"Who was the idiot that did this??" The mage slayer asked furiously, looking at the guards. One of the guards had fallen to the ground, after spending all his mana on an aura blade. "I'll deal with you later. Is there anyone else who knows how to heal? We need to heal him before it's too late or we're dead!"
"There is no one else who has an affinity for light, but we all carry superior healing potions with us." The leader of the mages said, rushing to Athos' side. He didn't know why the boy was so important, but he didn't question it. He tried to touch it, but the darkness around Athos wouldn't allow it.
The leader poured a potion on his neck, but the liquid sizzled upon contact with the darkness, before disappearing, unable to cure him. The darkness around his body was part of him, but it responded to his subconscious and Athos was unable to control it currently. It was as if Athos had developed a new limb and had no idea how to control it.
The darkness responded to the intense and agony that Athos felt and gathered around his neck as if to protect him. She corroded the potion and didn't let anything come in contact with his body.
"Shit, shit, the potion doesn't work!" The mage leader spoke, looking at the mass of darkness gathering at his neck. He tried to use non-elemental magic around his hands and close to his neck, but the darkness drove him away.
"I already realized, so hold him. He's going to die before non-elemental magic lets you touch him." Said the mage slayer, kneeling beside Athos. He held a potion in his left hand and used the ring in his right hand to accumulate a large amount of darkness. The surrounding mages created mana chains to bind Athos' body, while the guards just stared at the fallen body, praying that justice would be done and Athos died, but not daring to interfere any further.
He placed his right hand on Athos' throat without fear, as Athos slammed himself to the ground. The darkness on both sides struggled, trying to devour each other, but the mage-slayer side won by a wide margin. He was already in the fourth layer of life and had complete control over the darkness.
He used his other hand to pour potion into the open wound, but the wound was healing much slower than usual. Darkness was coursing through both the body and the outside and was resisting the potion's healing.
"Stop resisting you idiot! You'll die if you don't let me heal you, got it?!" The mage slayer spoke hastily, looking into Athos' eyes. Athos' face was already white and he was already almost unconscious. He had stopped fighting, and that was a bad sign. His body went limp, while his eyes lost their luster and the potion stopped working.
He was dead. The bleeding in her neck had already stopped and the wound was still open. The darkness around his neck disappeared and spread through his body as his core began to unravel.
"Tsk! Shit!" The mage slayer began to swear, seeing the lifeless body of Athos. Things had gotten too complicated for him now. They looked at the mage slayer in confusion, but no one dared to speak to him, fearing that such anger would be directed at them.
'What do I do now? If they find out that I let someone with a body of mana die right in front of me, at the very least I'll be kicked out of the order.' The mage slayer racked his brains thinking of a way out of this situation.
'Should I get rid of the body? No, the order reads the minds of all mage slayers after they finish a quest. If they find out I destroyed a mana body, I'll be lucky if they just execute me. At worst, I could be accused of treason over it and my entire family executed.
The mage slayer sighed. "I have no other choice. I'll call in every favor I can, as well as prepare to be demoted and go back to being an assassin's apprentice. It's better than being kicked out.
Having made his decision, he turned to the surrounding mages: "Listen to what I have to say. We have a huge problem on our hands, but if we act right, we can fix it."
The mages around him were confused by his attitude, but as they listened, their expressions started to get paler and paler. When the mage slayer finished explaining, they were in a panic.
"Hi, I didn't know this kid was special. They can't judge me for something I didn't know!" Rickey yelled.
"You know as well as I do that the order won't mind small details like that. They're almost certain to execute you and show their heads like traitors." The mage slayer said.
Ricley started pulling out her own hair in frustration. He knew how benevolent the order was to those who succeeded, just as he also knew how cruel they were to those they considered failures.
"No need to panic just yet. A live mana body would be excellent, but a dead one is also good. Their bodies are extremely valuable as research material and I know someone who would be interested in them. One of the 7 elders of the council, the elder Louis Zahara, is an avid researcher determined to unlock the secret behind Mana's body and may be willing to cover up our mistake if we bring the preserved corpse to him." The mage slayer spoke, hope returning to his eyes.
He knew that if the dark elder had the chance to get his hands on the corpse of a mana body, he would be more than happy to hide the entire mission and secure the body just for himself.
The 7 elders of magic were the most powerful mages of the order. Each of them was represented by an element of magic and held all the authority of the order. If the mage slayer's words are true, the elder may be willing to save them. But there was a problem.
"How are we going to talk to the elder? He would never accept an audience with rabble mages like us." One of the mages spoke, still desperate.
"The mage slayer was founded a hundred years ago by him. We have our own means of contacting him, in addition to official means." The mage slayer said confidently.
"I see, this might work!" The mages said, excited again.
"But I'm going to need you to do me a favor. A full-scale investigation will be done in this city after this incident. I'm going to need to go back to my unit and report that I killed both the teacher and the apprentice. Instead, we need to maintain my presence in this city." unknown and the boy's corpse intact, until I finish negotiating with the elder." The mage slayer looked at the guards as he spoke.
The guards felt an ominous shiver, but before they could do anything, the mage slayer shadow expanded until it touched all their shadows. Their bodies were restrained, before tentacles of shadows emerged from the ground and clung to their bodies, draining their energy until they became parched mummies.
"That's..." The mage leader looked at the mummified corpses with regret, but quickly shut up.
"I'm sorry for them, but no one can know of my involvement. Let's put all the blame for this incident on the other mage, while we hide the boy and sell him to the elder. Does everyone understand?" The mage slayer spoke, and everyone around them nodded.
"Fine. I'm leaving now." The mage slayer said goodbye, handing a headphone-like magic item to the leader. "Wear it all the time. It's a one-way communication magic item, I'll use it to give you instructions after negotiating with the elder."
The leader picked up the receiver and waved it to his ear. "We're going to hide somewhere in the woods until you get in touch."
"Okay, until next time."
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