"Never thought about how I survived getting my heart turned into ash?" Ann giggles and releases Das, but turns serious once she speaks to him again "Using advanced necromancy will inevitably lead to you becoming an undead, depending on what part of necromancy have you used the most. The phantom was obsessed with shadows, so once he died, he became one" She places a hand on her chest, a half-smile on her somewhat regretful face "I raised the dead in my attempts to perfect the craft, and in return, I became one"
"And you want to teach Das this?" Drachen rams in the conversation verbally and physically, falling from above and standing in between Das and Ann, as if shielding the young archmage "I had my doubts before but decided to trust Das's judgment, that has proven to be a mistake"
"It will be fine so long as he only learns the basics"
"How can we trust you?" Drachen's forehead furrowed as she inched closer to Ann " You offer to teach him an art never heard before that can potentially KILL him, and what's more, how do we know that you understand what you are dealing with enough to teach?"
"I have mastered this art for more than one hundred years" Ann replies sharply.
"And yet someone who you trained took only what, fifteen years to overpower you?"
"Creating an entire art from scratch takes time and in that time you make mistakes, I taught him known exactly what he needed to do"
"Do what? Butcher a village?"
Ann clenched her fists, scowling at the fairy whose eyes went black and grew a tiny orange ball on each.
"I accept the responsibility I have on that as his teacher, but I won't be marked as somehow part of what he did"She points Drachen "You are no one to talk to me like that, or did you forget what your last student do with your teachings?"
"Wait, you know what he did?" Das asks, shocked that she knows that.
"I told you I used to be a mage, I felt that day when he tried to mess up with my head, luckily I was no longer considered a mage at that point, so it didn't work"
Das frowned, conflicted by the fact that she is aware of what his father did and also for the remainder, something he tries to forget every day. Then, he looks at Drachen knowing that while it angered HIM, it would hurt HER.
Drachen was so taken by surprise at her words that she almost leaned back, her now orange eyes widened and her mouth agape, but then she grits her teeth as her entire body is washed over by a red wave, not too much unlike when Das utilizes red mana. Only that now it's her own anger that forces her body to react.
"stings, doesn't it?" Ann smirks as she taunts the furious fairy.
"Alright, calm- DRACHEN!!" Das steps forward ready to separate the two when he sees Drachen take a big breath through the mouth.
Drachen then exhales an inferno on the prepared Ann who is protected by a wall of shadows.
Das is blasted away by the intense power of her attack, he falls on his back and immediately tries to stand up, seeing how now Drachen's body is entirely made out of flames. She breaths her fury on Ann as her own body progressively grows taller, her braids become undone and her flaming hair floats around her as if she was underwater.
Ann's smirk soon vanishes as holes on her wall begin to rapidly increase, taking the threat seriously now her eyes turn blue and the shadows lift her off the ground and far away from the raging fairy who has grown to be an intimidating twelve feet tall.
Drachen stops her assault once Ann is far away, leaving the ground scorched on a V form, the space in the middle where the shadows had kept the fire away.
"With you as a teacher I'm not surprised Das is as impulsive as he is!" Ann shouts at the furious fairy, taunting her further.
"Stop this, both of you!" Das shouts at the pair, now back on his feet.
However, Drachen is fixated on Ann. Suddenly, her body extinguishes and she disappears from view as a gust of wind.
This takes both Das and Ann by surprise, but the latter knows she can't afford to be surprised. She holds both hands to her sides and the emanate blue fire that soon becomes shadows, her entire body gets consumed by them as around her shadows gather creating a barrier so black that is impossible to see past it.
Right on time, a tornado swallows the black orb as Drachen reappears right above it, her body now barely visible because it is made out of the air, only her head is recognizable, mostly thanks to her red eyes.
Drachen creates an arm and begins to slowly close her open palm as if she held something on it, slowly crushing it, and at the same time the shadow orb where Ann is kept begins to shrink in size. The furious tornado around it intensifying.
The roaring wind grows louder and it becomes more devastating to the trees at a distance each passing second. Das fears that if she doesn't stop soon it may just make a real tornado or crush Ann.
"Stop NOW!" Das yells at Drachen as he too takes flight, moving at a safe distance from the two "What are you trying to do? KILL her?!"
"I'M GONNA TEACH HER A LESSON!" Drachen yells, her voice deep and somehow louder than everything around them.
"For what?! You know she is RIGHT!"
"Your father is NOT a monster like the phantom!" Drachen replies, her burning eyes turning to meet Das's.
They stared at each other, Das looking at her with his jaw clenched and brows knitted but he wasn't trying to convey anger or discontent, and Drachen knew why. It was a look you give at someone who's done wrong, it was a look you give at someone when they know that they are doing is pointless.
