by Weiqi Wang
‘Wait, you are leaving?’ Soarame was quick to ask. He was reminded of Ecrif’s leaving — it seemed that these superior beings tended to have little patience. ‘Do you know my parents, sir?’
‘Who are your parents?’ Chelonad seemed a little annoyed. ‘Be quick.’
‘Jadekings. That’s my family name… well, at least my master thinks so.’ Soarame looked up to Chelonad, hoping for a clue. ‘And I don’t know their full names, sorry.’
‘Is that so?’ Chelonad seemed to get the point. ‘Sorry, boy. I’ve never heard of them, but good luck on that.’
‘Okay… thank you.’ Soarame sighed. It seemed that Scankeen was right, that it wouldn’t be easy to find a clue about this.
‘Boy, you keep my secret and I’ll keep yours.’ Chelonad’s body was sinking into the cavity. ‘Deal?’
‘Deal.’ Soarame hurriedly said. ‘Thank you, Chelonad!’
Chelonad seemed to wink at Soarame in response; but that didn’t make his scary green eyes look any more amiable. The cavity then began to shrink, with soil and mud being pulled towards it. Finally, it disappeared, leaving a dumbfounded Soarame all alone.
~~~~
The world is big. Locking himself in the bedroom, Soarame recalled Ecrif’s words. The true face of the school’s security is a superior magimal, probably of Baron level?
The boy kept thinking. A lot had happened in the last couple of days. His mind ocean had reached Expert level, meaning that once he mastered an Expert-level spell, he would become a real Expert wizard. Oh, wait… I’ve got the Expert flying spell, so I’m already an Expert wizard!
Holy shit! I just swore to Jemario that I’m not an Expert! Soarame was not sure if he should feel happy or sad. If she finds out about this, she’s never gonna believe me anymore!
Soarame wandered back and forth in his bedroom, eyebrows knitted together. He thought it over and over, and finally decided to keep his real power to himself, in order to avoid any risk of compulsory graduation. However, Chelonad had just taught him a lesson, that no secret could be kept forever; so Soarame made a decision — just in case, he was going to unseal his Lightning eligibility, and start learning the third and most important lineage to him.
‘Soarame, are you in?’ Jemario’s voice from the bedroom door woke Soarame up from his thoughts. Soarame subconsciously checked around, and found it to be afternoon already.
‘Jem, the class is over?’ Soarame hurriedly opened the door, and saw a dreamily beautiful face behind it.
‘Yes, is your constipation over?’ Jemario walked into Soarame’s bedroom, followed by her best friends. ‘You look worried… oh dear, it’s real this time?’
‘Well… cough, cough.’ Soarame hemmed and hawed. ‘I’m okay … Is Sandoray okay though?’
‘No, she’s not.’ Catheray chuckled. ‘The queen has just commanded you to report to her by the next class.’
‘Crap!’ Soarame had a headache at once. Speaking of headaches, the boy noticed that he had a few too many these days…
‘Soarame, you finally made this decision?’
The next morning, in the castle where Soarame had done his entry test years ago, Aertiuno was sizing Soarame up and down.
‘Yes, sir.’ Soarame said seriously. ‘Can I ask you a favour please?’
‘What is it?’ Aertiuno was curious.
‘Please allow me to say it’s your suggestion, not mine.’ Soarame looked shy. ‘Does that sound brash?’
‘Without giving me a reason? Yes, it does.’ Aertiuno teased. ‘It’s fine. I think you have reached bottlenecks in both Wind and Water, so you may want to try Lightning to switch up your mind.’
‘Wow… that sounds even better than my prepared wording.’ Soarame was overjoyed. ‘You are amazing.’
‘I learnt the amazing art of lying from you humans. But you seem to be an exceptionally poor example.’ Aertiuno looked at Soarame in a meaningful way. ‘You messed up with Chelonad yesterday?’
‘Err…’ Soarame was choked on hearing this. ‘It was an accident… I didn’t mean to.’
‘Great job you’ve done!’ Aertiuno suddenly laughed, making Soarame bewildered. ‘It’s been decades since last time I saw him flustered like that, ha-ha-ha!’
‘Well…’ Soarame was amused and at the same time confused. He knew that Chelonad and Aertiuno tended to tease each other, but he was wondering how old this young blond man really was — how could he be talking about “decades”?
