—————————Haydrian—————————
I sat in my car watching the window of an apartment building as I thought on the words of my good friend and current client, Joana Casterly. He was kidnapped, she said. It wasn't by a regular human; this must have been dark magic, she warned me. There seemed to have been some sort of cover up involving a gaming company that had been linked to the disappearance of Michael, Julius, and Stacey. Three friends that had often played the games released by this company and were first in line for the beta test.
As much as I hate the thought of magic being real, if it weren't for her magic years ago, I'd still be a crippled black ops veteran and wouldn't be as strong as I am now. She showed me how to heal my hand and legs. I may not be attuned but she thought me a few ways to use magic even without attunements and as a self proclaimed genius I couldn't just stop there, I was the man she could rely on because I had taken that power a step further. She's not home. If I were a teen with magical powers where would I go, if she kidnapped him then, it's possible, they left this world. I got up my black cloak fluttering in the rain. I soon noticed someone inside. I put my hands over my head and ran up toward the door. There was a buzzer shit, I can't just walk in. I looked to a sign out front Home for sale, it read. I noticed a large burly man wearing a suit and tie who walked out and looked like he was about to walk to the car lot.
He had the same black hair and hair cut as me, but unlike my blueish gray eyes that would shift from greenish gray in certain light, he had brown eyes. Before he could turn, I started pulling up the sign. "Hey man do you think you could help me with this. I told the owners to pull this thing up days ago."
"Uhh who are-"
I cut him off, "I'm your new neighbor. My name is-" should I tell him a lie or the truth, it's safer to lie, I decided, "Jack Stark." I offered him my hand.
He took it, "I'm Derek Jamerson." I smirked after he helped me pull it out of the muddy ground.
"I can take care of it from here. I'll be seeing you around." The man nodded and walked away to his car in the lot which was empty besides his car and presumably his neighbor's car who I could see in the window. I dropped the sign when he walked out of view. I walked up to the buzzer and looked to see where Derek Jamerson lived and who his neighbors were. I could barely see and old lady from the open window upstairs, she lived diagonally from him. I mimicked with almost perfect accuracy of Derek's voice, "Hello Miss Bradsley." I read her name off the label next to her buzzer. "It's your neighbor Derek, Derek Jamerson."
"What is it Derek?" She asked almost saying the name like a curse. It was like she couldn't be bothered with talking to me.
"I left my house key in the apartment." I waited, click! The door unlocked. I walked in and turned to the door on my left. The apartment that I was watching was locked. She locked the door after herself. She's thorough. I think I know a unlock door ritual. I bit my thumb till a bit of blood trickled out and then filled the key hole with mana and placed my bloody finger to the key hole, I used the combination of mana and blood like a lock pick.
Click! A pin went down, and I continued quickly to the next pin without letting the previous one fall. Click! I continued to the next pin and the next, then I made it to the last. One more and boom. The door silently unlocked and I stepped in. I heard commotion coming from the bed room. Still searching aye. What are you looking for? I immediately looked for anything that looked off. Looked like everything was perfect, too perfect.
Hmm, they couldn't have lived here long, not much furniture, no marks in any part of the apartment. Minor dirt on the carpet...foot tracks. I compared my foot size to the size of the tracks. Boots, size... five in men's but the style... women's shoes? A woman is digging around in here. Let's see who you are. I silently shut the door behind me. I continued on to the room the noise was coming from and looked in the rooms around that one. I can't let myself be tricked by an illusion or distraction, anyone in their right mind would be paranoid the moment any sound is made. I've been quiet but not that quiet. And even if she was so dense as to not let my noise effect her concentration, It wouldn't hurt to find some extra clues. The bathroom was as I expected, quaint and messy, due to this person. I then went into the bed room next to the room the sound was coming from the noise stopped. A knife, no a dagger flew for my forehead, charged with blue arcane energy and surrounded by a is that a Mach cone? My eyes widened as I shifted my head the dagger passing by, barely touching the hairs on my cheek. Fast. I thought as the streaking blade crashed behind me into the bathroom mirror. It may not have been very fast from my perspective it surely beat the world record for a fast ball by several times over. It was a girl, couldn't be more than seventeen or eighteen. She looked like she couldn't have been caramel skinned but maybe months of no sun may have turned her skin to its now olive color. Her fingertips were burning with blue arcane; she pulled her hand down ran up and pinned me down to the floor. Her eyes were hazel and looked like the eyes of a wild animal who has just been challenged? What happened to you?
