The Crimson Warlock

by Paulo Meireles Junior

  Unlike Sunnara’s castle, the royal castle of Yokana had an oriental-like design, in fact even the names of the Emperor’s family and people around him seemed to match Japanese culture from Earth. The designs of the capital incorporated more trees and flowers than those of Sunnara, and people wore kimono-like clothes everywhere. And much like Japanese culture on Earth, the surnames of the people from the nobility of Largos were pronounced first, followed by the person’s name.

  The Emperor himself came to greet me when he found out that I was at the gate. He then proceeded to introduce me to Doctor Saitou Eichi and the court magician Shimizu Kiyo when I asked about the ill soldiers. Apparently they were unresponsive and in a comatose state. They tried magic and medicines but none of it was sufficient to heal them.

  I asked him if I could try my magic on them, informing him that I could use all manner of magic and he was more than happy to see if I could cure them. It was the first time that I used 『Cure All』, a spell that had a long incantation and I wasn’t prepared for the blinding light that my arms emitted as I used the spell. I touched every soldier with my magic and used 『Scan』 to see if they had any other abnormal statuses, to which my spell returned informing me that they were cured.

  A few moments later, one by one, the soldiers started to wake and the Emperor thanked me again. Much like King Lucius, he wanted me to name a price, not only for protecting them at the Embassy but for healing his soldiers too. Again, I refused payment and informed him that King Lucius had hired me to escort and protect them on the journey to the Embassy and I was supposed to protect the royal family of Largos as well if our enemy attacked. He was a little perplexed that I refused to receive a payment but I wasn’t about to let karma ruin my life. The only reason I even had these powers was because of a god, helping a few people was a good therapy for me at the end of the day.

  Mega was nowhere to be found. He left me with the promise of returning with word on god. Apparently he could connect with the divine realm, but he wouldn’t be able to communicate with me while he was there so I just waited his return.

  That night I couldn’t sleep comfortably, my mind kept going back to my encounter with the Reaper and the discomfort that it caused me, just knowing that I couldn’t defeat him left me sad. When I was finally able to calm down enough so sleep could claim me, I wasn’t expecting what happened.

  “James? Open your eyes please” said a voice that I knew well.

  I did as he said and found myself sitting on the same chair from before, the old god was in front of me drinking his coffee. I was again in the divine realm of the gods. Nothing changed, I still could see lights like stars in the distance and the nothingness below me.

  “I’m here again” I stated the obvious.

  “Yes, I thought it was prudent to bring you here after your Omega told me of your current situation” he scratched his long beard and gave me an apologetic expression “we didn’t know that he summoned a Reaper, if we did, we would have destroyed it. As you know, Reapers can conceal their identity from us… I’m really sorry about it my boy” he then gestured the coffee mug in front of me on the table and I grabbed it and took a sip of its content.

  “Can’t you do anything with the Reaper now? Mega said I can’t defeat it” I sighed.

  “I would be able to kill it, but I already sent a hero to that world, you, that complicates things a bit” he again showed me an apologetic expression.

  “So what do I do? According to the Reaper, there is only one artifact left for me to destroy. But destroying the artifacts now will only prevent the people of Sapphire from using them. The Reaper will still be able to kill and feed on anyone or everyone”.

  “Not quite. Reapers can’t kill people directly, they wouldn’t be able to feed on their soul that way. Which is why he sent the Ziz after the royals at the Embassy. He was likely testing if he could weaponize monsters or create a weapon that can give him the opportunity to feed on the souls of its targets. You see, normally when someone dies, their soul is transported directly to the divine realm, but if he can delay that using some sort of magic and stay near the person, he could snatch the soul before it had the time to leave the body and come here”.

  “Okay, that means then that he will likely attack soon, whatever he is planning is probably almost ready to be done”.

  “Yes. I can’t interfere in the world below now that I sent you there, so you will have to kill the Reaper and save the people from Sunnara” great…

  “And how will I do that?” I asked the important question.

  “By using your divinity” what?

  “I’m sorry, what?” did he say divinity?

  “When I reconstructed your body, I did it here because I couldn’t retrieve it from Earth, which means you’ve been exposed to divinity, just like you are right now. The reason I pulled you from your bed and brought you here today was to see how your body would adjust being in the divine realm again, I can say that it is holding very well, I can feel your divinity, it’s faint but I can feel it”.

  “You mean to say that I actually have divinity in me? But why?”.

  “It’s a byproduct of being restored here, normally you wouldn’t even be able to access it, but the situation calls for drastic measures” he chuckled “I will give you a divinity stone”.

  He then gestured and a small white stone appeared in front of me, the stone looked like a normal white crystal, he then nodded in my direction and I grabbed it. The stone then disappeared in my hand, leaving me confused for a moment.

  “You will only be able to use that stone at the proper moment. But I shall warn you” he had a serious expression “when you use the divinity stone, you will not be able to recover your mana. You need to use it and kill the Reaper as fast as you can, if you run out of mana you will die”.

