why. Ted had never been a bad person, not even a misunderstood person.
It was a question Aiden had had on his mind for the longest time, and this was his chance to ask it. So he did.
“Why?”
The chains shook in what Aiden felt was supposed to be his brother shrugging.
“Because I could,” Ted answered. “Because there were things I needed to do and the rest of this stupid world wouldn’t let me do them. Or maybe my title compelled me to it.”
Aiden knew all the talk about people being compelled by their titles to do things. The [Berserker] title led a person to greater tendencies of violence and such. As much as he would’ve liked to say it was all in their heads and that they were simply weak people who couldn’t control themselves, he knew that was not the case.
As an Enchanter with a few enchantment-based titles, he had been drawn to all things enchantment. He wouldn’t have called it a compulsive level of attention, but he had been drawn to it. His luck laid in the fact that it had been creative and he had grown to enjoy it.
He could only wonder how badly the compulsion of the [Demon King] title had driven his brother. Aiden remembered a thing or two about how the [Hero] title had driven the hero’s zeal to bring his brother down.
The both of them had been the only ones of their titles. Exclusive titles, the Order’s archivist called them.
“I take it you don’t know what to do now,” his brother said. “Which means the Order isn’t a part of this mission to save me.”
“How the hell are you so calm?” Aiden’s voice was calm as well, but his was a calm of despaired acceptance.
He’d tried to save his older brother and failed.
“I’m calm because I already have a plan,” Ted said.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve got demons marching on the palace, Teddy.”
Ted chuckled. “No one's called me that in ages. And no. No demons. I’m actually waiting on King Brandis' Sage. He designed this entire thing.”
“Do you have some dastardly plan of scaling to his level and killing him to get out of here?”
“Nope.”
“Good, because I doubt you’ll succeed. Even the Order’s wary of him. And he’s not close by right now.”
Aiden was sitting on the ground beside his brother now, and Ted turned to look at him.
“You guys didn’t give two fucks about me,” he said with mock hurt, “but you were wary of Brandis' Sage? I’m offended.’
“The Demon King offended at being ignored." Aiden shook his head. "That’s laughable. Besides, the Sage is one of five that have existed for who knows how long. Of course he was the bigger threat.”
“True.” Ted nodded, then his tone grew serious. “But they were right to be wary of him. I could argue that whatever he’s done to his class, this battle wouldn’t have gone on for so long if he’d joined the fight.”
That surprised Aiden. “Then why didn’t he join? You’d think he'd want to at least save Bandiv if not Nastild.”
“The same reason you haven’t gotten up and made your escape,” Ted said. “Stupidity?”
Aiden cocked a brow at his brother.
“Alright, that’s not why,” Ted admitted. “Actually, like your Order, I don’t think he was very interested. Not until he found out what I was doing. Then he took interest, interfered, and here I am.”
That didn’t sound right. “I thought the hero defeated you.”
“Drax? That imbecile couldn’t beat me in a fight if there were two of him.” Ted snorted. “Drax has never been one for intelligence. Charisma and strength? Yes. Girls, definitely. But brains? Nah, not to the genius level. He was always more justice than necessity, if you catch my drift. He and the others stormed the castle too early; didn’t even level up enough to face me.”
“He was level 317 when they stormed the castle, though," Aiden pointed out. "I think that’s level enough.”
Ted laughed heartily at that. “Oh, brother mine. I’m level 492.”
Aiden’s was stunned to silence.
He couldn’t believe he’d asked who’d win in a fight between them. He was only Level 268. His brother would’ve whooped his ass and come back for seconds.
“Anyway,” Ted continued. “The damned Sage found out what I was trying to do, and interfered. He said it was against the laws of existence.”
“Not the land?”
“Nope. Actual existence. He said it was one thing the gods wouldn’t stand for. I knew that, but I didn’t know that he knew that.”
“And what wouldn’t these gods that never show themselves to anyone stand for?”
Ted looked at him from the side of his eye. “I know you treat the gods here the same way we treated them back home, but they are very real. This isn’t a faith thing. You need to know that going forward. Anyway, I had a plan and was skirting the path of spatial and dimensional magic to get there.”
Aiden paused. “You were trying to get us home?”
Ted nodded.
“That’s ludicrous, Ted.” Aiden sighed. “The king and priests already said it was impossible. Even the Order said so.”
“It was supposed to be impossible,” Ted corrected. “But I found it.”
“Then why didn’t you use it? Why didn’t you send us back?”
Aiden’s heart was beating fast. Fifteen of them had been teleported to this world eleven years ago, and the only reason they’d done the king’s bidding was because of his promise to send them back… at least it was the reason for some of them.
