A blue explosion shook the Auction Hall, sending the Apostle and Maya’s classmate flying in opposite directions. While the apostle fell near the entrance, the young student hit the back wall, near one of the locked doors, then fell down on the ground face first.
Victor’s gaze snapped to the Apostle, who had barely been able to shield herself from her own spell. Tightly grasping the pendant, she pushed herself up on her feet, and staggered towards the entrance. He took a step towards her, summoning his mana from within to enhance his legs. Crimson mana whirled around him as he prepared to dash.
“No!” Maya’s heartbroken scream stopped him in his tracks. She shook her other classmate’s arm off her shoulder and ran up to the unconscious student. With a grunt, she turned him on his back, then gasped in horror.
“She’s getting away!” Kira’s voice reached his ears as he turned around to look at his daughter. Had she been wounded-
He couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath as he noticed the blood oozing out of the young man’s chest. Blue mana continued to linger there, seemingly trying to dig deeper into his flesh as it had torn off his clothes on his chest.
“Step away!” He waved away with his hand, using a portion of his mana to push Maya away from the wounded man.
“We don’t have time for this!” Kira hissed, finally having freed herself from the roots the Apostle used to trap her. “If she escapes, we may never find her again!”
She was right – this was the closest they had gotten to the Apostle. Had it not been by pure chance that she decided to attack Maya, they would have never made it here in time before she got whatever she wanted and escaped without a trace.
Now she was wounded, and thanks to that foolishly brave student, afflicted by dark magic. She was probably having trouble controlling her own mana, which would explain the crude explosion, and the mana still clinging to the young student’s wound. If they followed her, they could easily catch up.
“Dad!” Maya’s almost hysterical voice startled him. While he hesitated, she had crawled back to her classmate’s side. She scrambled to tear off a piece of her cloak in an attempt to stem the bleeding.
“That won’t work,” Kira’s cold voice cut the air like a dagger. She turned her emotionless gaze towards Victor. “If we don’t hurry, she’ll get away. This is the best chance we have, it’s not worth-“
“Shut up!” Maya screamed, “Dad, if you leave now I won’t forgive you!” Her fiery gaze made Victor recoil. “Save him, I know you can!”
The torn cloak she was pressing against the open wound was already soaked in blood, and the blue mana had begun eating away at it as well. Victor clenched his fists beneath his cloak, then shot Kira a glance. “Go after her.” She was weakened, and Kira was the best person to deal with dark mana anyways.
“What about you?” She asked with a sharp, dissatisfied tone. Victor simply turned around and approached the student laying on the ground. “Hurry. Don’t lose her.”
He heard her click her tongue with disappointment before she leapt off the stage and ran off after the Apostle.
“Kira is right,” he said, gently pulling Maya’s hands away from the blood-soaked piece of cloth. “That won’t work, there is still mana eating away at him.” He scowled as he carefully removed the piece of cloth. The wound was deep, deep enough to show some white of his ribcage.
He head a gasp. The other student quickly turned around and ran off, followed by the sounds of vomiting. “Take him and wait by the entrance,” He told Maya. “This isn’t a pretty sight.”
“I’m ok!” The other student called out. “I’ll just wait over there…” He added, quickly walking off the stage, and hurrying towards the entrance. He continued to cover his mouth as he walked.
Victor held his open palm just above the open, bleeding wound, and began weaving a spell. He watched his own mana begin glowing brighter in his palm as he weaved. “You should wait there too.” He said, tilting his head towards the entrance, where the other student had sat on one of the seats. “This really isn’t a pretty sight.”
Maya shook her head, with that same fiery conviction in her eyes. “No.” She simply said, not taking her eyes off of the young man. Victor felt a tinge of annoyance, accompanied by alarm bells ringing in his mind. Who was this person to his dear daughter that she worried so awfully much about him?
With a quiet sigh, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind and focused on the task at hand. First, he needed to heal the flesh wound before the Apostle’s still corroding mana reached to the student’s lungs and heart.
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He let his healing spell sink into the young man’s chest. The flesh began to heal, causing the young man’s finger’s to twitch. His otherwise emotionless face contorted with pain, his breathing quickened, and his heartbeat rose, causing more blood to ooze out of his slowly healing wounds.
Victor shot Maya a glance, her fiery gaze still hadn’t turned away, though her face had grown pale. It was clear she was trying her hardest to not look away. Why, he wondered, turning his gaze back at the young man. The wound’s healing was exceptionally slow.
He needed to purge the Apostle’s mana from the wound. If not, the boy was going to die from blood loss, as the mana eating away at his wound was slowing down his healing spell. “Maya, step back a bit,” He said as he dipped his fingers in the pool of blood on the ground, then hurriedly began drawing a circle on the hardwood stage, with the wounded student at its centre. Only his right hand was outside of it, and for good reason.
