by Weiqi Wang
‘It’s fine. A small crystal ball can’t hold enough poison gas to do much.’ Gazbell let the friends back into the dorm, looking thunderous. ‘Who the heck dared to do this, though?’
‘I don’t know, but I can paint the hologram out.’ Soarame quickly mind-painted the hologram from his angle. ‘It’s a broken arm. Although I’m not sure what it means, it reminded me of Max.’
‘It must be.’ Kardiac muttered. ‘That old freak is back?’
‘If he’s back, he’s dead!’ Gazbell tried so hard to suppress his burning anger. ‘Is this his arm that you cut off?’
‘No, it’s not.’ Soarame was pretty sure about his memory. ‘Max’s hand looked much older than this. Plus, his sleeve was a different colour…’
‘Wait… that sleeve!’ Catheray seemed to be suddenly reminded of something; she covered her mouth subconsciously, and her body began to tremble!
‘Dileys!!!’
The next second, the friends suddenly found Dileys rolling her eyes and falling over. They rushed and caught her before her head hit the floor. The friends looked at the painting again in fear; although they didn’t want to, but they just had to double check to see if the horrible guess in their minds was right —
It’s Rodka’s! Everyone was having the same thought. Although they were all praying that they were wrong, upon checking again they had all reached the same conclusion. Meanwhile, Dileys’ falling down in a faint also proved it — after all, she was the one most familiar with Rodka and she cared about him the most!
‘GOD. DAMN. THIS…’ After a few seconds of mind loss, Soarame burst out with overwhelming madness. His body was shaking out of control, and he roared like a wild beast. ‘SON OF A BITCH!!!’
‘Soarame, are you sure it’s Rodka?’ Although as mad as Soarame, Gazbell was sophisticated enough to keep his sanity. ‘We need to be more careful on the identification!’
‘I… I’m sure.’ Soarame closed his eyes; tears were falling out of control. He had been recalling Rodka’s arms, and found that his right arm looked exactly the same as the hologram — not only the colour of the sleeve, but every detail, especially the mole on his right wrist matched perfectly with the hologram!
The sobs became louder. Alicey was the first one to let her feelings out completely, followed by everyone else. Soarame grasped hard at his painting; his tears dropped on to its surface and washed out the colour. The fading redness on the blurred arm in the painting seemed to be screaming in pain. It was striking Soarame’s heart again and again, driving him crazy!
SOULCORES
‘Soarame, I got news from the auction hall!’ Ericson opened the door in a cheerful voice. But when he saw everyone sitting on the couch with reddened eyes, his smile froze. ‘What happened?’
‘Sorry Eric, but it’s bad timing for that.’ Soarame raised his head. ‘We just learnt that one of our best friends just had a tragedy. But we don’t know when and where it happened.’
Soarame stated the whole thing in a low voice, starting from the MagiMax incident, to the crystal ball that he just received. During his description, Soarame seemed to catch a flash of golden colour somewhere in his side vision, but he was not sure if he was affected by the emotional disturbance or if it was the sunshine from outside.
‘It’s not as bad as you thought.’ Ericson pondered a bit and started to talk, but was cut off by Kardiac —
‘Careful!’
‘Kardy, calm down.’ Soarame instantly stopped an emotional Kardiac. His eyes brightened up on hearing Ericson, as he had noticed that this boy tended to have some useful opinions. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I’m sorry, Kardy.’ Ericson continued. ‘Even though it’s Rodka’s arm, it doesn’t mean he’s de… he’s in a fatal tragedy.’
‘What do you suggest then?’ Alicey hurriedly asked. ‘What happened, do you think?’
‘Well, I’m not 100% sure, but…’ Ericson pondered as if he was thinking it over and over again. ‘Rodka is likely to be still alive — actually, very likely.’
‘How so?’ The friends asked anxiously. Although none of them wanted to admit it, they all assumed that Rodka had died.
‘If Max had killed him, god forbid, he wouldn’t be sending his arm…’ Ericson said, word by word. ‘Right?’
‘That’s… that’s so true!’ Soarame smacked his own head. ‘He’d send his hea… bah, bah! Anyway, that makes sense — Rodka must be still alive!’
