Mortal Magic: Broken

The next morning I was the first one to wake up again but this time it was late enough for me. I was used to waking at sunrise or at the very most one or two hours later, now it was almost noon. I got up from the corner of the room that I crashed and immediately had to find leverage to steady myself. It was happening again. In my sleep I had produced more mana than I usually did before and I could not control the process in my sleep. I started releasing all the mana I could in the air around me and I felt like I was burning up once again. What was happening to me? This all started after I left the arena and recovered from mana sickness, and I was sure that it wasn’t Maia’s fault. No she was making me feel weird but this was different. I had to cool my body again to make this go away so I left the room and went for the baths again. This time there were people there but I paid them no mind. I was used to bathing alone but this was more important than that.

As I undressed some of the other men were looking at the scars I had collected but then they left me alone. It was more like a pool like bath like the one back in Redgard but this one had warm water instead of cold. But that didn’t mean there was no cold water anywhere. There was the part where people cleaned themselves with soap that had water flowing from a waterfall like decoration that seemed to take water from the same source as the wells in the city. And with magic in the works it was sure to be more than just that, elemental magi were tricky with their magic.

I got myself cooled up and then I dried up, got dressed and left for the room where the others were still sleeping. I got to the window and stayed there; looking outside aimlessly when after a while something caught my eye. There was a man in black traversing the not so crowded streets and at first nothing was catching my attention. But later on as I followed him with my eyes I saw his face and I was furious in seconds. There was no mistaking it, this was the man I was hunting; the man I was going to kill after I got the information I wanted. I saw him as he was turning back to look at something and the similarities were too many to ignore or be a coincidence.

The same jawline and those smirking lips were decorating his face. His eyes a bright magenta color that was too unnatural even for him and his long purple hair with the top part tied up in a braid. The same kind of clothes he was wearing that day, his mark as a master magus. Before I knew it I was storming out of the inn and I was following him as he took whatever road he wished and sometimes chatted with the townspeople like he wasn’t the monster that I knew him to be. And the sickest part was that all of them held him high in regard and some even bowed to him wishing him well when he was enjoying it and thinking who knows what perverted things. I kept my distance and made sure that he didn’t have any of his guards close by as he was walking the streets. I was like a shadow to him with the cloak and the hood on and surely I must have looked a bit suspicious but many other people had their hoods on, I was just the only one who didn’t talk.

After a while he took a turn to one of the dark alleys of the city likely to not waste time or something and I followed him loosely. When I saw that there was no soul in the alley and the other side was way far I closed in on him and before he could react I projected a knife and placed it on this throat and grabbed him from behind. He didn’t even flinch at the realization that someone was threatening to kill him but he did raise his hands in surrender and I was almost smiling at the thought that it could actually be that easy. “What do you want my friend? I can give you money, if that is what you want”. He was so calm that it was making me sick to my stomach. He dared speak to me with that familiarity and I was letting him.

“I don’t want your money, I want you to tell me something”. He was waiting patiently as I was getting myself ready to ask the question that I‘ve been dying to get the answer to. “I want you to tell me, where the fuck you are keeping my little sister you bastard”. When those words left my mouth he lowered his hands and when he spoke his voice turned from calm and kind, to cold and vicious. It was like he was an entirely different person; that was his real self. “Little sister you say? Let me guess; you are that kid I ordered taken to Redgard”. He was talking more to himself than me and that was unnerving me. “I heard you made quite a name in the arena those five years and then suddenly you killed everyone except the prisoners and escaped. Of course most of the prisoners are dead by now yet you survived and here you are. Demanding what I took from you all those years ago. Ironic isn’t it? I took your sister to save everyone and you act against me”.

He was messing with my head and I knew it, but I was too lost in my fit of rage to do something about it. I was almost trembling from my anger and I brought the knife closer to his skin and drew blood as a warning. “Tell me where she is, now. Before I kill you like I killed so many others”.

“Oh but you won’t. You see you need me alive to tell you where your sister is kept, and if you kill me there is no hope for you to find her. My men will just stick to the plan and finish the ritual in my stead. If you kill me she will die anyway, so stop acting all high and mighty”. He was right I needed him alive to find her but the fact that I was still following his plan was like a punch to the gut to me. He was toying with me all along. “Now I will tell you where your sister is, just so that I can see your face later when you have the knowledge and you are powerless to save her from her destiny”. He laughed for a moment and then he turned his head drawing more blood but he didn’t even blink at the fact that he was slashing his own throat. “Your sister is being held in the eastern continent where the ritual will take place at the blood eclipse. But you knew my plan all along, I made sure of that. What you didn’t know is the location, which is at the summit at the center of the continent. You see it needs to be done at the absolute center of the world, and that is not the central continent, but the eastern”. As he was talking my heart sped up and was pounding like elephants were marching inside me. He gave me what I needed without hesitation and I was now certain that this was all according to plan. It wasn’t easy because I had him where I wanted him. On the contrary it was because he had me where he wanted me to be, lost in despair and with false hope.

“Now you know that everything you have done has been according to my plans from the very start. When I told my men to take you away for entertainment I meant mine. To entertain me as you lose yourself to despair and die crashed and broken in front of your sister, or not”. That was when he grabbed my hand that was holding the knife and twisted it to force me to drop the weapon and he backed of slowly, that evil grin still plastered to his face. Cold sweat was coating my forehead and I was sure I was doomed already. Still I wasn’t going down without a fight, and I was going to kill him if it was the last thing I was going to do.