The wind little by little began to calm down as Drachen's body became smaller and soon it was all back to normal. The orb was unmade as soon as Ann felt it was safe, she looked at Drachen who was nearby but the fairy turned her back on her, going instead directly back to Das.
"I hate when you look at me like that" She says under her breath, looking at Das with saddened eyes.
The two went back down to the now messy ground, the frozen river had begun to break and large cracks were stretching along the surfaces of the ice. Ann too went down once she saw Drachen wouldn't attack her.
Drachen had gone back to being as small as a bottle and Ann approached them, being sure to stay away from the fairy.
"Listen, Ann" Das steps forward and moves ahead of Drachen, so he stands closer to Ann" I trust that you are being honest, but I won't learn necromancy until Drachen approves of it too" He says standing his ground firmly.
The fairy is surprised by this, she turns around and glances at Das and then Ann, momentary joy filling her only to soon be replaced by a grown sensation of guilt.
Her face became sour as her long ears pointed to the ground.
"I understand" Ann replies, forcing a small smile on her face "I said I would earn your trust and I will, both of you" She says crossing eyes with Drachen, she lingers on the last one " I'm sorry, I don't know the circumstances of why he did what he did"
"Damnit, you are making me feel like a CHILD!" Drachen yells, childishly, then grows in size and gets within reach of Ann, she lets out a long sigh "If you know he was involved, then I want you to at least know the full story"
"Then, thank you" Ann bows her head slightly.
"I can tell her if you don't want to" Das stands next to the fairy, who looks at him and nods.
"I will be back in a minute" She whispers, turning back into the wind and disappearing.
The two of them remain silent for a moment while Das waits a few seconds to make sure Drachen is far away. Once he thinks the moment is right, he looks at Ann directly in her eyes and she realizes that, while he looks at her with seriousness, there is more beneath his mask of indifference.
"I wasn't sure at first, but I guess what I felt that day many years ago was exactly what I thought" Ann speaks up and Das nods.
"My father made a powerful spell, it took years off his life to cast it but it was a success. He connected the minds of all mages with his for a split second and placed in their minds one rule to follow" He speaks sticking out his index finger next to his face " They will always obey the King"
Drachen returns to her original form, she is far away, deep in the forest. She sits down and rests her back on a tree trunk, looking down at her hands as a flashing memory of Das's dad comes back.
She hugs him with a firm and tight grip on his blood-soaked cloak, he cries and shakes.
Once the memory passes, she hugs her legs and hides her head in them, with her eyes closed she remembers one last thing.
"...take care of him" His voice is so raspy and weakened.
"What am I doing?" She whispers, taking her hands to her head and grabbing her hair tightly.
Everyone knew the story.
How once the King began his conquests, he one day sat on his throne room being built and said that all mages would come to see him. That day his words came true as mages appeared on his palace, their entire families with them, heeding the call of the King.
Who then spoke to them of their many crimes of the past, of the danger they represented to humankind. And they were banished into the unknown parts of the world so Gerados could thrive without ever worrying for another War of Thunders to happen.
People rejoiced and claimed it was a sign of the King's divine right to rule them all.
"But that's not what happened" Ann says, interrupting Das.
"No. My father burned them all"
Drachen couldn't forget the smell of burning corpses, not after living in it for weeks while group after group of mages came to the capital, the people celebrating the prove that the King was chosen by The Lightbringer himself to rid this land of the dangerous and unpredictable mages that for so long had hidden among humankind after what they had done to them.
She didn't know at first. He always asked her to stay in a faraway garden to wait for him, but she couldn't do that every day and eventually, she found out.
Fathers and mothers hug their children as they accepted their fate while others tried with all their strength to break free from the spell.
A chilling scream pierces through her head as she remembers one time a mage almost managed to break free from the spell.
"Are you going to fail me now, archmage?" The King spoke, his tone calm and cold even if he was surrounded by the torched bodies of the mages getting carried away by the vulture-like guards he employs.
"N-No!"He shouts, his bandaged hands shaking as he points them at the old man with glowing purple eyes.
"You murderer! traitor! MONSTER!" The old man yells and screams as he tries to break free.
But then the archmage screams in agony and showers the defiant man in a baptize of fire coming from his hands.
"I..." Ann is shaken and horrified by the revelation. She always knew there was something fishy about the tale of how the mages abandoned Gerados, but this was not at all what she had thought.
"Drachen may not see it how I do, but I don't see much distinction between my father and the phantom" Das says, forcing Ann to focus her thoughts on what he just said.
Das looks at the staff floating nearby, the sight of it.
Makes him feel disgusted knowing he uses what his father utilized as well.