‘Are you sure?’ Dileys’ voice sounded by the staircase. The pale girl had just woken up from her faint — she had been resting in Halgon’s bedroom upstairs. The young magimals were surrounding Dileys’ legs, with sadness in their big shining eyes.
‘Yes, thanks to Ericson’s deduction.’ The friends hastened forward to hold Dileys.
‘If Max has got him, how could he still be alive?’ Dileys muttered, shaking with tears.
‘Let’s ask Sachastain what he thinks. I asked him to come, and he’s here now.’ Soarame said and turned to the door. ‘Come in, please!’
‘Not bad, Soarame. You’ve improved a lot.’ Sachastain opened the door. He had just arrived, but he didn’t have a chance to knock before Soarame noticed him. Since the MagiMax incident, Soarame had asked Sachastain to teach him some of the different skills of a warrior — the boy was eager to be physically strong, like Halgon. One skill that Sachastain had taught him was how to sense people approaching, as Soarame had just done.
Sachastain looked mumpish as he was updated on the incident. Finally, he nodded. ‘Ericson is right. Rodka must be still alive. But I don’t know if that’s any better news.’
‘Why not?’ The friends were anxious.
‘Well… it could be that Max got him but didn’t kill him.’ Rodka hesitated but decided to say this. ‘He might be aiming at something even worse.’
‘You mean… torturing?’ Soarame suddenly felt his body turn as cold as ice. ‘That god-damn freak… Would he really?’
‘Or to keep Rodka as his hostage, or maybe as bait later on. It could be anything, but we need to look at the bright side, everyone.’ Sachastain took a deep breath. ‘Rodka is alive, and Mr Principal is on it. So am I.’
‘What about us?’ Dileys looked at Sachastain with her swelling eyes, clenching. ‘We must also do something, right?’
‘Yes, we must!’ The friends all agreed. ‘Please tell us you have a plan, Sachastain!’
‘My plan is that I go and seek Rodka, but you people keep doing what you’ve been doing here.’ After pondering a bit, Sachastain said deeply. ‘Don’t let rage take control of your mind. Stay safe and grow up, for vengeance in the future!’
‘Are you serious?’ The friends were not convinced. ‘You just said that Rodka was out there suffering, and you want us to stay here and do nothing?’
‘It’s not to do nothing, it’s to grow stronger.’ Sachastain looked at the friends. ‘Or what? Can you find Rodka?’
‘But we can’t just…’ Dileys’ tears welled up again, but she didn’t know how to continue — she knew that with the friends’ current power they couldn’t really help at all.
Certainly, everyone knew this too. The dorm sank into silence.
‘Sachastain is right.’ Soarame was the first to break the depressing silence. ‘Mr Principal must be already tracking the package delivery and all that, so all we can do now is to wait for his news.’
‘There won’t be any useful news any time soon.’ Sachastain shook his head. ‘I wish there was an easy way to locate a professional fraud, especially when the target dared to send a package in the first place. Gazbell knew that too.’
‘But he can find something, right?’ Omifo asked.
‘Yes, and he has useful connections, and those may be his best chance.’ Sachastain nodded. ‘I’m different. I’ll be on my way now, and you guys will promise me that you’ll do what I just said.’
‘You are leaving now to find Rodka?’ The friends were surprised. ‘But how are you gonna do it?’
‘We promise!’ The friends said solemnly, and came to hug Sachastain one by one. ‘Be careful! Max is rather powerful and you are on your own.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll find help if necessary.’ Sachastain smiled. ‘And don’t forget I’ve got Max once. I can get him another time.’
‘True!’ Soarame clenched his fist hard. Sachastain had successfully restrained Max in the incident two years ago, even though he hadn’t expected the extraordinary magigear that Max was wearing.
‘Remember, Soarame, don’t rush your graduation. Do it properly while it’s safe here,’ Sachastain urged before he headed away to the door. ‘You are a big guy now. It’s time to learn how to bear pressure with patience.’
‘I will.’ Soarame followed Sachastain out of the dorm, as did everyone. Sachastain didn’t give them much time to chat before he walked away and disappeared.