"Who are you and why are you following me?" She spoke in an icy tone as if she were a killer to her core.
"The shoot first and ask questions later type, I'm guessing this isn't you first rodeo. Hmm. Kid I don't wanna hurt you. Just get off of me and we can talk-" I was cut off by her dagger flying to us, the blade resting upon my neck.
"I can't do that." She glared at me.
I rolled my eyes. If you want to do this the hard way, then let's do it. I pushed my mana up to the surface of my skin let it sit there. I tried sitting up, a sad and tired look flashed across her face. The blade blurred as it hastily slit my throat, or at least tried to, it failed completely. As the dagger pressed hard enough to draw blood, pure arcane energy exploded out of the shallow cut destroying the blade and pushing her back. No longer holding me down I threw her off me and shot up. Instead of getting up with me she swept at my legs. I jumped and tried my hand at a flying kick. It's been years since I tried this. She ducked pressing herself flat against the floor. Her leg shot up in an attempt to hit me in the groin while in I was stuck in the air. I snapped my knees and legs shut letting my legs bend back as she landed her kick, using them as a buffer. As I fell, I attempted to strike her with my knees. She rolled to the side evading my strike. We both shot up to our feet at the opposite ends of the.
Red arcane energy flared around her hand as she tried punching forward, a fire ball began to surround her hand. She's going to punch it at me! Energy flowed to my fingertips. I snapped the energy was released along the sound waves. The growing fire around her hand immediately went out. She tried restarting the flames, but nothing happened. "I'm not really a fan of magic. Though I'm one of the best that I know, no one has been able to match me in a while." She didn't need to know that I hadn't interacted with any magic users for a while and only really knew of two other magic users that, three if you count the kid she was looking over, the one I'm looking for. Twelve seconds till magic is back. She steeled herself and then rushed at me. We threw a flurry of blows which I parried and blocked. "Feisty, you young ones always are." Eight. She threw a right hook and I blocked with my wrist. I then slipped in closer to her stepping on her foot as I did and threw a punch at her gut. She bent back, causing me to miss, and as she did, she caught herself with her hand and shot her leg up. Her foot almost connected with my head. I leaned out of the way as she used her other foot to knock my feet from under me. I fell as she stood up. Five, I caught myself and rolled trying to evade any attack she may try while I was down. I jumped to my feet and rushed her.
Though I was the one coming at her she was the one to throw the first couple of punches. Two. I sent pure kinetic mana to my index and middle finger. I slapped away each of her punch using the back of my hands in juggling motion, and then placed my two fingers to her chest and punched her from an inch away twisting my body putting my all into the punch. One, the mana flew out of my fingers and fist in the shock wave of bone shaking force and sent her crashing into the window. It shattered and her back broke with a sickening wet crack as she hit the wet pavement. She arched her back and then flattened out. I could already sense the rejuvenating mana flooding her body. Healing magic. I jumped through the window and snapped as I neared her re-configuring body. Her eyes widened as the healing magic stopped. She started backing up, it seems her back recovered enough for her to move a bit better. She slowly stood up planted her feet and stood in a relaxed neutral fighting stance. My eyes flashed bright white to allow me to use the divination spell, I could see her magic clearly and it was big and bright like a white giant star, but then it changed and I saw a yellow aura try to breach the anti magic zone. She used magic to cut off her hearing and block her air ways. She used mana to enhance her body and heal as well as rejuvenate herself no longer needing air. Smart girl, cutting her body off from my spell. When I came at her, she reacted instantly, guarding my side kick to by using her knee hitting my shin, but my leg bounced up from the block and rocketed for her side, but she blocked this kick as well by putting her weight behind an arm block. How are you doing this it's like you have the reflexes of a fly. This isn't a normal enhancement spell, it's a pure mage spell maybe but how is she resisting the anti magic spell. My foot bounced off her block changing its trajectory again, it was now a front kick. She had to have moved twenty times faster because she moved before my kick even got to her, waited for it to get up then she grabbed it and went to elbow my leg. She's going to break it. I slightly panicked on the inside as I stayed visibly calm and I shot forward pushing my leg down. Luckily her strength seemed to be boosted too because my leg didn't immediately fall from her grip, I took advantage. I used her strong grip as a foot hold to let me press forward and knee her in the face. Her eyes widened as she clearly wasn't expecting him to hit her. She could tell when her magic returned and so could I. A huge thick yellow aura cloaked her body. Her hand rose as she charged her palm with flaming mana.
