The creature started moving its wings and people started backing away, soon we were off the ground and flying as I pointed to the structure that I wanted to reach. It didn’t take long until I was shivering and had to use 『Warmth』 to protect myself from the cold winds, we were at least thirty thousand feet from the ground and weren’t even at the level of the fortress. The Griffon flied without difficulty and I focused ahead, in the distance, more and more of the fortress could be seen.
It took us almost ten minutes to get to the level of the fortress, the Griffon stopped near it and above the massive courtyard that strangely reminded myself of the royal castle in Sunnara, in fact, even its towers and ramparts were similar, did the Reaper copied the castle’s design? I instructed the Griffon to try and land in the courtyard of the castle. We easily did so, and that only reassured me that the Reaper wanted me here, just like Mega mentioned.
I thanked the Griffon and told it that it would be fine to finish our contract, the creature honored my wish and bid me good luck in my task before disappearing in a cloud of mists. I looked around the castle’s courtyard and the place was an exact copy of the castle in Sunnara, which terrified me, because it meant that the Reaper somehow was able to access the royal castle in order to make this one. The material used to construct the castle was strange and somewhat transparent, albeit not that much. I could feel the dark aura clinging to the walls of the castle and with 『Improve』 and 『Arcane Shield』 I was protected against the negative effects, but I still would be able to take a direct attack from the Reaper if he used that aura to create a dark spell at my location.
“This is unnerving” I remarked.
“This Reaper really outdone himself, I do not know where he found it, but this material used to construct the castle… It’s refined Ether” that was bad, Ether ore was rare and very expensive in this world, it was mostly used in the magic field because it could conduct magic as well as gold conducts electricity, not only that though. If used correctly, Ether could be used to amplify magic spells, so this castle could be one big weapon.
“Mega, this is bad. Even if we kill the Reaper, we need to destroy this castle. No one should be able to hold this much Ether freely, it’s dangerous”.
“I agree with you, the problem is, we need to take things one step at a time” he was right, but still, even though I was friendly with the royal family of Heryan, this place was one massive weapon and I wouldn’t trust them with it.
“Let’s venture on, our enemy is waiting inside”.
We went inside of the palace and I tried to sense where the Reaper was, he was definitely somewhere above, I couldn’t feel monsters in the area so I that was good for me. I followed the familiar path going up the dark stairs and going in the direction of the Reaper’s signature. Looking around, the place wasn’t furnished, it was just a shell of a place, a creepy empty palace with a malign aura tied to its walls.
I arrived at the audience room and after entering it I saw a very fitting scene, like a villain, the Reaper was sitting on a throne at the end of the huge room, looking exactly at me, at least that’s what I felt, I couldn’t actually see his glowing eyes, the only thing I saw when I looked at his hood was emptiness.
“Welcome to my little abode” said the sinister voice “I have been waiting for you, James Hunter and Omega”.
“You said we would meet again outside of Heryan, well done Reaper” I commented “I did not see this one coming. A castle made of Ether, I suspect it was made in Largos, right?”
“Nicely deduced detective. I have been gathering Ether for a while now, and those idiots at the Empire didn’t even know they were sitting on a huge cluster of it” he laughed “I admire your courage hero, coming here knowing you can’t harm me. I will offer you an opportunity of a lifetime: join me, my goal is to consume the souls of the people of Heryan and Largos, doing that will allow me to transcend the boundaries of other worlds. After I’ve done my bidding you can do whatever you want with this place, I do not wish to destroy the entirety of this world, I just need more power to transcend and become a higher being”.
“Seriously? Come on, you know I won’t accept that, why are you even offering?” what is his problem?
“Trying to sway a hero to do your bidding. An encounter with a wicked god really messed you up” Mega remarked “what do you even think you are going to accomplish here? How are you going to consume souls?”
“That was the reason I was experimenting with the artifacts. I toyed with some nobles from Sunnara because I originally wanted to get the Ether ores beneath the city, but they only cared about stopping the royal wedding, so I let them have their fun. I even toyed with changing monsters but those creatures are too volatile. You reminded me why working with others is not good, you would have been a worthy minion but in the end if you want something done right, you do it yourself”.
“You only attacked Sunnara to get ether from them? What about the war?” that made no sense.
“The war was my original plan to harvest souls but I discovered that the ether from Yokana and one artifact would be sufficient go on with my plan, I can still use the ether from Sunnara when I destroy the city”.
“Like that is going to happen...” I wouldn’t let him, I couldn’t fail.
“Hahah, this entire building is a weapon, I only need to use this floating fortress to shoot a beam of concentrated magic while the artifact’s aura invades Sunnara, their souls will be trapped there in anguish and I will feed on every single one of them and move to another city”.
“So, if we purify the last artifact you can’t do anything. Noted” I smiled.
“You can try that little hero” he laughed “feel it’s presence, I fused the artifact with this castle. As long as there is a part of this place, the influence of the artifact will be active”.