‘Okay, Soarame, you’ve got what you wanted from me. Now I need a favour from you.’ Aertiuno stopped laughing. ‘I want to test my persuasive whisper on you again, to see if you can still resist it this time.’
‘That mind manipulation spell?’ Soarame nodded. ‘Okay, but don’t be too hard please.’
‘Sure. But be careful, last time it was just a tease.’ Aertiuno warned Soarame. ‘This time it’ll be real, so get prepared.’
‘I’m ready.’ Soarame took a deep breath and held it, waiting for Aertiuno’s action.
‘What’s your most powerful spell so far?’ Aertiuno’s first question came. Soarame instantly sensed a strong pulse in his mind, trying to make him tell the truth.
‘Piercing wave.’ It did take Soarame some efforts to conquer the pulse, but he made it eventually. ‘It’s an Expert level spell in Wind.’
‘You are an Expert?’ Aertiuno’s eyes widened. ‘Already?’
‘Haha, of course not.’ Soarame chuckled. ‘Kidding! Did I win?’
‘Smart one.’ Aertiuno had to chuckle too. Thinking a bit, he continued with an unexpected question. ‘The next one: do you have a girlfriend?’
‘Err…’ Soarame was taken aback on this one. But after thinking about it, it was actually a good question; he was not sure of the answer himself, so he had to think about it. Technically it should be a “no” because neither he nor Jemario acknowledged anything, but realistically it might be a “yes”?
Soarame kept pondering the question. It occupied the boy for quite a bit, so that he didn’t realize that Aertiuno’s eyes were glowing golden.
‘I guess not yet.’ Soarame made his answer finally. ‘I’m telling the truth this time, but it’s not because you’ve got me. What’s your next question?’
‘That’s enough.’ Aertiuno nodded with a smile. ‘You are good to go.’
‘That’s it?’ Soarame was relieved. ‘Okay, thanks so much, Aertiuno. See you around, then.’
Soarame left the castle, all happy. His next destination was Lightning Department, but he was not familiar with the route, so he called on Chelonad for directions. However, following the direction on his emblem, Soarame didn’t arrive at the cloud-kissing tower of Lightning, but instead saw a big cavern before him.
‘What’s this?’ Soarame stopped by the cavern. ‘Chelonad, are you sure this is the right route?’
Right then, a wave of weird noises sounded from the cavern. Soarame was instantly alerted, but it was too late — a blast of irresistible suction power had got him, dragging him towards the cavern.
‘Chelonad?!’ Soarame yelled aloud. ‘What’s going on? Help!’ He grabbed the edge of the cavern, barely preventing his body from falling in. However, the suction was so strong that Soarame could only hold for a second; then he disappeared in the darkness, screaming as he fell.
Pooww! After only a few seconds, Soarame fell into mud. The mud had a nasty smell but luckily it was very loose and soft, so Soarame didn’t break his bones.
What the heck is this! Soarame climbed up and carefully checked his surroundings. Thanks to the experiences during the Jankide Quest and the beetalbull nest years ago, Soarame didn’t panic. He kept his movements slow and as quiet as possible, and he didn’t call Chelonad for help — that was the biggest mistake that they had made in the beetalbull nest. Soarame was certainly hoping Chelonad would become aware of the situation soon, but the giant boa didn’t even respond to him when he was out there — perhaps he was really taking a nap?
God bless,
don’t let the nap really last a year! Soarame prayed inside. That said, he was actually more curious than scared, because he’d just levelled up to an Expert wizard; so if this place was another Expert trial site like the beetalbull nest, it might actually be a great opportunity. Maybe this is Chelonad’s arrangement?
With caution, Soarame started moving forward. Thanks to the faint light of some strange fluorescent moss on the wall, he noticed that he was in a tunnel of some sort, and the space ahead became wider and wider. This reminded him again about the experience in the beetalbull nest, so he proceeded with greater caution. Strangely, nothing happened, until he reached a giant empty space. Soarame checked it carefully and couldn’t sense any animate thing around, except for some big trees. Puzzled, Soarame walked towards the trees, because there was really nothing else to do.