He was moving again before I gathered my thoughts and I was barely able to dodge his punch that was aimed to my face. I was better than this, I was more skilled and experienced that this. He wasn’t going to kill me that easily. I regained my balance and took a few steps away from him and to assess the situation. He was simply standing there and watching me, smiling like the arrogant son of a bitch he was and waiting for me to make a move. Was I supposed to make a run for it, run for my life and if I was lucky live like a coward? Was I supposed to fight him and die here without accomplishing shit? I made that choice long before I came here, long before I escaped from my cell.

I rushed to him and attempted to punch him straight to the jaw but he dodged to the right which I had anticipated and so I twisted my body and lifted my leg to kick him in the head but he ducked and then came from behind me and punched me to the side. The pain made me flinch and almost scream. His blow was strong, too strong to be just physical strength. I was sure that he may have cracked one of my bones, possibly more. His strength must be due to magic but I could be wrong; it wouldn’t be the first time. I staggered for a moment and then straightened back up and then he charged at me aiming for my head with his fist which I dodged and stepped further back.

I projected two knives on my hands and then attacked again, this time aiming for less obvious places, like his chest and his arms. He was using his fists more than his legs and that gave me an idea of what his fighting style was like. He was aiming for almost fatal wounds with raw power and he had the speed to avoid the same treatment, for now. Pulling on my mana reserves I infused my body with mana to gain speed, strength and resilience. “Mana Burst”. The name of the arte came out of my mouth in a furious scream and then I was attacking with such angry need that I was pushing him back. I managed to cut him at his arms and I cut his robe many times before we reached the end of the alley and we were in plain sight.

I didn’t care who saw me, now that I had what I wanted I was going to kill him and then go save Ashe. We were surrounded by people who were terrified and screaming as I was moving at this unnatural speed. Lars was still enjoying himself and I felt something change. Suddenly the air grew hotter and his body was cloaked in flames so I had to move back. The moment I did so though I felt the earth beneath me tremble and I barely had time with my enhanced reflexes and speed to move away before spikes came out of the ground. This was all too familiar. This power was so familiar that the similarity made me lose my mind. This was her magic. She is the only person who can freely control all the elements at will, and earth and fire were her favorite. “Why do you have her powers? What did you do to her”? I was screaming at him and I was so blind in my rage that I never notice that the magi guard came to his aid before one of them got in my way.

One of the guards present drew his sword and intercepted my attack so that the others could take Lars to safety. They were getting in my way dammit. This was my only window to kill him and now I was failing to do so, because of them. I focused on the guard in front of me and even though I was looking at him I was paying no attention to who he was, just that he was in my way. “Don’t interfere or you will regret it”. Still with a calm face he didn’t move an inch from where our blades had locked together. “You will regret attacking the master magus assassin, and you will regret coming here with the intent to kill”.

Lars was nowhere to be found and now I was the primary focus of all the five magi guards that came here. They were all trained warriors and before they were magi and even as magic users were trained like no other. That was what it meant to be a magus guard; you are a trained warrior that follows orders, no matter the order. Soon I was fighting all of them and I had to make Mana Burst stronger to keep up so I fueled more mana to my body. They were surprised at first but then they adapted and I was slowly but surely being pushed back. Fighting all of them alone was something I couldn’t do here, the space I had was limited. The moment they got here my defeat couldn’t be more certain. And defeat was almost upon me.

Minutes later I was tired from the constant fighting and the way I had to concentrate and burn my mana like that that I was pinned to a wall. One of the guards had his sword on my throat and was threatening to make the cut so my only choice was to surrender. Before that though I saw Maia and Yuto at the alley that I came from while attacking Lars. How long were they watching? Did they just find me or did they follow me all the way and I hadn’t even noticed? No there was no one following me, they must have arrived recently. And Yuto was holding Maia to keep her there, she was going to do something stupid and destroy her life. I had to act. I pulled on the last of the mana I still had inside me and projected another knife, this one far away from the guards and above my companions. I fired it so that it stabbed the ground in front of them.

They looked right at me at that moment and I did the same with a hard commanding look on my face. For their good I hoped they wouldn’t act. The guard with the sword punched me on the gut and left me to fall to the floor before someone else kicked me on the head, hard. The kick was so strong that it almost took me out, but even though I was still conscious, I was unable to do anything to escape. My head was pounding from the kick and the headache that it triggered and my body was tired form all the exertion and the mana I lost so soon. Someone put shackles on my hands and then they made me stand up by force, which included more kicks.

They took me away somewhere and as we were walking and they were laughing and shoving me forward I could see the citizens glaring at me and hear them cursing. But I could also see Maia and Yuto following us all the time. I was so out of it that the moment we reached a big wooden gate I was almost asleep. They shoved me inside and I almost fell to the ground but they made me stand up again by force as they lead me through a wide passage. After a while the passage gave way to a dungeon, with iron barred cells and people inside them, and I was taken to one of the cells to the very back. They shoved me inside and after they locked the door they left, but the last on spat and he almost hit me with his spit. The cell was small and it didn’t even have a bed, but I could see there were places where the shackles on my wrists fit. I tried to get my hands free and the only thing I could do was to separate the two different wrist rings I was wearing that I mistook for shackles. They were made from metal but I could see some green markings all over them, and on the places they fit too. They were magical and made specifically to hold prisoners, but they must have another function too.

The moment I heard the screams from above I knew what this place was, and it wasn’t a simple dungeon either. Fate was playing its tricks on me again. Or perhaps it was my own stupidity that got me here in the first place. I somehow found myself in a place very much like the one I wasted five years of life. I wasted all that time to get imprisoned in another hellhole like this, for nothing. I accomplished absolutely nothing. And something was telling me that this time; I wasn’t getting out of here. This time I was sure that I wasn’t leaving this arena alive.