"Allen!," Philip yelled, trying to stop him. But it was too late. Allen was already full speed ahead, using his air mana to help him move faster.
Allen didn't know why he felt compelled to run after the fire mage. He just did it, and he decided to keep going. If he had to choose one thing that decided for him, it was instincts alone.
He began to run towards the last area he had seen the fire mage. A few magical knights in the area, who were also looking for the fire mage while protecting the other students, tried to stop him. However, Allen was too fast for them, his air mana condensed into his legs to allow him to move significantly faster.
Once he reached the last location where he saw the fire mage, he didn't know where to go from there.
Where is he?, Allen thought, looking around him. He needed to keep moving, otherwise the magical knights would stop him.
Before he decided that he should give up, he suddenly felt another 'jolt' within him. It was like what he had felt before when he fell over, however not as painful.
It was most likely his fire mana acting up again. Instead of trying to fight against it, he decided to just let it happen. His attention was immediately averted over to his right, where just for a moment he saw a figure in the distance.
There he is, Allen thought, instinctively knowing it was him.
He quickly re-activated his air mana again, allowing him to move faster. He headed straight in the direction of the figure in the distance, which was getting farther away each second.
He passed by several citizens and other people walking around, careful not to run into them. As he got closer, it became apparent that the figure he was chasing after noticed him.
The figure did their best to get away, but Allen was quicker. As he got closer and closer, he noticed the figure had a black hood over their face.
Wait, is that the person from my class?, he thought. No, it can't be. She has a smaller figure than him.
As Allen was gaining ground on him, it became apparent to the figure that he needed to get away now, otherwise Allen would catch up to him. It seemed he had made a split second decision, turning left behind a building. Allen followed pursuit.
As Allen turned left around the corner, he noticed it was an alleyway between two buildings. There seemed to be no exit out of the alleyway aside from the way he came. The figure seemed to notice this, as he stopped before running into the wall in front of him, and turned back around to face Allen. Allen had caught up to him!
"Stay back!," he yelled, instantly raising up his right hand.
Allen took a deep breath for a moment, after just exhausting a lot of his air mana after running after him. He put his right hand on his sword, just in the event he needed to unsheath it.
"I'm not going to-"
"I will do it if necessary!," he yelled again, but this time casting an elemental circle.
As Allen had suspected, it was red in color. The same color of elemental circles he summoned out of his right hand to cast fire magic of his own.
A small flame sprouted out of his elemental circle, but it was not sent at Allen right away. It seemed like he would not attack Allen unless necessary, which was good.
So it's true. There really are other fire mages out here aside from me, Allen thought. He wasn't the only one, but that did not mean that either one of them would survive if discovered.
Speaking of which, luckily they were in a quiet alleyway, somewhere in the part of town where not as many people mingled and walked around. However, this did not mean they had all the time in the world, so Allen needed to talk to him quickly.
"Listen. I won't-"
"Stay back!," he yelled, sending his fire magic straight at Allen.
Allen was prepared in the event this happened. He quickly unsheathed his sword, instantly cutting through his fire magic, dispersing it. Allen ended up not taking any damage.
"What?!," the figure exclaimed, starting to back up. "How did you-"
"I tried to tell you," Allen started to say, walking closer to him.
"Tried to tell me what?," the fire mage asked, backing up. While backing up, he tripped over and fell down. His hood had fallen off, revealing his face. He looked to be somewhere in his twenties.
I probably shouldn't be walking closer to him with my sword still out, Allen thought as he sighed. I'm not doing what I was trying to accomplish.
Most likely out of fear, the fire mage put out his hand again, but didn't cast any magic.
"What do you want?!," he asked, in a defensive tone. "I haven't done anything wrong!"
Allen slowly unsheathed his sword, to the fire mage's surprise.
"I'm not here to hurt you," Allen declared.
"Then… what do you want?," he asked, in a tone closer to confusion than defensive.
"It's… probably better to show you…," Allen said, his left hand reaching for his right.
"Show me?," he asked, curious but still holding his hand up.
Allen grabbed the glove on his right hand, and slowly took it off. Something he normally wouldn't ever dream of doing, but it was like something inside of himself convinced himself to. This was the easiest way.
"What are you-"
Before the fire mage could finish his sentence, Allen had already put out his right hand, summoning a red elemental circle, and casting his fire magic.
His fire magic trickled in his hands, a warmth that Allen rarely felt. Since he had to be careful when doing so, he always forgot how it felt to easily cast his fire magic, compared to the difficulties of casting his air magic.
For Allen, using fire magic was second nature, but since he could almost never use it, he didn't know what his potential with fire magic was. All he knew is he could cast it in a moment's notice if he wanted to.
"Wait, you're a- you're a fire mage!," he exclaimed, completely bewildered.
Allen put his left index finger on his mouth, signaling to him to stay quiet. He then de-casted his magic as he closed his hand, and then put his glove back on.
