Zac rushed over to where the boy lay on the ground, his hand grabbing a small vial off of his belt. “Save as many of them as you can!” Zac yelled back at Connie who had just appeared, battered and bruised but mostly whole.
Zac knelt down next to the boy examining him. The boy had long messy crimson hair with deep black and bright silver streaks. His clothes were ripped and torn, his skin pale and sickly. His body was coated with golden and crimson blood and he was covered in injuries both big and small. Looking close Zac noticed that the blood coming out of body was off, it was a deeper, richer and more vibrant crimson with faint streaks of electric blue.
Zac propped the kid up and tipped the contents of the vial down his throat. The vials worth of viscous golden liquid dripped down into the boy’s throat. Zac let out a sigh of relief as the boy’s wounds healed up and his skin regained its color.
“Um, Zac should you have used that?” Connie asked. “The empress bought that as a safety net to make sure you wouldn’t die.”
“I don’t care that my mom bought it to save me. This kid just saved who knows how many lives, stopped the initial force of the start of a war, delayed said war giving us time to prepare and risked his life. This is the very least of what I can and will do for him.” As he said this Zac laid the boy down on the ground and started helping Connie check on the other people.
Connie walked over to where Zac was checking on the azure haired woman. “The three men and the other woman’s dead.” Connie told him. “What about her?”
“Give me the other vial.” Zac said while holding out his hand. “Don’t say you don’t have one. We both know that my mother trusts you with my life more than she trusts me with it. I know that she also gave you a vial. Now give it to me before this woman dies.” Zac said never turning his eyes away from the woman.
Connie handed over an identical vial of liquid to the one that Zac had given to the boy. Zac popped the cork off and dumped the liquid down the woman's throat. Unlike how the boy had been immediately healed up and looked mostly fine the woman did not. Her body was covered in sores and boils. Her skin was pale and sickly looking more like that of a corpse than a person. While she didn’t look good Zac guessed that she should at the very least be fine until they could get a proper doctor to look at her.
Zac stepped back from the two living people on the ground and turned his gaze upwards to where imperial roc and flesh construct wyvern were fighting. “Connie get these two somewhere safe and get a doctor to them as quickly as you can, also keep the corpses of the others preserved.”
Connie nodded her acknowledgment.
Zac allows his mana and a couple drops of aether to gather. He pushed the mana out using the molde to shape it and then his words to finalize his spell. “Crackling lightning racing through the sky. Currents of power, wings allowing my flight. Static wings.” Zac added the drops of aether to his mana finishing off the spell. Bolts of solid unmoving lightning grew out of Zac's back in the rough approximation of wings.
Zac launched himself up into the air towards the two beasts fighting in the sky. He reached down and pulled his sword out of its sheath. With the familiar act of mana memory and a little bit of manual control Zac cast another spell. “Lightning wreathed.” Mana and the little bit of aether converged wreathing his sword in crackling lightning.
Kir manifested a little ways off of Zac and began creating runic circles. Zac shot up and swung his sword cutting through the scales of the wyvern and into its flesh. The wyvern let out a shriek as lightning poured out of Zac's sword and into its flesh.
Vasil took advantage of the opening, with a clap of thunder as he flapped his wings Vasil shot forward. Talons broke scales and dug into flesh his beak dove down and opened up releasing a ball of lightning into the wyvern's face.
The wyvern trashed, breaking Vasil’s hold and with a flap of its wings put some distance between it and the bonded pair. It roared at them as its body was quickly healed by the blood magic coursing through its body.
Vasil let out a shrieking caw in return as the lightning covering his body surged.
“Vasil hold it off Kir is almost done with his spell. I don't want to drag this battle out too long.” Vasil sent back a feeling of understanding and unleashed a bolt of lightning straight at the wyvern.
The five runic circles that Kir had created floated behind his back. “I, Zac Terell, call upon my right from birth as a prince of lightning. Heed my command and act according to my will. Come forth element of potential and fuel my spells.” Zac reached back with his free hand, two runic circles flew forward and layered themselves on his hand. “Create the form of my will.” Zac threw the circles forward and a bolt of lightning struck the center of the overlapped circles. “The body of my companion and the beast of the Terell empire.” Two more circles flew forward and were struck by lightning. “Enact my will as the arbiter of the imperial family.” The final circle flew forth and a large bolt of lightning struck the circles. The bolt was sucked into the largest circle and Zac threw his sword forward and into the center of the circle. The circles were sucked up into the sword and then lightning exploded out of it taking on the shape of a massive phantom bear made up of lightning.
Kir swiped his clawed paws at the wyvern and 4 massive crescent blades of lightning shot out at the wyvern. The wyvern attempted to dodge but Kir was already there lightning gathering in his maw as he bit down on the wyverns neck and released the lightning killing it instantly.