‘It doesn’t make sense.’ Soarame arrived at the closest tree, completely safe. Touching the tree with his palm, Soarame was trying to sense something different from this tree, but he couldn’t. ‘Nothing is happening… What’s this all about then?’
Confused, Soarame decided to move ahead. But the next moment, a vine on the ground suddenly pounced up and twined his ankle.
‘I just knew it.’ Soarame sneered. He crooked his finger almost at the same time, and bounced it with a little crescent shooting at the vine.
The insta-cast on windblade worked really well — the vine was instantly cut off and Soarame walked away from it. But the next second, many more pounced up. This didn’t surprise Soarame either; he shot himself into the air and floated up there. ‘Whoever you are, let’s save some time. Show your best, please.’
‘Don’t be madcap, son.’ A hoarse voice sounded in the giant space, echoing. ‘You took the Godmade, so give it back if you wanna save time.’
‘WHAT!’ Soarame was shocked to hear this. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You know what I’m talking about, young man.’ The voice was from somewhere below the floating Soarame. ‘Give it back to us, so that we can let you go.’
‘Nonsense. I don’t know what you are saying.’ Soarame became nervous. He wasn’t sure what was going on and he didn’t know the best solution, but he knew that he was not going to admit anything about the Godmade.
However, what the voice said next completely whitened Soarame’s face. ‘Don’t play the fool! We both know that it’s right in your space-ring!’
What the freak is going on here! Numerous thoughts flashed through Soarame’s mind. Chelonad betrayed me? He sold me out?
‘One last time — give it back to us, or you’ll end your life here!’ This time, as the voice sounded, the biggest tree in the centre suddenly trembled, and two gaps opened on its trunk — forming two corrugated eyes. ‘Right here, right now!’
‘No way!’ Soarame realized that there was no point in denying the existence of the Godmade anymore. ‘That’s my Godmade, so forget about it!’
‘Then die!’ The big tree lost patience. A long, tough branch suddenly lashed towards Soarame at great speed, causing a strong gust. Soarame dodged the attack and tried to fly back to the tunnel, only to find that exit had been sealed up.
‘Damn it!’ Soarame was no longer in the mood for this adventure, which he had initially thought might be fun. He must either defeat the enemy, or break out from the freaking weird cavern with the talking tree in the middle.
‘There’s no exit for you, so get back here!’ A load of bigger vines pounced towards Soarame, stretching long enough to reach all corners of the cavern. Soarame had to insta-cast windblades while dodging, but the vines were just too many. Thanks to the levelling-up to Expert, Soarame could cast a dozen windblades with a hand-wave; but the endless vines kept pouncing, wave after wave, so that Soarame was totally kept at bay and becoming gradually more exhausted.
Finally, a vine got Soarame’s leg and started to drag him down. This panicked the boy, but he was too exhausted, and the vines were outplaying his windblades. As a result, although he screamed repeatedly, the boy was dragged down to the ground and twined up tightly. ‘Who the heck are you? How did you know about my Godmade?’
‘That’s not your Godmade. It’s ours.’ The big tree said coldly. ‘Your greed killed you; remember that.’ With that, a wave of creepy buzzing noises sounded from behind the big tree — a bunch of small figures showed up and approached Soarame fast.
‘HELP! CHELONAD!’ Soarame was freaked out. He could tell that the numerous small figures were some kind of bugs, and the buzzing noises were from their wings. The first bug landed on one of Soarame’s feet and bit it, making an immediate swelling on the spot. Then the next bug did the same thing, followed by the third, the fourth…
Soarame’s shrill crying echoed in the cavern, sounding gruesome. He tried everything to break out from the vines, but they were just too tough. Soon enough, the swellings on Soarame began to smell and decompose; this scared the guts out of the boy, making him cry hysterically.
‘HOOWLLL!!!’ Seeing the bugs pouncing towards his eyes, Soarame finally went crazy. The roaring transfixed the bugs — it was a subconscious piercing wave again. Unfortunately, the immature version of the spell was not powerful enough. Seconds later, the bugs woke up, and pounced on Soarame again!
‘Crack, crack, crack…’ In the next moment, the bugs were frozen up and dropped on to the ground, breaking into debris one after another. In the middle of the debris, a black broadsword showed up out of nowhere — out of a survival instinct, Soarame summoned it out.