There had also been the king’s overall military might, but Aiden didn’t like to think of that part of it.
Then, after a year, the king had told them that there had been extensive studies and no way had been found to send them home. The priests had even claimed that the gods had been silent on the matter. Not that the gods ever said anything publicly. Only through their priests.
At that point they had all been lost on what to do. Four of them had already died to monsters of different kinds. But here Ted was, telling Aiden that he’d found a way.
“Why didn’t you send us back, then?” Aiden asked again.
“Because it requires too much human mana, which I’ve been gathering for so long. And I’m almost there,” Ted answered. “And I hadn’t found the exact coordinates to get us back home. For all I knew, it would throw us to some different world out there. I could only find coordinates to a world where they didn’t see the Demon King as some kind of calamity.”
“Then we could’ve gone there, worked on a way to get us home without you being hunted.”
Ted nodded, but there was something hidden there.
Aiden knew his brother well enough to see it.
“There was another issue, wasn’t there?” he asked.
Ted stopped nodding. He pressed his lips in a thin line.
“Yea,” he said finally. “I could only figure out a way to send only one person.”
Aiden didn’t know what to say to that. So he looked around the cell walls as another thought occurred to him.
“Why’s no one down here yet?” he asked. "And my team hasn't said anything about people coming this way."
The question did nothing to faze Ted.
“I see you got yourself a telepath for telepathic communication. That's awesome. But no one’s down here yet because I haven’t escaped,” he said. “They generally just leave me alone. The guards are only here to bring me food so I don’t starve. And seeing as I’ve had dinner, there’ll be no one until it’s morning. Anyway, back to our conversation. When I found the problem, I reverse engineered the spell.”
“You reverse engineered a spell,” Aiden said, flabbergasted. “You, Ted, hater of hard work. I can understand you researching a spell to creation, but reverse engineering a spell? You’ve got to be close to god level for that one.”
Ted laughed. “I swear that’s the exact same thing Voss would’ve said. Swell guy. You would’ve liked him.”
Aiden knew that name and he scoured his mind for where he had heard it before finding it.
When he found it, he frowned. “Voss? Your third rank general? Voss, destroyer of Vass and scourge of the outworld? That Voss?”
“I can’t believe that name really stuck. Voss, destroyer of Vass.” Ted laughed. “But yes. You would’ve liked him. You and him have a lot in common.”
“You say a lot in common, I hear you stress him a lot.”
Ted laughed again.
When his laughter died, they both sat in silence once more.
Aiden’s mind continued to work, trying to find a way out. It went through his entire knowledge of enchantments and which of them could help. Enchantments were not like spells so there was only so much they could do. As much as he thought on it, what he needed to escape at this point were spells.
His growth as an Enchanter had been in his versatility and diverse use of enchantments. However, enchantments paled significantly in the presence of spells. If enchantments were paintings, spells were paintings and 3D prints. You could do more with spells than you could ever dream to do with enchantments.
“I’ve got nothing,” he blurted out.
“Not surprised there,” Ted replied.
Aiden let his head fall and he stared at the floor. “I’m serious, Ted. I’ve thought of everything, and I’ve got nothing. Spells are the only things that can help us now. But Enchanters can’t use spells even if we know them. The one time it matters and I can’t—”
“You really should go now.”
Aiden’s head jerked up at his brother’s voice. It was serious. And dark. Ominous.
‘What’s wrong, Ted?”
“Brandis' Sage is on his way.”
“That’s impossible.” Aiden looked around, suddenly panicked. There was nothing to use in a fight, not that he expected to find one. “Shit.”
He reached into his coat and started bringing things out, orbs, throwing knives, daggers, a rope.
Aiden paused when he noticed Ted staring at him with a strange look.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s like you’ve got everything in there,” Ted said. “Got any roast beef?”
“Not really the time for jokes, brother.” Aiden went back to looking through what he had. “If everything they say about Brandis' Sage—about Sages in general—is true, then we are going to need everything we have to survive.”
“No.” Ted’s voice was abrupt. “Everything we have won’t work. No one knows what the Sage is truly capable of because no one has survived a fight with him. So I’ll tell you two important things you must remember for when he shows up.”
“I thought you wanted me gone?”
“Too late for that. He’s already aware of your presence. And you’re already within his reach.” Ted was rushing his words, speaking in a hurry. “Now, the two things you have to remember in case this doesn’t work is that the Hero isn’t the most important title in this world. Not by a long shot. The important titles are the Demon King and the Sage.”
Wait, isn’t Sage a class? Aiden thought. Then another thing Ted said caught his attention.