The bear faded, Vasil returned to his normal size and perched on Zac’s shoulder as they floated down to the ground.
“Connie help me get these two onto Vasil.” Zac picked up the boy carefully and Vasil jumped off his shoulder and expanded into his larger form. “Also send someone to check on the Lorthen empire's army. I want to know how many survived this boy's slaughter.”
“My prince when I was moving the boy I found something in his off hand.” Connie said while holding out a rough crystal with sharp edges that was covered in golden blood. The crystal was crimson with swirling motes of gold inside and a bit smaller than his fist.
Zac reached out and grabbed the crystal. As his hand touched it Zac’s eyes went wide with shock as a feeling of utter revulsion and uncontrollable greed shot through him. Zac closed his eyes and took in a deep breath as he got himself under control.
“Put it away with anything else of theirs that you can find.” Zac said while handing the crystal back.
Connie looked at him with shock. “Are you sure? A life mana crystal this big is extremely valuable and has many uses most of which are still unknown.”
Zac shook his head. “Is this crystal more valuable than the lives that would have been lost in the fights this boy prevented? Is it more valuable than the destruction that was avoided? This is the spoils of war and he was the army that fought off the enemy. So the spoils are rightfully his.”
***
“What do you mean none survived?” Zac asked the scout his expression one of pure shock. “There would be at least some survivors.”
The scout shook his head. “We checked three times before I came but to report and I still have people out there searching but we found no signs of any survivors.”
Zac leaned back in his chair and let out a groan as he rubbed his temples. Was this good news? Of course it was, it meant that practically no one knew about Kai and what exactly happened to the army. On the other hand he still had next to no answers to any of his questions about Kai. Though thankfully that should be fixed with his next meeting.
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“Make absolutely sure that there were no survivors. If there are hunt them down and kill them after that is done, continue on as you normally would.” Zac said dismissing the scout.
As the scout left Lathen came in. She dropped a knee and bowed her head. “My prince, I have managed to collect some of the information you requested.”
“Get up and report.” Zac said simply.
Lathen rose from where she was kneeling. “The first thing I did as per your request was learn who the boy is and the people that he was protecting. From what I learned none of them were born in this city so far as anyone knows. The five adults were Hunters. Thane was a half elf and some kind of earth mage with a couple other spells. When I asked why he was here no one was able to answer. The big one was named Bear and he had no magic. The final man was Tom who was married to the still living woman. The dead woman’s name was Sarah. The woman who is still alive is Nixie, she has a minor affinity for water magic and was the team's healer.” Lathern paused for a moment to allow Zac to ask a question. When he didn’t she continued. “As I mentioned they were all Hunters who seemed to just be passing by until they met the boy whose name is Kai. The official story is that he and his mom were trying to move to a different town. Since they were too poor to pay to travel in a caravan they tried going on their own. As expected they ran into trouble, bandits attacked them. The mother bought time for her son to run away. The boy got lost only for the team of Hunters to find him and decide to help him.”
“And I assume that isn’t what really happened.” Zac asked.
Lathen shook her head. “No it isn’t. There were a couple problems with the story, the first of which is obviously how some random kid from a village could be so strong. I didn’t have to do much digging to find out what really happened since it had been reported to the guilds branch head.”
“Fuck.” Zac said as he got a very good idea of what happened. He had already suspected it but it had only been a suspicion.
“He was the subject of illegal human experimentation. No reports were made as to what kinds of experiments were done and when asked they said they didn’t know what was done since they burned everything before they could learn. As for where the kid was from, no one is quite sure.” Larthen said.
“Do you know what they have been doing here with the kid? Most people in this situation tend to find a family to raise them. Even if they don’t want to, the hunters guild will generally do it. Since if the kid survived he will either become very powerful in the future and they don’t want that kind of person to have the wrong upbringing. Or the kid will be a crippled wreck and the guild takes pity on them. Also I'm pretty sure we already know which way this boy is going.” Zac said
Lathen nodded. “From what the guild head and the receptionists that I asked said. The hunters gave him a choice. They would either find him a home or they would train him. They boy decided that he wanted to be trained so that’s exactly what they were doing.”
“That isn’t entirely uncommon but how could they have trained him to this extent?” Zac asked her.
Lathen shook her head. “From what I understand they didn’t. While Thane apparently had a very good method for training mana control everything else was ordinary. However he did what he did, it wasn't due to their training.” Lathen paused for a moment before continuing. “I did learn one more thing. Right before our messenger arrived to tell the Hunter to start evacuating people Kai came in and was telling the five something. After our messenger arrived they seemed to have some kind of argument. Kai then went up to his room a little bit later and an aura exploded out of that area. Then he made a couple runic circles and left.”