Unfortunately, the cost of the summoning was that part of Soarame’s body was badly frozen, so that all he could do was to roll away from the sword — but the vines on his body were frozen too, so he easily broke out this time.
‘WHAT IS THAT?!’ The big tree screamed on seeing the broadsword. Everything happened in the blink of an eye; before the tree realized it, the sword was standing there, with its sword-point in the soil and freezing it all up. ‘That Godmade… what is it?’
‘You asked for it, claiming it was yours… And now you ask me what it is?’ Soarame roared, struggling with different injuries all over his body. ‘Screw you!’
‘No, that’s not…’ The tree tried to say something, but was cut off by Soarame’s furious roar —
‘Go to hell!’ Soarame sent his will to the sword, asking it to attack the tree. Unfortunately, the sword didn’t listen; either because Soarame wasn’t really its owner, or because he was not powerful enough yet. That said, its severe cold was still doing remarkable damage to the big tree, because they were not far apart and the tree couldn’t move. So right then the tree was screeching in panic — it couldn’t do anything to stop the Godmade.
Soarame was no better off than the tree; if he couldn’t get healed soon he would end his life here. This time, there was no more luck of resurgence, and Soarame didn’t even sense any response from his necklace, as if it was not feeling the danger of its owner.
Son of a bitch! Chelonad set me up? He wants me dead? Just when Soarame’s consciousness was leaving him, he heard a loud and sonorous voice —
‘ENOUGH!’
MINK COATS?!!
Thud! Soarame fell over to the floor, barely conscious.
‘Soarame, wake up!’ A figure rushed forward and picked the boy up, putting him on to a couch.
‘What…’ Soarame gradually gained consciousness, blinking his eyes. The overwhelming pain all over his body seemed to be gone, but he was feeling extremely tired. ‘Aertiuno? What happened?’
‘Boy, who are you after all?’ Aertiuno didn’t answer Soarame’s question. He sized the boy up and down, with shock and bewilderment in his shining blue eyes. ‘How the heck could you…’
‘Aertiuno, what’s going on?’ Soarame finally cleared his mind. He was surprised to find himself back in Aertiuno’s castle, with no wounds on his body at all. Furthermore, he thought that his clothes had been torn off in the battle with the vines and bugs, but they were all intact now.
‘You were in
an illusion — created and manipulated by me.’ Aertiuno had to explain. ‘Everything that you think you saw and suffered was not real. It was just a fake scene in your mind, as a result of my mind attack.’
‘An illusion?’ Soarame was in shock; but he had to believe this after checking his body over and over again. ‘So I’ve lost to your persuasive whisper, after all?’
‘Yes, and no.’ Aertiuno sighed. ‘You did lose your mind defence as you were distracted by my question, so that I managed to invade your mind ocean and make all the illusion happen. However, you didn’t lose the illusional battle…’ He tailed off.
Shit… Soarame recalled the details in the illusional battle — he’d summoned the Godmade back there. Strangely, the big tree had been demanding the Godmade in the beginning, but it seemed that it didn’t recognize the broadsword. This had been confusing Soarame since he’d noticed it, but there was an even bigger problem — the boy was wondering, first of all, if his secret about the Godmade was still a secret to Aertiuno. ‘Could you see my illusion yourself?’
‘I was the one to create your illusion and manipulate it.’ Aertiuno certainly understood the true question between Soarame’s words. ‘So, I could not only see it but also guide it.’
‘So…’ Soarame was not sure what to say next.
‘I’m sorry, Soarame. I shouldn’t have done that, and I didn’t mean to. I was simply curious to test your limit.’ Aertiuno looked frustrated. ‘Now I know why Chelonad didn’t tell me what you did to him yesterday. I’ll keep your secret just like he did.’
‘Thank you!’ Soarame heaved a sigh of relief at this. ‘What were those bugs and trees anyway? Especially the big talking one in the middle?’
‘Don’t worry about them. They were just a part of the illusion.’ Aertiuno hurriedly said. ‘I won’t be talking about any of this from now on, and neither will you. Deal?’
‘Deal.’ Soarame puzzled for a second before he nodded — Aertiuno’s tone reminded him of Chelonad. It seemed that there was a whole long story behind this, but Soarame didn’t have time to pursue it at that moment.