Do you believe in fate? Out of nowhere, Ecrif’s words echoed in Soarame’s mind. Rodka’s fate… God bless it, please!
Back in the dorm, Soarame looked around at his friends and said, slowly and clearly, word by word, ‘From now on, Max is our sworn enemy. Any question on that?’
‘No!’ Everyone answered in union, including Ericson.
‘Ericson, you don’t have to get involved.’ Soarame turned to their new friend. ‘You don’t even know Rodka very well.’
‘I just hate Max.’ Ericson said deeply. ‘And for what it’s worth, there might be something we can do to help Rodka.’
‘What’s that?’ the friends asked eagerly.
‘Well… It’s a little complicated.’ Ericson looked as if he was struggling. He frowned and remained in thought for a while. The friends signalled each other, deciding not to interrupt his thinking, until Ericson finally volunteered to continue: ‘I’m sorry but it’s a big secret of my family’s, so I need to be extremely careful when I talk about this. Otherwise, what happened to Rodka might happen to me and my family too, later.’
‘We’ll sign a magic pact to protect your secret!’ Catheray took out a parchment at once, and wrote down the brief terms using her mind power before anyone realized it. ‘Is this good enough?’
‘Err…’ Ericson was stunned. The term was brief but accurate, that the signatories will keep whatever Ericson’s secret would be. ‘That’s impressive.’
‘It’s a gift.’ Catheray looked complacent. The friends all signed the pact without hesitation. ‘Now let’s hope your secret can really help!’
‘Fine.’ Ericson’s eyes started watering a bit, but he instantly faked a yawn to cover it up. ‘I know a way to reveal the surroundings of a magigear during its last operation. Do you get me?’
‘You mean…’ Soarame pondered a bit. ‘You can reveal what was around the package… no, the crystal ball — when Max recorded his message?’
‘Yes. That’s what I mean. By checking the surroundings, we might get a clue as to where he could be.’ Ericson’s confirmation made the friends instantly happier, but he stopped them from cheering too early. ‘But there are two problems here. First, you said that the crystal ball was broken, is that so?’
‘Find the debris!’ Dileys suddenly screamed. ‘It’s still in this room, right?’
‘No, Mr Principal took the entire package, together with the debris.’ Soarame recalled. ‘Maybe he’s trying to do the same thing?’
‘No, he’s not.’ Ericson took out a roll of parchment and unfolded it. ‘To do that we need to build a magic array. It’s called Myriad Eyes.’
‘A magic array? Myriad Eyes?’ Everyone marvelled. It was hard to ignore the ancient appearance of the parchment and the weird smell that came with it. ‘You think even Mr Principal can’t build this array?’
‘Not without this blueprint. It’s a rare kind of magic array, otherwise I wouldn’t worry about keeping it secret.’ Ericson sighed. ‘I don’t want people to discover its existence and bring me trouble.’
‘This blueprint…’ Everyone watched the blueprint carefully. Unexpectedly, it looked simply like a hexagram, with one circle in the centre and six more on the tips of the hexagram. The only remarkable thing was that, in the centre circle, there was a pattern that looked like a bunch of twisted curves. The curves looked messy at first glance, because they were all twisting with each other in a chaotic way; but strangely, they also looked neat at second glance, because the pattern somehow exhibited an occult and abstruse style of beauty.
‘It doesn’t look very complicated to build.’ Kardiac cupped his chin. He was always good at ignoring things — for example, the pattern in the middle. ‘I probably can give it a try myself.’
‘Actually, the blueprint itself is the most part of the magic array. We don’t need to do much to build it this time, which is the great part.’ Ericson smiled. ‘But the bad part is really bad — it demands a high-class energy source to be activated.’
‘What exactly?’ The friends were anxious. As was commonly known to wizards, magic arrays are usually more capable and powerful than spells, but they do need energy resources.
‘Expert soulcores. Six.’ Ericson said. ‘See the six circles on the tips? They can be of any lineage, but they have to be Expert ones.’
‘WHAT!’ Everyone was startled. ‘That’s not possible! How can we get Expert soulcores?’