Well, how can I purify this entire place? That would take too long, and I needed to get the Reaper out of the way first. I was about to make my intentions known to Mega when I felt the castle start moving, crap! I felt the direction, it was heading directly to Sunnara.
“We had a good talk but right now I need to kill some people and feed on their souls, so I will start with yours” the Reaper’s sinister voice echoed through the walls of the empty audience room as he disappeared, time to fight then.
I closed my eyes to try and feel his presence but he was good at concealing, I turned my head from side to side and out of nowhere a beam of energy hit me, causing me to fly backwards and hit the wall of the room, although my body was being protected by 『Arcane Shield』, the impact of his attack and my back hitting against the wall really hurt. I invoked 『Arcane Saber』 and as the sword materialized in my right hand, I felt my body being lifted up by the Reaper.
“Are you hurt? I’m just starting” he chuckled.
“So am I” I said smiling, I felt the divinity stone in my left hand and I crushed it, as soon as I did, I felt a surge of power fill my entire body and I took the opportunity to catch the Reaper off-guard and stab him with my sword that now was golden, as soon as the blade made contact with the creature, he screamed and teleported away, I got up and looked around, I could now feel his presence ahead of me, even invisible I could clearly feel his presence.
“How!?” he screamed “This divinity!” I felt him teleporting to another location in the room “no, I can’t get outside of this room, how?” the stone trapped him inside of the room with me and made it impossible for him to hide.
“Yeah, I’m not about to tell you how, I’m here to kill you” I said, went exactly where he was and slashed him with my saber, he screamed before teleporting again and sending a beam of energy in my direction that I deflected with 『Sanctuary』, I had used about six per cent of my mana, I needed to finish this fast.
I used 『Firestorm』 and the flames turned golden in his direction, I felt the divinity in the flames making them stronger. I could feel them burning the Reaper’s existence away before he teleported and successfully struck me w
ith his scythe, I was concentrating on my spell so that made it difficult to evade the attack, I just took it. My mantle was cut in the process right above my stomach, I wasn’t injured but it was inconvenient. My 『Arcane Shield』 drew more mana to maintain it active, bringing me to nineteen per cent of mana used.
I moved the 『Firestorm』 around the room and expanded it to the whole room, making sure that the flames wouldn’t hurt me, the Reaper tried to attack me so I just moved fast concentrating to evade him while my spell literally burned his essence out of existence. As much as I wanted fortify the spell, I couldn’t because I needed to make sure that I had mana left to use 『Purify』.
“Die, die, die!” the Reaper screamed while trying to kill me, I could feel his essence getting weaker and weaker and every spell he used to try and hit me I just ignored, moving around the room with 『Improve』.
After two minutes of running, I felt the Reaper slow down so I concentrated the fire in his location and I saw his death happen, in a moment, his essence exploded releasing some kind of energy wave and with a scream he died a miserable and stupid death.
I deactivated all of my spells and felt that seventy-four per cent of my mana was gone, maintaining these amount of spells active all at once was taxing, specially when I needed to preserve mana. I was about to mention that to Mega when I felt a monstrous tremor.
“The mages at the city are likely attacking this palace, we are directly above the capital” he mentioned.
“What!?” How did this happen? They should have attacked it sooner.
“The Reaper had a barrier protecting this fortress, now that he is gone, the barrier is also gone. The problem is, they will not be able to stop this building from falling and killing thousands, not with the artifact attached to the whole structure, this is not good. Even if you purify this place, you will energize it with mana, the ether won’t be stopped by the mages below”.
“What can we do?” I was almost to the point of panicking.
“Nothing, you can’t purify this place now James, you will die if you do it, you don’t have enough mana to do it” crap.
I thought for a moment, Sunnara had more than one hundred and seventy thousand residents, they will all die if I don’t do something… I knew in my mind what I was going to do but I wanted more time… I wanted to meet more people, spend time with Lorelai… I failed. If only I killed the Reaper faster…
“I’m going to purify this building Mega, I need to destroy it too. I know that my spells are fortified by the divinity but I need to both purity and destroy this place so people will be safe”.
“I can’t change your mind, can I?” his voice sounded sad.
“No, it’s one life versus one hundred and seventy thousand. I just wanted to say...” I hesitated “it has been a pleasure to know and work with you, partner” I smiled sadly.
“I second that… The spell you want is 『Obliterate』” he mentioned “use it in combination with 『Purify』”.
I focused my energy and felt more and more of the vibrations, they were now hitting the castle with full force and I prepared myself to use both spells. Sitting at the ground I tried to feel the entire structure and that was easy to do with the divinity and the malign aura enveloping the whole palace. With determination, I combined 『Purify』 with 『Obliterate』 to destroy the entire place. I could feel it, as the place was purified, it was also erased from existence and with that my life was ending. After I reached five per cent of mana left I was tired but I had the determination to continue, in the end I knew I was making a difference. The Reaper was dead, at least ninety per cent of the palace was wiped out and I was going to die but I was going to take this entire castle with me.