I shot my own hand up charging a blast of pure mana in one hand and a snap in the hand still by my side. I jumped at her as she screamed, "Draco inflammas turbine!" I ran and jumped forward, my legs burning from the effort, firing my blast of arcane energy. A dragon made of fire leaped from her body and a tornado of fire swirled from her palm and consumed the dragon. The gigantic flame was so big it could have eaten the entire apartment, but the heat was so intense she might have destroyed the entire building if it weren't for my arcane blast. But the result of the explosion was a blast that could take out the block, I finally snapped as the explosion crept closer to my face. I had only been an arm's length before the fire exploded. Maybe I should speed up the waves this explosion of flames is close to the speed of a tactical nuclear warhead explosion.
As the sound of the snap rang out at speeds far faster than a sound should travel, I dashed into the flames. The edges of cloak burning but before it touched me the waves of magical sound canceled the explosion. If it weren't for the fact that I jumped with more force than speeding sports car the wind would have knocked me from the air. Her eyes widened as I landed in front of her. I took advantage of her confusion and tripped her as I then pinned her to the ground. "Oh, how the tables have turned." I jested as I held on to my words lengthening them. I suddenly notice the steam and rain all around us. "You're pretty strong for a kid, where'd you learn to fight."
"You speak as if you've beaten me Pure mage." She spoke as if she were having fun but hissed the title as if it were maybe a playful insult. I haven't heard that name in years. Wait, is she enjoying this. I was distraught whether I should let my building smile break free or keep my calm demeanor. I went with the former. Suddenly energy, not magic, no a combination of the steam, rays of light, my destructive waves and remnants of arcane energy seemed to build in side of her as they were drawn to her. How is she using magic? She shot me devilish grin, "Sol Solis Incindia!" A blast of super charged light and arcane energy shot out of her body toward me. My eyes widened. She has mastered two high class magic spells! What is she? this could be destructive, and I can't let her give us away. I jumped back and off her, into the air. I rushed a cold eldritch energy to my hand. Dimension cutter. My hand began to warp as if reality was bending around and through my hand. Parts were missing completely. A dark energy flared between the pockets of lost reality. I swung my hand down as fast no faster than the blast and it was absorbed and cut simultaneously on contact. She smiled. She jumped up to her feet. "I figured you could block it or somehow evade it but to dodge and then... I never imagined you'd have a technique like that. I guess I've been beaten. What do you want to know?" She said blatantly as if she didn't just try to kill me three times.
The energy around and in my hand vanished as I stopped feeding it energy. "So, you give up, why the sudden change. Is it because you can't beat me? Well what if I kill you after getting my information."
She snickered, "The fact that you're asking proves you don't want me dead. You had the chance to kill me with that magic from the start. And if you didn't come here to kill me and you don't know who I am that must mean we're looking for the same person. If we can get to Cestrum, we should be fine."
"Hey, you gave me the right to ask questions so let me. Who are you and what is Cestrum?"
She looked at me puzzled. "How can you not know what the second-best school in the magical world is?"
"I'm not a wizard or from the magical world." I snapped at her in frustration.
"Oh... I didn't know. My name is Luna." She spoke sheepishly as if she were a beaten dog.
