THE SINGLE LIGHTNING ELEMENTAL MAGUS (TSLEM)

By J. TNANGA

Chapter 4: Did someone just call me, death????

“Please don’t kill us, we don’t want to hurt you, we’ll stay out of your way, please forgive us” repeated a man that looks tired, as if he has been fighting his opponent for hours, but it has actually been only 15 minutes.

“I know you don’t want to die, but your fate is seal, it is no longer my doing, but fate itself, it is not me you should be begging forgiveness but God, for I am nothing but a lonely taker of life, death is what they call me, for anyone who approaches all inadvertently die. It is a sure way to death, for death is my middle name” said a young tall man with a hood still partially hiding his face.

“But you don’t have to take my life, you can leave it just the way it is, I know my fate, but you can change your mind?” asked the other man with panic and worried entering his voice.

“…….”

“Please don’t do this, I have a family” said the man, as he becomes unable to continue talking or even move any longer, as if something was holding him with a huge magnitude of strength, and his eyes widen as if he sees his own inevitable death.

“Be gone from this world, for you have crossed my path” said the hooded man, as he turned around and look ahead, noticing a small group of 20-30 individuals ahead, and with a sad facial expression, moves towards them. 

The man that was begging for his life was already forgotten by the hooded man, since after all, the moment the hooded man said the word be-gone, the other man was already turned to nothing but dust with solely his clothes remaining.

“I have a promise to keep. And miles to go before I sleep, I do not have time to rest, I must continue until there is nothing in my path” said the hooded man.

With still some distance between him and the 20-30 individuals in on-going battle, the hooded man then lift his hand and stretch it towards the direction of those individuals, and without a single smile or happy expression in his face but with a look devoid of any emotion, said the following using a monotonic voice:

“Death has no companion, for in death everyone is equal, it doesn’t matter how/where/when you die, everyone no matter how rich or poor are equal in death”

The hooded man then turned around as well, and continue in his slow, sad, and lonely path, as if he was lost and had forgotten that all 20-30 of the individuals that he was facing a couple of seconds ago, have all turned to dust, with only a pile of clothes remaining.

“I need to……need….to…..s…..” the hooded man started to say but never finish his sentence, for a teleportation portal appeared near him, and even though he looked at the teleportation portal with disgust in his eyes, he still went inside.

“I….need….to….sto…..sto….” repeated the hooded man acting more and more as if he lost his memories or as if he have memory impairment or that he was blocking something from his brain.

“Control is key…..Control is power….right?....right?....right?” said the hooded man as if he was a completely different person and was trying to reassure himself, except for the fact that the voice he used to say that, was completely different from his earlier voice, as if someone was trying to take over.

“Right….right?” said the hooded man with that dark voice that just doesn’t fit his face and facial expression, that makes him look insane.

Little did the hooded man know that thanks to the teleportation portal, he was at a looking distance to the tunnel that Lear-Bane is in. And to make matters worse, the hooded man seems to have noticed the tunnel as well and is heading there.

“……Tunnel…..good……control…..need to….sto….stop……tunnel….good….control….myself??” repeated the hooded man that say his middle name is death.

Lear-Bane:

There was a gigantic sleeping bear right at the entrance.

“No wonder it became so dark” I thought. “How am I going to survive now?”

The bear was gigantic, a couple of meters tall. It was breathing hard and snoring a little. I continue to look at the bear to observe its sleeping patter to see if I can make my way around it, but every couple of minutes the bear would just change side.

“I don’t think I can get out of this” I calculated. “And if I don’t get out, this bear will wake up and notice me in its territory”

With no hope in sight. I remained sitting down and starts to formulate a plan. Those are my options:

1)      tried to mind-control the gigantic bear (If fail, the bear will surely wake up from the electrical impulse)

2)     Wait for someone to come and save me (unlikely, that’ll only happen if I was one of the 20 left)

3)     Fight the bear (even though I am strong as steel, I am sure the bear can destroy me)

4)     Wait….until the bear naturally wakes up and become it’s dinner (not a good idea)

5)     Punch myself in the face for deciding to participate in All-Stars (Sounds like a good idea right now)

My therapist told me that I was always too tense, as if I felt like someone was always watching me or after me, and that I should stop being so serious and tell jokes to laugh and try to be humorous and that sometimes being humorous can help in severe situations.