God was right, I did have the power to destroy the villain, in fact, I had more trouble dealing with monsters of this world than with him. But the cost was way higher, my mana accessing my divinity meant that I would die in the end, I didn’t have enough mana to save everyone of Sunnara and stay alive… I would die to protect this place. Forgive me Lorelai...
“Must… keep… the… spells… active” I said as I closed my eyes and blackness claimed me.
“James, open your eyes” I heard god’s voice.
I did as told and I saw blackness, I could see my own body and god’s body in front of me, but around us, I couldn’t see anything, it was all black.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Somewhere. Do not worry about it” he smiled “congratulations on your win, and what you did… It was a very selfless thing. Sacrificing your own life so that others would continue their lives safe from harm”.
“Did I finished using the spell? Was the castle wiped out? Did anyone in Sunnara died?” I rapid-fired questions until he lifted his hand and I stopped “sorry”.
“Everyone is okay, thanks to you and your Omega” he smiled.
“Thank you. I looked forward to exploring Sapphire but I guess that the people that I saved will do that for me” I sadly smiled, I did a major thing, I died for it but I would do it again.
“Yes, but in time you will too” he said. I looked at him, what was he saying?
“What are you talking about? I died, I can’t go back, I-” he raised his hand again and I immediately stopped.
“My child, you are not dead, not yet” he said “what you don’t remember was your Omega using his life energy to save you” what? Oh no, what have you done Mega? “before you say anything, you didn’t force him to do it, much like sentient creatures, Omegas also have free will”.
“But… To use his life energy to save me. He died saving me?” no, why Mega?
“Yes, and I support his decision to do so. Hear me out James. You can’t simply destroy a Reaper’s essence with divinity and hope everything will be fine in the world. The moment you killed the Reaper, a massive amount of mana was released throughout Sapphire. Much like you, your enemy was one very powerful being, his mana will create powerful monsters. You might have saved the world as of now, but Sapphire will need a capable adventurer to protect it from the Behemoths and other powerful creatures that will be created, they need you James” I understood him, so I moved to something that had been on my mind.
“I wanted to ask about something that has been bothering me about the wicked god and the Reaper”.
“What is it?”
“When Mega and I arrived in Sapphire, no one was aware of the Reaper nor any major incident that caused the deaths that you described when we first met, the ones involving the original artifact”.
“Ah, when we discovered that the artifact was gone and we traced it to the wicked god, he had already used the artifact in a village of Alfhram, a lot of mortals died. We got there, captured the wicked god and recovered the artifact but the only thing we could do was remove the aura’s influence in the village. The people were already dead so we made it look like monsters had caused the destruction” oh, I remember Yuna briefly mentioning something about this incident.
“Hmm, that makes sense, I guess...” I sighed “still… I need to thank you again, for giving me a chance in the first place”.
“No need to thank me, I just want you to live your life to the fullest” he smiled.
“When I go back… Will I have the same amount of mana and mana regeneration as before?” I asked.
“Yes, as I mentioned before, your divinity is a strain in your body, the amount of mana that you have and your rate of recovery are key factors to your well-being” he said gently.
“Okay, what do I do now?” I asked.
“You focus on your rapid recovery, your mission is complete, you can do whatever you want. But I’ll return to my comment when we first met, I hope that you start your life in this world and live happily, it’s okay to be happy, it’s okay to make friends and it’s okay to be selfish sometimes”.
“Can I ask you a question?” something bothered me the whole time I was alive but I never thought of asking god about it.
“Yes, please do” was his response.
“On Earth, did the rookie and the kids successfully escaped the compound unharmed?” I asked and he smiled at that.
“Yes, they most certainly did, and with your deaths, the department brought down that entire operation, more than twenty people were arrested and sentenced”.
“That makes me feel better” I smiled.
“It should, you were a fine detective. I’m also very pleased that Sapphire is gaining a very capable adventurer to keep the world safe” he chuckled “with that I think this meeting of ours is concluded. We will meet each other again. Oh! I think you might meet other gods in the future, some of them are quite fond of you”.
“What?” I didn’t know how to respond to that, he just laughed, probably at my expression.
“Ah, before you go… Take this with you” he presented me with a small green stone.
“What is this?”
“Another hero briefly lived in Sapphire and she created an order to keep the world safe. That happened thousands of years ago, Sapphire was in a state of war and the hero constructed a base somewhere in the world, she used it as a base of operations for her and her allies. They were known as the Order of Sapphire. You might find books on them today, this stone will reveal the location of their base to you, it will also allow you to access it for the first time. When she died, she asked me to give the stone to a capable hero if Sapphire ever needed one” that interested me.
“Thank you for trusting me with this” I said.
“Not a problem, with that, I think I kept you for long enough” he waved and smiled. I was about to open my mouth to talk when I stopped seeing again.
I woke up and looked around the room, I was in a bright place that looked like a hospital, the linens on the beds appeared to be expensive, I could only think of one place that had so many expensive looking linens and probably had a hospital: the royal castle. I was wearing my crimson shirt and black pants, my mantle was folded on a nightstand.
The Crimson Warlock Page 19