"Wait, but that doesn't make sense. How are you an academy student? How have you gotten this far?," he asked, bewildered.
Allen only gave him a small smile in response as he pointed to his vest, which was grey in color.
"Wait… you're a dual-elemental magic mage!," he exclaimed, the dots finally connecting. "But how? Having one element is enough, but having two?!"
You should meet my friend Alice who has two elements, Allen thought, laughing to himself. Although her other personality Sarah possesses the other element.
"Unfortunately yes, I do have both fire and air elements," Allen nodded. He gave another small smile.
"Well, what did you want? You took a lot of effort to track me down here," he said, standing up. "We probably don't have much time either. If they catch me talking to you…"
"I understand, so I will make this quick," Allen agreed. "I have but one question. Are there other fire mages out there?"
"I-," he started to say, like he wanted to tell him, but immediately stopped. "All I can tell you is there may or may not be other fire mages. And considering you are a fire mage yourself, I would advise you to-"
"Don't worry about me," Allen interrupted, shaking his head. "I will be fine"
"Alright, but be careful. You should know what the Triumvirate does to us if they catch us," he reminded him.
"I understand," Allen nodded.
"No, I don't think you do. The Triumvirate would-"
The fire mage started to explain, but both Allen and him started to hear loud footsteps coming closer and closer. It didn't sound like just a few amount of people either. And they didn't sound friendly either.
We've run out of time, Allen thought. But what should I do about him?
Both of them had made eye contact, and Allen could tell what he was thinking. The fire mage was probably wondering if Allen, who is still an academy student regardless, would let him go.
"I-"
"Just go, get out of here," Allen said before the fire mage could ask anything. "Otherwise, it won't be pretty for you"
The fire mage looked like he wanted to say something, but quickly decided not to as he was running out of time. Just before making a run for it out of the alleyway, he gave Allen a respectful nod, almost saying he would repay him one day if he could.
Allen breathed a sigh of relief as he realized the fire mage was finally gone, and hopefully out of the magical knights ways. He still couldn't believe what he had just done, but what was done is done. At least he knew that he wasn't the only one out here.
He stepped out of the alleyway, only to be met with several magical knights that had just reached his position.
"What are you doing here?," one of them exclaimed. "You're a student! You should be with the others!". The other magical knights with him nodded in response.
"I'm sorry, I just thought I could-"
"No excuses! You could've been in serious danger!," the magical knight scolded him.
"It's fine, leave him be. I will handle him," a voice came from behind.
"Philip?!," Allen exclaimed, surprised to see him.
"Hi Allen," he greeted him with a smile, but Allen could tell he wasn't exactly happy.
"Aren't you supposed to be protecting the students?," one of the magical knights exclaimed. "You should be-"
"It's fine, he's one of my appointed students," Philip explained, putting his hand on Allen's shoulder, to Allen's surprise. "As I said before I will handle him"
Philip and the other magical knights kept eye contact for a short time, almost as though they were waiting to see who would flinch first.
"Fine," the magical knight finally complied, sighing. "But make sure he gets back with the others!"
"I will," Philip nodded in response. He just gave them a warm smile.
"You'd better," he told him, before turning around to the others. "Alright, we have no time to waste! Move, before the higher ups get on us for wasting time and not tracking him down!"
The rest of the magical knights began to move, heading in the direction they thought the fire mage would have gone. Now it was just Allen and Philip standing outside the alleyway.
"Do you realize what you have done?," Philip asked, his tone very direct. He was still looking in the direction of the magical knights running off.
"Yes, I do. But-"
"No excuses," he declared, looking at him. "What you did was irresponsible and reckless. You could have dangered yourself"
"I understand," Allen said, looking at the ground. He knew what he did was wrong, but considering the circumstances he needed to find out. However, he couldn't just casually tell Philip he was a fire mage.
"Don't ever do that again. If you're wanting to become a magical knight like you say you do, then you can never make reckless moves like that. Doing something like that can get you, and your squad, hurt… or even killed," he explained, looking at Allen with a serious look in his eyes.
"Alright, I won't do it again. I apologize for my behavior," Allen gave him a small nod.
"Good. Alright, let's head back, shall we?," he asked. "Your friends are worried about you"
Oh yeah, Thomas and Cecily!, Allen thought. I had quickly decided to run before I could tell them anything, so they're probably wondering where I went!
"Yeah, let's head back," Allen nodded, agreeing.
The streets of London were relatively quiet on their way back, aside from several magical knights running around. It seemed they were still trying to track down the fire mage, but to no avail. Allen smiled a little to himself, at the fact that the fire mage may still be out there, still alive.
As they continued walking, Allen noticed two figures ahead of them that were walking towards Philip and him, both wearing very formal uniforms. They looked similar to the magical knight uniforms, but much more pristine.