“In case what doesn’t work?”
“Listen to me, Aiden!” Ted said harshly. “The Demon King and the Sage are the two most important titles because they are titles outside the calculations of the gods. The Hero is a title designed by the gods and all the Sages to stop the Demon King. You need to know this in case you survive. I can’t take you out of this world but I can get you out of here.”
Aiden frowned. “Teleportation magic? That only works short distance. And the palace is too large for that. Without a gate you won’t be able to do anything long distance.”
“I’m over level 400, brother. You have no idea what I can do." Ted's expression was serious. "When you’re out, tell the Order. Tell your leader that the Demon King found the way, he’ll understand. Tell him to look to the frost mountain. The giants have the key.”
“What the fuck are you being cryptic about?”
Despite his complains, Aiden was listening aptly. He knew the frost mountains and knew of the giants.
“Aiden, it’s time to go!”
The panic in Ted’s voice was all the information he needed to panic more. Aiden didn’t have to look at his brother to know what was happening. He didn’t feel any aura or sense any magic. But he knew.
Brandis' Sage was here.
He snatched his enchanted dagger and stood up, taking a combat stance. It was too late to run.
I would’ve felt safer if Spell Binder was here, he thought through his haze of panic.
The sword was the accumulation of all his enchanting achievements. It wasn’t the greatest weapon out there, but it was his greatest weapon out there, found at the heart of a Dragon’s hoard.
At the door to the cell stood an old man, his beard was white and he let it fall to his chest, knotted into a single braid. He had long white hair he allowed to fall freely and held an old wooden staff in his hand. The staff possessed no adornment, and despite its twisting design that reminded Aiden of vines, it could easily pass for a walking staff.
Beside Aiden, his brother’s mouth was already moving, chanting silently. It was either that or his brother was praying. And Aiden refused to believe that it was the latter. They had seen too much on Nastild to still hold any faith.
At least he thought so.
Aiden inched his way between the Sage and Ted, hiding whatever his brother was doing.
If his action bothered the Sage, the old man did not show it. Instead, he spoke.
“Hello, Aiden Lacheart.” He tilted his head ever so slightly. “Or should I call you Aiden the Enchanted of the Order.”
Well, there went his chances of keeping the Order out of knowing what he had done. If that was the case, there was no point in thinking about them.
“Is there any chance you could let us go?” Aiden asked.
There was no magic in the air, and the Sage didn’t seem like he was about to engage in a fight. It worried Aiden to be so easily dismissed as harmless.
“Normally I would,” the Sage said. “You might not know this, but I have great respect for the head of your Order. Personally, when I found out who the Demon King was, I wanted to advise the king Brandis to go get you personally, instead of all the wanted posters after a few years. Then I heard you’d joined the Order, so I advised the king to leave you be.”
“Then in your respect for my superior, you’re willing to overlook this, right?” Aiden tried, not expecting any positive response.
The Sage smiled, as if at a young, funny child. “I fear you must stay, Aiden Lacheart. You see, your brother has something I want, and I have proven unable to motivate him to hand it over. Perhaps you will prove a better motivation than—”
The Sage froze. A scowl twisted his entire face.
“What the hell are you doing?!” he hissed. “Ten days and you stay silent only to use it now!? I will have none of it!”
Aiden felt the mana shift behind him. There was none in the air, and the source was fixed behind him.
In fear, he made the mistake of turning back. “Teddy?”
He found his brother enveloped in blue light. It was thick and powerful, almost a physical force that threatened to push against him. All of it pooled from the markings on Ted’s body and it took Aiden a moment to realize what the markings were.
Ted had grafted actual spells and enchantments onto his body. It was nothing short of madness. The effects were similar to enchanting items, the spells would burn what they’d been grafted into for fuel until it was empty. Once activated, they wouldn’t stop. That’s why no one grafted spells onto anything.
Enchantment grafts were a touchy subject that could be done right if you were powerful enough, but not spells. No one grafted spells because it was suicide.
Another source of mana erupted behind Aiden now. This one was strong, uncontested.
Ted and the King’s Sage were about to do something that demanded their entire attention, and Aiden realized that he was now nothing more than an ant in between elephants.
Ted met Aiden’s eyes as the Sage started his own chant, fast and almost incoherent. Unlike Ted’s silent casting, the Sage had no need for secrecy.
“Frost mountain. Giants,” Ted said quickly, solemnly, voice ominous. “Remember.”
Aiden would’ve remembered if he hadn’t picked out a few words from the Sage’s chant.
What the hell? He thought. That can’t be!