  “Woah, okay, why would I die if I ran out of mana?”

  “Since you are not a god, your divinity is unstable. Like I said before, you wouldn’t even be able to access it normally. The stone I gave you allows you to tap into that power, but that creates a problem. One of the reasons I fortified your body with a high reserve of mana was to contain the divinity that was used to revive you. Normally, a person faints if their mana runs out. That is not the case with you, you’ll die if that happens...” he paused to drink, I did the same “Once you use the stone, your divinity will strengthen and your mana restoration will become inactive until the effects of the divinity stone wears off. In simple words: what is keeping your body alive is the divinity inside of you”.

  “How does the stone work?” I ask not wanting to imagine running out of mana, I would have to be very careful while fighting the Reaper.

  “Once you activate the stone, you will gain full access to your divinity, spells that you use will be infused with your divinity and that will damage the Reaper. A god can easily kill creatures like the Reaper and with you it won’t be different, you will be able to easily kill it if you use the right spells. Like the Ziz, you might be able to kill a Reaper with a 『Firestorm』. I would use the stone and surprise the Reaper with an attack, that way you will have an advantage. Another good thing about this stone is that with your divinity active, the stone will put a barrier around you and the Reaper, he won’t be able to teleport away from you, your divinity will not let it escape” well, at least I would have the chance to kill it fair and square.

  “So, I just need to kill it as fast as I can, that way I don’t run out of mana and risk dying” I said and the god nodded.

  “You have a lot of mana, I’m confident that you can kill him efficiently and quickly” he said, at least you have hope I can do it.

  “Okay, thank you again. I confess, I almost went crazy when Mega told me I wouldn’t be able to defeat the Reaper” he laughed at that.

  “Don’t worry my boy, I have confidence that you will prevail. If anything I should apologize, your mission was to destroy all of the artifacts but now you also need to kill the Reaper, otherwise your new world will ne
ver be safe”.

  “If you think I can do it now, I will continue with focus. I’m almost at the finish line. I can’t slow down now” I tried mustering some confidence. The old god smiled and nodded.

  “Try and not think about failures. I have complete confidence that you can make it. I predict that most of Sapphire will know your name in the future” he smiled.

  “I will try not to think about it” I nodded.

  “Well, my work here is done. I will see you soon James, until then, give it all you got. If your efforts are genuine you will be fine” he said. I didn’t understand what he meant by ‘I will see you soon’, but with the stone he gave me the advantage I needed to come out of this victorious. I was about to say something to the god but my eyelids felt heavy and I blacked out.

  I woke up early, Mega still had not returned from the divine realm so I went on with my day normally. First I took a bath and went downstairs to eat. The kitchen was lively with conversation about the winter, when I asked Beth about it, she mentioned that it snowed last night, I was so out of this world that I did not realized that it snowed. The inn was actually pleasantly warm so I asked her about it. Apparently Clara’s inn had an enchantment to warm up certain areas of the building in the winter, the changes were so slight over the past weeks that I didn’t even noticed them.

  Outside I could see some snow covering the roads, it hadn’t snowed that much but according to Beth this was just the beginning and I looked forward to seeing Sunnara become all white for the season.

  My errands led me in the direction of the royal castle once again to consult with Emilia about the spell and when I arrived at the gates the knights were quick to let me in, one of them personally escorted me to Emilia’s study, she had at least ten books opened on her table when we entered the room. The knight bowed and left while she greeted me excitedly.

  “Hey James, I think I got it! Last night I made a breakthrough in the construction of the spell. I realized what we lacked in the core of the spell and how we could tie the arcana to an understandable action”.

  The arcana was the fundamental strings that tied spells together. It was also the reason that one of the elements was named ‘Arcane’. Arcane magic were classified as the most difficult spells to make, some were easy to master, others like my 『Teleport』 were only mastered by people like me. The arcana held the rest of the spell together, when you cast a spell you normally need to know how the spell works, example: a water lance has to be made of water and needs to have the shape of a lance. I normally bypassed the whole process because of the skills given to me by god, but in the case of a new spell, we needed to make it from scratch and give it a name.

  I can only effectively use a spell if I know its name, what it does and if the spell actually exists. Which is why I had a major problem creating the spell in the first place, I had no knowledge of how spell creation worked, thanks to Emilia, now I do know and we’ve been making this one since King Lucius authorized her to help me. She’s been in charge of theorizing and with her help we would test the effects of what would be called 『Energy Tracker』, the spell never worked to this day ever since we started working on it.

  “You’re saying that we can test it now?” I smiled.

  “Yes, we only need a source of energy to track and test it” I had an idea about it.

  “Are you certain the spell is going to work?”.

  “As certain as I can be, I’ll be trying the spell with you, that way I can see it for myself if it works properly” she nodded to her words. She could use Arcane spells, so her help was most appreciated.

  “In that case, you think you can be absent from the castle for a few minutes? I know where we can test the spell” I looked at her, her expression showed me confusion and perhaps a bit of interest.