"If you're trying to get to the magic world then what are you doing here? And why do you need to make it to Cestrum?"
"Cestrum is where Michael is." It clicked. She smiled as she saw the details connect in my brain. "I'm trying to find a dungeon key. Dungeons don't exist here so I need the key so I can get to the same dungeon that Micheal recently cleared there or another that leads there. My transportation magic has been cut off from the mirror dimension, not that I'd ever want to go back there unless I had to."
"Why Cestrum?" I asked plainly.
"It's the safest place for him and he can further his understanding of magic as well as get stronger." She replied as if it were common knowledge.
"Okay but why there specifically it can't be safer that something we could make together, I've seen the professors from that world, and why do you need to get to him?"
"We." She corrected. "Preferably you if worse comes to worse. You'd be more relatable seeing as how you're both pure mages, and you're able to protect him better than anyone can. The spell you so easily countered was a highly advanced version of a 2nd grade spell-" Before she could continue with her droning explanation for why he'd a better fit he cut her off.
"I'm gonna stop you there. I could tell from the mana formations and density it was high level, but I don't know what any of the rest of that means." I didn't even attempt to lie to her, to be honest I was fairly curious.
"Spells go by grades based on the rank of your attunement. Attunements commonly referred to as class in the Eon Empire, can be ranked up to eight ranks. The first rank is clear quarts the weakest of the levels. At that stage you don't gain an aura, just a pressure, some can interpret it as star. The next rank is iron in which One's body and aura become intune making them stronger and their control greater, next is the stage for my class at which the Sol Solis Incindia spell can be learned safely, this stage is called the red ruby rank. At this rank you gain an aura which can weaken and or protect from all attacks that enter or interact with your aura. By using a highly advanced version of the spell you essentially countered a 5th rank, Green Emerald rank version of the spell. I'm only a third rank, an amber, so pulling off that kind of spell is extremely hard almost impossible if it weren't for the fact that I'm a lunar attuned Elementalist and Fighter."
"Basically, because I easily," sarcasm dripping off of his words, "blocked a higher-level spell and because we're both regular humans I should be the one to go see him. Do you have a way to get there?"
"Correction, he is not a normal human and while you both are more regular compared to normal people than the attuned, you are much stranger than you'd believe. Where did you learn how to be a pure mage?"
"Who. I never went to a school though the person I learned it from learned it from a school."
"What school?" She asks so many questions. I soon realized that I was also asking a lot of question and ended that line of reasoning. Looks like we're going to need to learn a lot about each other. "Ritual mage academy, and enough with the questions, how do you plan on getting there?" I barked, slowly getting more frustrated.
Her eyes widened and she looked as if she saw a ghost. I knew the school was bad, but I never knew why, her reaction told me whatever it was, it wasn't even close to what I had originally thought. "Oh." She straightened out. "Well I know a spot in the mirror dimension that has a direct link to the school. My connection has been cut from there, but you should be able to cut through into the dungeon at the school. We'll have to do it tomorrow night though, the school should be prepping the dungeon tonight and it will be in use tomorrow morning."
"I don't care about this kid." Her eyes widened, and she looked confused, before she could interrupt, I continued, "But a good friend of mine does. So, if you can get me to him, I'll gladly protect him until whatever threat is gone. But only until then. I'll make sure to tell her before we go." She nodded at me and I turned and looked at the building and the damage we had caused. I created a sculpt sized blade at the end of my finger and cut my other palm. I closed my hand and made a few gestures in the air, mixing my blood and mana into the air.
She cocked her head and looked at me confused, "What are you doing?"
"Ethiterum!" the air began to slowly replace the glass and the damage on the street and room. I explained it to her. "It's a sort of reconstruction ritual spell or fix all."
She laughed, she actually laughed. "You atuneless mages are so interesting." she said between chuckles. She waved her hand over the slowly moving debris, "Acutis redintergo." Suddenly faster than the eye could see, the street was cleaned and fixed, the window was pristine and as far as we could see the room was back to normal.
"Show off."