From what he’d picked out, the Sage was using words the Order used in activation of time chambers. It made no sense. The Order was meant to be the only group capable of using such magic. The head of the Order had assured them of it.
So how was the Sage using it?
What exactly was he even trying to do? Time chambers reset time in an environment by a fixed amount. He’d never seen anyone do more than two hours.
Aiden didn’t get the chance to figure out the answer as the blue light that wrapped itself around Ted abandoned his brother to wrap itself around him.
“Go!” Ted screamed. “Find the giants!”
Unfortunately, the Sage had other plans. He raised his hand in their direction. “Stay!”
The world trembled around Aiden, crushing on him from all sides. He felt like he was in the presence of too much mana. It was like a real thing, trying to unmake him.
“I thought time magic was a taboo, Sage?” Ted asked with a strain in his voice.
“I’m sure the powers that be would understand with a little explanation.” The Sage didn’t sound bothered. “But I can keep your brother long enough for help to arrive.”
Aiden was slowly losing his ability to breathe. Suffocation was consuming him.
“I guess I’ve got no other choice then,” Ted replied. “It was nice knowing you, Sage.”
The crushing sensation fled Aiden immediately. In its place was a sense of being ripped apart. Unlike the previous sensation that had drawn only groans out of him, this one made him scream.
He roared in pain with no idea of what was being done to him as the Sage cast another spell.
Aiden had no idea what was happening. All he was certain of was that even in the throes of his own pain, his notification flashed in front of him, giving him information that he’d never seen before.
You have been afflicted with [Spatial Distortion].
[Dimensional Rip] detected.
[Taboo Existence] detected.
[System Administrators] have been contacted.
[Help is on the way!]
Even in his pain, Aiden knew a lot was wrong with the notification. He’d never heard of the system having administrators before. In fact, as long as this world was concerned, the system notifications were simply natural, like grown trees and the air around them.
Not even gifts from the gods like the Classes.
Also, the system never called for help. The system was the help.
His mind was still rummaging around for what he didn’t know when a new pain filled him. It was like the itching of a healing injury. It crawled all over his body, reducing the pain of being ripped apart.
At first, it was soothing. Then it was not. Something felt off. He felt lesser and lesser with every passing second.
You have been afflicted with [Time Reset].
[Time Distortion] detected.
Aiden recognized this one. It was the notification they got anytime time was reset in the time chamber. It wasn’t a bad thing. However, there was a small problem. If his time was reset, he wouldn’t be the only one that was aware of it. The caster would be aware as well.
He couldn’t imagine a second attempt to save Ted if the Sage was already aware of it from the very beginning.
And how far back would the reset take him? An hour? A day? Would it send him back to the beginning of the ball? In the time chamber it had always been set to the beginning of the task, tailored to a chosen participant. And never more than two hours.
Aiden had used his mind to find answers for so long that even in his pain his mind was still asking questions.
[Taboo Existence] detected.
You have been afflicted with [Time Reset].
You have been afflicted with [Spatial Distortion].
[Natural Inconsistency] detected.
[System Adm—Error! Error!]
[Evacuate present environment.]
{#%#&(%()[}&^$^#*}
[Error detected.]
You have been afflicted by [Unknown].
[Prisoner #234502385739] please accept our sincerest apologies for this experience.
Prisoner?
Aiden couldn’t believe what he was seeing. How the hell was he a prisoner?
[Existential spell detected.]
You have been afflicted with [Unknown].
[Attempting to unveil spell affliction.]
[Spell detected.]
[System Override detected.]
[Terminating System Override.]
You have been afflicted with spell [System Reset].
[Attempting to repair error.]
[Attempting… Attempting… Attempting…]
[Attempt failed.]
[System Override termination failed]
[Applying defense mechanism.]
...
[For the safety of the system, source of [System Reset] must be terminated.]
[Termination is in effect.]
[Terminating… Terminating… Terminating…]
[Termination successful]
That was good. Aiden almost grinned through his pain. Nothing was more powerful on Nastild than the system. It would have the power to cancel any spell. Even better, he would appreciate if it accidentally killed the Sage in the process.
Wait… his thoughts trailed off at the stupidity of his satisfaction. It said source of [System Reset] not [Time Reset].
His interface flashed in front of him once more as realization hit him.
You have our sincerest apologies [Prisoner #234502385739].
...
[You have died.]
The last thing Aiden saw as he passed silently was the pain and regret in Ted’s eyes.
It was odd. Dying didn’t hurt as much as knowing that, despite his hardest efforts, he couldn’t save his brother.
In the last moments of his life, Aiden died with regrets.
[System Override successful]
[Initiating System Reset]