  “I’m not needed now as far as I’m aware, but just in case I need to inform His Majesty of my brief absence” yeah, that would be best.

  I accompanied her to the dining room, where King Lucius and his family were having lunch. After a short greeting, I waited until Emilia made her intentions clear and proceeded to inform His Majesty that our experiment wouldn’t take long and if anything happened, I was going to protect his court magician. He proceeded to look at us and think for a moment before looking back at his children that were at the table, he then replied assuring us that we could proceed with the test.

  We went back to her library so she could get the necessary parchments, a feather and ink. I then teleported us near the crater outside of Yokana, making sure to put an 『Arcane Shield』 on both of us before entering. I could still feel the residual dark aura lingering in the air around the vast crater. If not for the fact that I needed to absorb a bit of the malign aura for the spell to work, I already would have purified this place.

  “I can sense the faint malign aura from here” she looked behind her to the city in the horizon “ah, we’re near Yokana, I remember the Emperor mentioning this crater, how uncanny. This was a forest, and yet there are no trees left, I wonder what our enemy was doing here...” she seemed to be in her own world so I let her be while I looked around again.

  The giant crater extended for more than two miles, there wasn’t a single animal or monster around. The mixture of dirt and rock was all that we could be seen at the edge of the precipice. The Empire would likely employ adventurers capable of using earth magic to fill the massive hole. I would offer my services to him in a later date in order to purify the place, provided of course that he made a formal request to the guild. I wasn’t interested in money per se, my interest came in the form of guild points, the ones necessary for me to achieve the highest rank.

  “I think we need to get inside the crater” Emilia said.

  “Okay” I put my hand on her shoulder and made eye contact with the bottom of the crater a few feet below, that would be my target for a teleport.

  “Wha-” she started to say before I interrupted her by teleporting us below “woah, a little warning would have been nice”.

  “Sorry” I said, to be honest, I was so accustomed to teleporting by myself that I hadn’t even taken into consideration if others found the sensation to be nauseating. She appeared flustered for a moment before recomposing herself.

  “Hmm, okay, let’s see...” and there she went, focused on her papers and totally ignoring my apology.

  I waited until she unrolled the pieces of parchment on the ground and examined them all. She looked at them, one by one, I assumed she was making a last minute check to see if everything was in order so we could proceed with the testing.

  “Yes, I believe this is it” she finally said after what it felt like forever “There is no chant for this spell since its purpose is to simply track an energy source. I will focus on the south and you focus on the north. We shall test it at the same time” she mentioned, I nodded and turned to the north.

  “On three. One. Two. Three” she said.

  “『Energy Tracker』” we said simultaneously.

  I focused on the malign aura north of me so the spell could reach it. After a couple of seconds I could see a blue cloud appear and consume part of the dark aura, the process took no more than a few moments and I had a sensation, I could feel the spell working and pointing me to the west, I couldn’t see the traces but I felt them. The spell worked giving me a sense of where to go to follow the dark aura to its source.

  “I can feel it, to the west” Emilia commented “Although, we could work more on this spell, it takes a good amount of mana to maintain it active”.

  “I think this is a win for us. For now I need to decide on what to do in the following days” I turned to her “I need to thank you Emilia, if not for you, I would never be able to complete this spell” I bowed to her.

  “Please, it is not necessary for you to thank me, after all you have done for my country... After you saved our royal family, this was the least I could do. In fact, I rather enjoyed the challenge” she smiled at me.

  “This brings me one step clos
er to my goal. So accept my thanks, and if you need help in the future, do not hesitate to ask” I said seriously. She was surprised for a moment before nodding.

  “Very well. Might we return to the palace? Or will you need to test the spell further?”.

  “Nah, I can work with this. We should return” I helped her with the parchments and extended my hand. She accepted in hers and I teleported us to the outside of the Royal Castle, startling the guards near the gates, it took only a moment for them to recognize us, so after I used 『Scan』 on her to make sure the time exposed to the malign aura hadn’t affected her, I said farewell to Emilia and went back to the inn.

  “I see you made great progress with the spell..” I was reading on my bed when Mega returned.

  “Yeah, Emilia saved me with the spell, it works wonderfully. The question now is: when do we follow it? The Reaper told us that we would meet again near Sunnara” my spell was still active and it would remain active until I would not need it anymore.

  “I think we should take a few days off. The Reaper is certainly ready to strike and once we encounter him next, that will be the decisive confrontation. Either we succeed or we fail and he wins. Our adventure is coming to a close” he pointed.

  “I assume god told you about the current plan to take down the Reaper...” I closed the book and looked at the ceiling.

  “Yes, although I think we can succeed, I must advise you to act with caution. My current concern is not the Reaper but his plans to mass murder people. Presently, we do not know how he plans to feast on a massive amount of souls” that worried me too.

  “Yeah, whatever his plans are, they certainly have to do with the crater that he left outside of Yokana. Prolonged exposure to the crater seem to make people ill. Could a specific plague killing thousands delay the extraction of a soul long enough so he could eat it?”