Iracuz was walking slowly towards the empty alleys between the few houses in town. The dark and quiet street gave an uncomfortable feeling, as if something was continually watching him.
After a few seconds, the young man disappeared completely into the dark streets and continued to advance.
Iracuz was the perfect little brother to most people who knew him. Caring, kind and amiable, he never caused any problems and always supported his brother's decisions, whether good or bad.
It was his life. It was his identity. At least during the day.
As night fell, the streets emptied, and nocturnal predators awoke from their sleep, the innocent young man's face changed dramatically.
- "I know you're here" said Iracuz, stopping. "Get out of your hiding place."
The young man did not move at all and remained motionless in the middle of the street in the intersection of two houses, listening attentively to the noises around.
About ten seconds passed slowly, the air cooled by the evening breeze in the dark. Nothing seemed to happen, time seemed to have stood still at that precise moment. Nothing was moving.
- "Do you prefer that I come and get you?" he asked, raising his hand in front of him.
The young man's palm suddenly began to darken and then black smoke slowly floated from his skin and came together before forming a sphere three centimeters in diameter.
A moment later, the sphere contracted and a black spear appeared and immediately rushed towards one of the alleys before lodging itself in the ground.
Immediately, a black figure suddenly began to move. Out of nowhere, it barely escaped the black spear that Iracuz had just thrown. The young man turned his emotionless face and looked at the person he had aimed at.
Instantly the figure rose, revealing a hooded female form. She looked up, removing her hood.
- "I never thought you would go so far as to follow us into town… Rebecca, right?"
A wand suddenly appeared in the right hand of the young woman whose gaze was totally focused on Iracuz. She had used all of the shadow magic camouflage and illusion techniques the elder had shown her from a young age.
She couldn't believe this man could have seen through. At first sight harmless, Rebecca and Artiel immediately decided to follow him.
Raphael had told them that his brother did not have a gift enough developed to become a mage. But if their Master saw in him anything so special that he mistook him for a mage, then he probably was. Or something close.
They hadn't been wrong.
Normally, according to the ancient one, only a very powerful and experienced mage could see through their shadow magic. Or, at least another experienced shadow mage. This man was dangerous, she had to make sure he didn't tell anyone about her presence.
What's more, she felt he was hiding something else. She must have had it right.
- "Are you from Cram?" asked Iracuz suddenly.
The young woman stopped in her thoughts. Did this man know their village? It was rare to find people, moreover soldiers, who knew about their village.
After all, as an independent "nation" soldiers didn't need to know much about them. Since they are outside their borders, they do not need to protect them or know them. A small village poses no threat to a kingdom.
So Iracuz's question caught Rebecca off guard.
- "Who are you ?" she asked without answering.
- "Nobody"
A new sphere appeared in Iracuz's palm as the tip of Rebecca's wand began to emit a red glow. The air in the alley stiffened drastically and the once cold and empty atmosphere suddenly became tense and unstable.
But as Iracuz was about to release a new spear, the sphere suddenly began to disintegrate under the surprised gaze of the young man before the smoke came down to his feet.
"My magic!" he thought, his eyes widening as he looked down.
At his feet, a rune one meter in diameter had been traced. The black color of the lines had completely concealed it, he probably would have missed it if it wasn't for the energy emanating from it.
"Has she absorbed my magic?"
Mana Banishement, a rune that Isaac had crafted to control his energy reactor. The young woman had learned it quickly. She had even used it in her fight against the golems.
The principle was simple, it boiled down to absorbing the surrounding mana quickly to prevent mages from doing magic. However, the young woman was still unable to do it in full.
While golems require much more energy and mana to even move, mages have a large amount of internal mana that allows them to continue casting spells for a while.
Under a place with no mana, it was possible to cast spells but the energy expenditure was much greater.
So, Isaac had concocted a different version of this rune. "Elemental Banishment" was a rune crafted specifically to completely prevent elemental manipulation.
The principle of this rune was more subtle. Much like Mana Banishement, Elemental Banishment absorbs the surrounding energy. But here, it is the natural energy which is absorbed or more precisely the elementary particles.
With this, he could thus prevent a mage from using elemental magic for the time the rune was activated. At least, in theory because in practice, the rune had a fatal flaw for the young woman.
Indeed, the latter to trace runes always used its mana circuit. At present, she still had no aura and still could not trace a rune like her Master. Also, she had to infuse her mana vessels into the rune which limited her field of action.
To avoid overloading her circuit, she had to use an inferior version of Elemental Banishment which had two major flaws. The first was that it couldn't cover an area more than two meters in diameter. The second was that it could only absorb one type of elemental particle at a time.
Two at most, but the operation would require much more effort on her body and could have major repercussions.