It took him a few moments to finish the circle. As soon as he was done, he knelt outside of it, and let his mana flow into the intricate lines drawn with blood. They lit up in crimson, and soon the spell began to take effect. He could vaguely see tendrils of mana reaching towards the boy’s chest. Slowly, the blue coloured mana began to dissipate as the crimson light washed over it, forcing it off of the boy’s wound.
Seconds turned into minutes as Victor grunted with effort. Constantly supplying mana to a ritual circle was difficult enough as it is, and having to control the ritual itself was a bit much, even for him. Had there been even a little bit more residual mana from the Apostle, he wouldn’t have been able to do this.
Soon, the circle dimmed. The last of the Apostle’s mana had been purged. Victor stopped supplying his mana to the circle and wiped the beads of sweat off of his forehead.
“He’s healing faster!” Maya’s eyes lit up. Victor nodded, now that the blue mana eating away at the wound was gone, the young man was healing much faster. As they watched, the wound on his chest began to close rapidly. Flesh regenerated, then new skin grew on top, leaving no sign of his wound except for a slight discoloration.
Victor breathed out a sigh of relief and let his healing spell dissipate. With the most urgent wound taken care of, he could turn his attention to the black mana still clinging onto his gloved hand. Victor took a wrap of Nilcloth from the inner pocket of his cloak, and carefully wrapped it around his hand before circling around the unconscious student and kneeling beside his right hand. Nilcloth was the only way to protect himself from Soul Magic after all.
With his Nilcloth covered hand, he reached for the glove. As soon as his hand touched the black mana clinging to him, he felt a shiver run down his spine. Even as an Inquisitor, the times he had to deal with Soul Magic had been incredibly rare. Having such a vile thing cling to a young, innocent man made him feel sick and disgusted.
He grasped the edge of the glove, and slowly peeled it off of his hand. Maya gasped as Victor pulled the glove off, letting the boy’s hand fall back on the ground with its palm facing down. He threw the glove to the side, along with the mana clinging to it.
Then he turned his gaze to the young man’s hand, and immediately recoiled. His skin starting from his wrist was layered with scars. It looked like someone had tried to peel the skin off several times, only to fail and decide to burn it off instead. The scar tissue covered his entire hand, even his fingers up to his fingertips. Despite all these scars, and all the punishment his hand had suffered, an Enforcer’s mark was shining brightly on his hand.
“Did the Apostle do this?!” Maya asked with a shaky voice. Victor shook his head. These were old scars, very old scars. They had stretched over the years, grown with him. These must have happened when he was no older than ten, perhaps eleven years old.
Who would do this to a child? Monsters, he decided. He glanced at Maya, whose hands were clenched into fists, her knuckles white. He couldn’t imagine doing something like this to a child. Not now, not ever. And if anyone had done this to her… he shook his head again. “Don’t approach that glove,” He pointed at it.
There was no soul magic clinging to the young man’s hand, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t affected by it. Unlike normal mana, Soul Magic could easily slither its way into a person’s mana pool. If that happened, it was almost impossible to detect for a normal mage – even for an inquisitor like him.
He first took a small pouch from his cloak’s many pockets, then picked up the glove and placed it inside, making sure to only touch it with his Nilcloth wrapped hand. He then tied the pouch tightly and placed it back in his pocket. Just like the cloth he wrapped his hand with, the pouch was also made of Nilcloth.
He removed the wraps around his hand, then gave it to Maya. “Wrap his hand with this. He was hiding the scars, he probably wouldn’t want them to be seen now.”
His daughter snatched the cloth, and quickly knelt by the young man. While she worked, Victor watched. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the mark. It shone brightly even when covered in Nilcloth. “What now?” Maya asked once she was done. “Why hasn’t he woken up yet?”
Victor scowled. “I’m not entirely sure. His mana pool might be contaminated by Soul Magic. I know you couldn’t see it, but he was practically breathing in the dark mana when he and the Apostle fought for the pendant.” He clenched his fists. The Apostle was a vile woman, using the young man as a hostage, and almost killing him… “Couldn’t he see it? He should have let go of the pendant as soon as she revealed it.” He muttered. Everyone knew of dark mana and Soul Magic. It was hammered into every student that Soul Magic was strictly forbidden, that if they were contaminated by it, their mana would turn into dark mana, and they would be executed if they weren’t able to be purged.
“He saw it.” Maya stated with a voice full of certainty.
Victor shot her an odd glance before lifting the young man up. “Come on, let’s go back to the High Tower. He needs care I cannot provide.”
“Never take this off,” An unfamiliar voice rang in his ears amidst the dark void of his consciousness. “Promise?”
“I promise, dad!”