(Well, Mr. Therapist, it isn’t helping right now, and I am pretty sure this is a severe situation, so, I think you just wasted my parents that four hundred dollars a week subscription).

As I was still (Unsuccessfully trying to see the positive side to all this as my therapist recommended) something interesting happened. The bear then suddenly woke up, and my heart started to beat faster and faster as I thought it was my final moments and that the bear was going to eat me alive, the bear’s eyes widen in complete fear, and then started turning into dust???

“Wait…..that’s….dust….and eyes widening….there’s…only one person this could be…..damn I have bad luck, don’t I?” I thought really quickly. “I saw those same exact spell being used on the previous All-Stars, the death kid”

“I…..can….see…you” states the hooded man as he look directly at me. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes” I said in a low voice.

“Well, that makes it easier” said the hooded figure. “Nice meeting you”

As the hooded figure continue to walk deeper and deeper into the tunnel, reaching to where I was standing, but not even looking at me, as if I was no longer a person, as if I was already dead and of no importance to him whatsoever, as if he already forgot my very existence, the hooded figure then stops in his track.

He then turns around to my direction and look at me with surprise in his eyes.

“How….are..you still alive?” he asked. “You should have turned to dust completely a couple of seconds ago”

“I don’t know” I lied. “Are you sure you did it right?”

“Stop lying, just who are you?” asked the hooded figure. “Maybe….you…can help me”

“What? I don’t understand” I said with a worried face. “You are planning on asking someone you just tried to murder to help you?”

“Yes…..and I know how it sounds….but…don’t have too…much time” said the hooded figure.

While the hooded figure was trying to explain whatever he was trying to explain to me, I was not just sitting there and listening like a good boy, I already sent electricity throughout my whole body, and at a moment’s notice, I could run with super-fast speed, leaving nothing but a blur. 

Then as the hooded figure open his mouth to say something, I ran.

I ran and continue running until I was a good distance of two miles away. Then I look behind me and there he was.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I was really shocked that my opponent was so fast, it was like he was there before me, as if he knew where I was going and where I was going to stop. So, I run again, this time three miles. I finally stop to catch my breath, and guess what I hear and see?

“You just don’t understand, do you?” asked the hooded figure. “Since the moment you met me, your fate was sealed. Curse yourself for your insolence and bad luck, curse God for your fate, and curse me as the taker of life”

“What?” I subconsciously said.

“I don’t understand, you should be unable to talk and move, you should start to turn to dust, but my powers are not working on you? Just what are you? Can such a thing be? You might be the one I’ve been looking for” said the hooded figure. “Help me”

The moment I subconsciously said “what”, I already began to send even more electrical power throughout my whole body, and I ran again, only hearing half of what the hooded figure said. I ran two miles in the west direction.

I finally arrived there. I found myself in a forest with trees and such. I turned behind me, and he wasn’t there. Thank God, seems that I managed to get away from him somehow.

“Help……..me” said the hooded figure on my left.

“OMG” I said really loud in a shocked expression. “How can you be so fast?”

I ran again this time for a straight 5 miles west. After I finally stop, the man was also there, and he doesn’t look tired at all, as if he walked here, or was teleported here. I was out of breath, but the man is just standing there like this much running is nothing. He finally responds to my previous question.

“It’s not that I am fast, more like your fate is sealed, and I will never be able to leave your side until I stop supplying ethereal to my death magic that is on you. So, where ever you go, whenever you go, how you go, I will always be there, but of course there are exceptions” said the hooded man with a calm monotonic voice. “If I die, then I will no longer be with you, or if I stop supplying ethereal to the death magic surrounding you”

“Then stop” I said with impatience. “You said yourself that you cannot kill me, then stop”

“I cannot until you help me….need….help” said the hooded man. “mind control”

Somehow I felt a connection with the person in front of me, like his voice sounded familiar, as if I knew someone with that voice.

“Maybe it’s my imagination, there’s no way I know someone with death magic” I thought.

I quickly understood the gist of things, and used my electricity to tried to control this person’s mind, and even though it was my first time using my elemental magic like that, I managed to get into his mind.