Where Mana Banishment only greatly limits and depletes mages, Elemental Banishment on the other hand completely prevents mages from using the targeted elemental magic. Indeed, where mana can be absorbed and stored for a long time within its own mana circuit, elementary particles are volatile and cannot be stored for very long.
Therefore, without elemental particles around, elemental mages cannot use their magic.
At present, Rebecca could hold this rune only a few minutes before the energy expenditure became critical.
Seeing his magic inoperative, Iracuz was about to draw his sword when he felt a sudden cold sensation in his neck. The icy touch of the metal was second to none, he lowered his eyes slightly to try and catch a glimpse of what was on his neck before recognizing the tip of a sword blade.
- "Try anything and I'll take your head off your body" uttered a deep male voice behind him.
Iracuz stopped talking. There was nothing he could do, by the time he drew his sword and he would already be dead and he couldn't rely on his shadow magic as long as the strange rune beneath him was active.
He swallowed slowly without making any movement.
- "So there are two of you… I should have suspected that one would not be there without the other" suddenly declared Iracuz.
- "How did you know I was there?" Rebecca asked ignoring the young man's comment.
Iracuz looked up at the young woman before smiling slightly, visibly amused.
- "This must be your first mission, right?" he simply said. "Although I'm not an Apprentice Mage, I remain a Promising One. You emit a low amount of mana, that's how I knew," he announced finally.
It was true. As a mage, Rebecca had a much higher amount of mana than other "non-gifted" people. Despite having gifts for stealth and shadow infiltration and being able to manipulate shadow magic, she had never served a mission before.
She had been trained of course, but between training and a real situation, things were very different.
- "We can't let him go, if he informs the garrison, our infiltration is screwed up" Artiel announced behind Iracuz without moving his sword from his opponent's neck.
Rebecca nodded positively. Although they could easily hide in the shadow of normal people's eyes, it would make their job much more difficult. They couldn't let him go.
Rebecca began to concentrate her mana and form a fireball in front of her when Iracuz resumed.
- "I will not say anything" he announced.
They arched their eyebrows slightly, their faces incredulous.
- "Believe me, what my brother and the Governor are planning could cause the destruction of the city, I'm sure. Help me prevent it from escalating and discuss it with your master!" he tried to negotiate.
The fireball in front of Rebecca began to dissipate before the young woman came to look at the young man, her eyes serious and focused.
- "They sent a letter asking for reinforcements! Soldiers should arrive within a week or two" added the young man.
- "We know" asked Rebecca with a small smile. "What do you have to gain from this?"
- "Not to die? Even if the King decides to provide military support, he will only send a few mages. That will never be enough to defeat an Archmage!"
The Magus of the court is a title comparable to that of Mage Royal. At present, the title is held by Zachary Kol, the one and only Archmage of the kingdom. The kingdom's military strength in terms of magic was relatively low in number.
With around thirty beginner mages, no intermediate mages, and five official mages, it was hard to believe that Kilguana was as powerful as it looked.
But on quite the contrary as the difference between the ranks of mage is not only based on magic power but also on knowledge of magic. There is also the intelligence and responsiveness of the practitioner to manipulate magic.
There were many factors that had to be taken into account to assess someone's rank. It was mind-boggling that five people qualified for the rank of official mage.
It was here that the difference between the magi born of the lower classes and the nobles could be seen. Where the nobles received an education very early in their childhood, the peasants had many shortcomings and were lacking in many areas.
It was rare to see peasants attain the rank of novice mage. In all of Kilguane's history, none had succeeded.
However, here again the difference between five official mages and an Archmage was just as huge. Even if they got together, they had very little chance of winning. Also, if a battle were to take place, many soldiers would die and Iracuz and his brother would likely be among them.
- "And so ?" asked Rebecca.
- "Let's make a deal. What do you want? I'll get it for you and you help me make sure we don't end up on a battlefield…"
Rebecca was still puzzled at the thought of having to cooperate with an enemy soldier. But still, there was not much they could do. Although they could sneak in everywhere, they didn't really know where important things were going, they only watched the most visible places that seemed important.
To get more relevant information, they needed to know who the thinking heads were, those in charge. And for that, it was necessary to mingle with the crowd and collect information among the people.
- "Why would we trust you?" Artiel suddenly asked behind Iracuz.
- "Do you find me stupid enough to want to fight an Archmage?"
He had a point. After some time, Rebecca looked at Artiel who nodded.
- "We need information" continued Rebecca. "Who runs the city, how and who are the important people," she said next. "If you betray us, you know what awaits you" she ended.
- "I can provide you with intel on all you want. I'm quite aware of how this town work and what things are going", replied Iracuz. He looked up when he saw Rebecca's wary gaze before sighing.
He inhaled lightly then continued.
- "I swear I am. After all, I'm a spy for the Governor" replied the young man with a smirk.