The friends knew that a soulcore is the most critical part of a magimal — the reason for a magimal to be capable of magic is that it has a soulcore in its skull. Therefore, taking out a magimal’s soulcore means killing it first. And, of course, an Expert soulcore only comes from an Expert magimal.
‘Before we worry about that, we need to get the crystal ball back from Mr Principal — actually, the debris of the crystal ball.’ Soarame frowned hard. ‘Would the debris work, Ericson?’
‘It should be fine as long as we have most of it.’ Ericson nodded. ‘But careful when you ask for it; don’t make him suspect.’
‘I won’t leak out your secret. I don’t wanna accidentally break the pact and become a soul slave.’ Soarame suddenly raised his head. ‘Wait a minute… Doesn’t the school offer soulcores as rewards sometimes? Like Snower’s necklace — it’s an Expert-level reward for MagiMax. We could have chosen Expert soulcores back then! I did see it listed as an option!’
‘That’s right! Can we still exchange them for Expert soulcores? They are of an equivalent value, right?’ Kardiac hurriedly asked, but he was suddenly reminded of something — Omifo had chosen Pipi instead of a magigear. ‘Sorry… Pipi is not included, for sure.’
‘And let’s keep Snower’s necklace too for the little ones. But I can exchange my defensive magigear.’ Alicey said. ‘With Kardy’s flightcloak we can get two Expert soulcores!’
‘Meow!’ Snower suddenly gave voice. The little ones had been all quiet since the poison attack, but now they all stood up to support Snower.
‘Snower wants to donate too!’ After a brief mind-talk, Soarame took the kitten in his arms, caressing her head. ‘Good girl, I’m so proud of you!’
‘Sorry everyone, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ While everyone was touched by the little ones, Jemario cut in. She was good at listening and thinking quietly, so once she spoke she usually had a good point. ‘Do you really think the school will allow exchanging used gears for new ones?’
‘She’s right.’ Kriagon followed up. ‘Especially if you suddenly want to exchange all your rewards for soulcores, but can’t give a good reason.’
‘Further to that, if we ask for the crystal ball plus the soulcores, people might figure something out.’ Ericson looked very worried. ‘After all, the soulcores are most commonly used for magic arrays. So I can’t risk that, I’m sorry.’
‘That makes sense. Sorry I was silly.’ Soarame thought it through too. ‘But what else can we do?’
‘We hunt!’ Dileys spoke up,
determined. It seemed that Rodka’s crisis had really changed this mild girl. ‘We get out of campus, for a rehearsal!’
‘That’s… doable, actually!’ The friends wondered about Dileys’ suggestion at first, but they didn’t take long to nod. A rehearsal referred to a rehearsal of an Expert trial. An Expert trial is only for Expert wizards — most of the time, they go into deep jungle to fight powerful wild magimals in order to practise for real battles. If Adepts want to do something similar, it’s called a rehearsal because they have to pick on weaker enemies.
‘I’m in!’ Vivarin was excited. ‘We should do that anyway!’
‘Agreed, but even if we do, how to get Expert soulcores?’ Omifo asked. ‘We are not supposed to see an Expert magimal in a rehearsal. Even if we do, do you really think we can do anything about it?’
‘We’ll never know if we don’t try.’ Soarame said gravely. ‘Unless you have a better idea?’
‘I actually have one.’ Jemario spoke up again. ‘The Dragon&Empires Championship reward is an Expert-level magigear or something equivalent, so it would be an Expert soulcore too.’
‘That’s right! How could we forget that?’ Soarame smacked his own head. ‘It’s much easier than hunting an Expert magimal!’
‘So we must win the Championship too!’ There was determination in everyone’s eyes. ‘From now on, we all need to improve as fast as we can.’
‘Yes, but to improve faster we still need real battle experiences. We can’t just count on the school classes.’ Ericson said. ‘So a rehearsal is still a good idea. I say we should do that as part of the preparation for the championship, although we are not aiming at any Expert magimal yet. We are going to use the Adept ones for our training.’
‘Not only that. We should also get as many Adept soulcores as possible, and hopefully we might have enough to trade for one Expert soulcore!’ Dileys’ eyes shone up. ‘But as far as I know, to start a rehearsal we need to file an application for the off-campus tour.’