“It feels too easy” a dark thought came to my mind. “No one has this easy of a brain to get into”

When I entered his brain, I could feel another presence inside. A very dominating presence.

“So, that’s what he needed help with” I thought, as I gather more and more of my ethereal and focused on destroying the presence that I feel shouldn’t be there.

“I hope I am not destroying something I shouldn’t be” I said out loud, but of course no one answered, since I was inside the other person’s mind, he couldn’t exactly talk right now.

After 10 minutes of doing this:

“I am done now” I said, as I take my ethereal out of his mind. “You should be clean out now, and I even put some mental electrical defense in your mind, the next time someone decided to take over your mind, he’ll probably end up taking days maybe even weeks before successfully controlling you again.

“Thank you” said the hooded figure as he removed his hood. “I owe you, Lear-Bane”

“You….do I know you?” I asked as his face remind me of something important, especially his voice now that was no longer monotone but more of an actual person’s voice.

“So, they did the same thing to you as well” said the hooded man but he was no longer wearing a hood, his hair was the same as mine, and his face even bear a resemblance to mine.

“I am you” said the man.

“What? That makes no sense” I said. “What in the world are you talking about? You are crazy”

“But you are looking at me right now, aren’t you?” asked the man that called himself me. “Don’t you see how much we look similar”

“No, we don’t” I lied. “We don’t look similar at all”

I decided to get away from this guy and ran 4 miles away. There I found myself deeper in the jungle, except there was an area that looks like trees have been cut and someone was trying to build a small camp or something.

“How did you two get here without us noticing?” asked a girl that looks 16-year-old with blonde hair and wearing a pretty dress. “What do you want?”

“I am so sorry” I said, not knowing what else to say since I was the one who stumble unto them. “Wait….did you say two?”

With no warning what so ever, the blonde girl disappears and the boy that was with her takes a stance. I recognized the young boy instantly. Darwin Marvellus.

The young sixteen-year-old prodigy rumor to have a total of 5 elemental magic but no one really knows for sure since have only used three on T.V., but that’s not even why people are talking about him, he is famous for managing to fuse three elemental magic together, thanks to such an accomplishment, he is one of those people that will forever change the world as we know it.

Even Ph.D. professors that study magic in full depth have trouble just fusing two magic spells, but this 16-year-old manage to do three different magic spells as if it was as easy as making pancake. (I actually wrote a 10-page essay about this kid in magic theory class, so of course I know about this guy).

I also heard rumors about his personality, that he has killed many people that works with him in his laboratory and that he has blood-lust and enjoy manipulating people and killing them. He views himself and his sister as both being superior to all others even to the big three rarest. I did my research extensively about this guy, and heard a lot of nasty stuff about him.

I knew I shouldn’t be messing with him if he has 5 different elemental magic as the rumors say, I ran in the opposite direction for about three miles, then I came to a complete stop as I ran out of ethereal.

“Whoa, that was close back there, you could have died, you really got lucky, I could sense death coming from those two back there, they were going to kill you” said the man that said he is me.

“OMG” I said in a loud surprise voice. “How do you keep doing that, it’s really scaring me, appearing out of nowhere like that”

“Well, I am fated to be with you”

“I am sorry, but I am not into guys that way, dude”

“I am not a dude but you, once connected you’ll come to understand everything”

“I am not you” I said with a loud serious voice. “You are just saying that because you are trying to kill me”

“We must hurry, my death magic is saying those two might find us, and as you are now you might die” said the man that called himself me. “Besides you know I am right”

“I don’t know what you are talking about”

“Are you really going to deny the evidence?”

“You just look similar to me, that’s all”

“That’s because I am 5 years older than you, five years from now, if we haven’t met, you would have looked the same as me”

“You are crazy” I said but was too exhausted to argue with this guy, I used all my energy to do all that running and since I am keeping my [lightning defense] on in case this weirdo tries anything.

The weird crazy man then approaches even closer to me, and I move away from him, but since I am exhausted, I end up falling in the floor. It didn’t hurt since my body is in lightning defense mode.

“Don’t worry, we’ll finally be connected as one, again”

“What?” I asked as the man touches my shoulder and everything went black.

“Is this death” I wonder. “Where am I?”