Zac nodded at Lathen as she finished her report. “Ok, see if you can find out anything new and remember that only the small group sent ahead is to know anything about this.”
***
“My prince, we are almost done setting everything up and will be able to send you back soon.” The head space mage said as he was bowing to Zac.
Nodded in dismissal and turned back to Lathen. “Remember I don’t want news spreading so you are to keep a tight lid on our information about Kai. Anything you manage to dig up when searching the collapsed lab in the mountains is to immediately be sent back.”
Lathen nodded. “Of course my prince.”
Zac issued a few more orders before heading over to where Connie was waiting with the sleeping forms of Kai, Nixie and a few doctors that were checking on them. Zac walked over and turned his attention to where the space mages. Currently the space mages were checking over the ritual circle that would teleport them back. While Zac was no space mage after looking it over he thought that it looked pretty good.
“Everything is ready, my prince.” The head space mage said while bowing to Zac. “We are ready to activate the spell wherever you are.”
Zac nodded to the mage. “Then we will be leaving now.”
With that Zac and Connie walked over to the center of the circle while Kai and Nixie were carefully moved over. Around them small space mana crystals were placed and then mana was channeled into the ritual. Around them space began to fluctuate and distort then everything was gone.
Second that felt like hours and then hours that felt like seconds passed. Zac ignored the strange feelings that alway came with teleporting as he took the time to relax and prepare for what came next. Again space began to fluctuate and distort and they were in a small clearing in the forest with a couple people standing around
“My prince.” They all said while bowing.
Zac nodded to them before turning to look at Connie “I will go talk to the empress while I am doing that you take care of these two.” With that Vasil jumped off his shoulder expanding to his true size and the two of them flew off towards the capital.
***
“I have read your report and have my thoughts on what to do next but I want to know what you think” The empress said.
Zac rose from where he had been kneeling and looked up at his mother ignoring the people around them. “Kai has done a lot for us, whether or not it was for us doesn't matter. I have my theories on how he will act when he wakes up based on what I have been able to gather about him. But I know little about him so they are barely more than guesses. What I would like to do is keep him in the house and city Connie is taking him to. After he wakes up I will offer him proper education, I already have some people in mind. Once he turns fourteen I plan on sending him to the academy. Though I will not force him to do anything and unless he rejects it I plan on continuing to care for Nixie and doing what I can to at the very least keep her alive.”
“WHAT!” Titus roared. ‘You want to send that mad man to the place where we send our children to be taught. My daughter is the same age and will be there too. He is far too unstable to be allowed anywhere near our children.”
“And my cousin, your daughter's friend will be there.” Zac said while shaking his head. “And yes I do plan on sending him to the very place where your children are being taught. That is exactly why I want to send him. I don’t believe that he is as unstable as you make him out to be. I personally believe that he has a lot of control from the little that I have heard about him. Though he clearly needs help to get his mind into a place that will not be a danger to both himself and those around him.”
“And you want to endanger our children to do that.” Titus said through clenched teeth.
“No.” Zac stated. “All of the people from servants to guards and especially teachers that will be around him for the next four years will be there to watch him. One of their jobs will be to judge whether or not it is safe for him to be around them. I also plan on stopping by often to check on things.”
“And who do you want to teach him?” Titus said having gained control of himself.
“I plan on having him taught the basics that any of your average noble child would be taught while also leaving a large library open to him. I will not have him taught spells or anything runic in nature unless necessary to keep him from killing himself or others. Apart from that I will have him taught the basics like math, languages, history and politics. For teachers, I would like to request Nath teach him to fight and I have already been approached by Errol who has volunteered to teach him magic theory.”
Titus furrowed his brows. “Didn’t you come straight here after arriving in the city?”
“I did.” Zac said. “It seems Knowledge took an interest in him far earlier than anyone else.”
“Ok then you mentioned you won't force him to do anything. What makes you so certain that he will agree to any of this?” Titus asked with his arms crossed.
“He has already made the choice.” Zac said simply.
“WHAT!” Titus roared. “Why didn’t you report that he had woken up.”
Zac shook his head. “You misunderstand me. Months ago Kai was asked by the Hunters that saved him if he wanted them to find him a home or for them to train him. He chose for them to train him. When he had the option of fleeing or attacking the army in the hopes of saving those Hunters he attacked. After this I believe that his drive to get stronger will have increased. That is why I believe he will accept.”
“You still want to send a bloodthirsty madma-.”
“Enough.” The empress said, her words immediately cutting off Titus. “Zac, I will allow you to proceed with your plan. I agree with what you are trying to do and would like to help this boy. Do not let people know what happened at the border. The people that already know are to be told that the news is not to spread by my order. Once the boy turns seventeen he will be given the option of making it public or keeping it private. Either way he will be rewarded for what he has done.”