Who are they?, Allen thought, wondering if they were magical knights like the others. They were a little too far at the moment to tell who they were.
As they got closer to them, Allen looked over at Philip to see if he possibly knew. But before he could ask him anything, Philip gave a very respectful nod to the two figures as they got closer.
The first figure had black hair, like Allen. He also had weird eyes, his left eye black and his right eye brown. He had an odd expression on his face, almost as if he thought he was superior to everyone else, but that was Allen's guess because his face was already hard to read. His uniform was an earthly brown color, so he was probably an earth mage.
The second figure was a bit taller than the other one, but with gray hair and eyes. His hair was cut short, but he had a bit of facial hair on his face, which was also gray in color. He almost looked like William, but older. His face lacked expression, as if he never felt emotion. His uniform was similar to the first one, but gray in color and a lot more prestigious looking.
I've got to tell William I found someone that looks like him, Allen laughed to himself in his head.
As the two pairs passed by each other, with Allen on the left next to Philip, and the first guy with the gray uniform directly to the right of Allen but walking in the opposite direction, Allen couldn't help but feel a weird feeling in his body.
It was almost as if time had suddenly slowed down, right when Allen had just started to pass by the figure in gray. The feeling could only be described as a mixture of fear, shock, and weakness, but also a sense of familiarity.
If anything in his body was being affected the most, it probably had to be his air mana. His mana flowing throughout his body seemed to be shaking and trembling, something Allen had never felt before.
The slow motion Allen had felt suddenly went away as he seemed to be thrown back into reality. He kept walking next to Philip, almost as though his legs hadn't been affected, but his mind had.
After walking for a moment, Allen had turned his head back to look at the guy he had just passed by, getting another good look at him.
While the two figures were still walking, the one in the gray uniform had his head turned slightly to the left, so his gaze was partially looking at Allen. His gaze wasn't quite friendly, nor was it menacing either. It was best described as Allen had seen his face earlier - emotionless and without purpose.
"Wait, who are those two?," Allen asked Philip, pointing to the two figures now a little far behind them.
"Wait what?," Philip asked, genuinely shocked. "Oh wait, you probably haven't seen them before. To the left, is Solomon Windblade, leader of the Triumvirate and the current owner of the Spear of Air. To the right is Julian, Solomon's secretary"
Solomon Windblade?!, Allen thought. Wait, that really was William's older brother?!
"Wait, what's the Spear of Air?," Allen asked, not sure if he has heard that before.
"Ah, the Spear of Air is one of the four, or rather three, most powerful weapons a mage can possess," Philip smiled. "I'm not really sure all of what it does, but I do know it can make a mage a lot more powerful in battle"
"And how do you get one?," Allen asked, curious.
"Well, there's only one for each element. And the only way to obtain one is for the current owner to pass away, and be passed down to the next owner," Philip explained.
The Spear of Air, huh, Allen thought. He did say four, so there must be one for fire, somewhere out there.
"I see. So I presume the other two are currently owned by a person each?," Allen asked.
"Yeah, all three of them are currently owned by each of the Triumvirate leaders - Solomon Windblade, Judith Rivertide, and Giles Terrastone," Philip added. "But don't worry about it too much. I'm sure your academy will teach you more about the Triumvirate and such matters closer to your third year"
"I see," Allen said, as he began to think to himself.
The two of them kept walking, where they would be heading back to the other students, with Thomas and Cecily awaiting them.
Solomon couldn't remove his gaze from the boy, who he saw walking next to one of the magical knights. There was something oddly familiar about him, but he could not quite place it.
The boy in question also stared back at him, with a curious but frightened look on his face. This didn't surprise Solomon, for after all he was the most powerful mage in England, and his name alone struck fear in many.
"-and so, we will make sure to waste no efforts in tracking down that fire mage," Julian rambled on, like he normally did to Solomon. "Hey, are you listening?"
Solomon gave him a small nod in response. He mostly heard everything he had said, but he honestly couldn't care less sometimes. After all, he was just-
"What are you looking at?," Julian asked, a confused look on his face.
Julian followed his gaze to find a boy following a magical knight. The boy wore one of the uniforms from the academy. But just why did Solomon feel the need to stare at him?
"Whatever," Julian sighed. "Anyways, we have more important matters to attend to"
"Such as?," Solomon asked, turning his head away from the boy and locking his eyes on Julian.
"You know exactly what I am talking about," Julian answered, a playful but deadly grin on his face.
"I see," Solomon answered, with the same expressionless look on his face that he wore, closing his eyes.
"Well, we should probably continue moving. I have reports saying we should track down that fire mage in no time," he advised, his grin growing larger.
"Very well," Solomon answered, following Julian as they began to walk again.
When was it that Solomon had lost his ability to carry and feel emotions? He knew the answer deep down, but he did not let that memory resurface. It was better to keep moving, and to continue on with his duties as the leader of the Triumvirate.