The Forsaken Lands, the Overlord's City.
In the Overlord's Castle, there was a wide conference room which was usually unused since there weren't really any serious matters that needed to be discussed in a barely occupied city, but on this day, Pascal decided to use the room because Ronan's group had returned.
The colors that decorated the conference room were mostly red and gold, but in the center of the room there was a big, black round table with sixteen golden chairs surrounding it. Pascal sat on the chair with a golden crown on it, while the group – with the addition of Sarah, Morgana and Antonia - sat wherever they wanted.
Pascal clasped his hands together, "Welcome back, I'm sure your journey was anything but simple," he glanced at shaken Antonia as he spoke, "and I can't wait to hear about it." He briefly glared at Morgana who was biting her lip, trying to stop herself from laughing at his attempt at being a solemn leader.
Ronan cleared his throat speaking, "Well, for the most part of the journey, nothing really happened. We did as we had been ordered and spread rumors about the undead and the upcoming attack, then would leave after some time. Apart from sightseeing nothing interesting happened, it wasn't until we reached a town in the Green Turtle Duchy that the tempo abruptly changed."
He gestured towards Antonia, "First, we met another follower, her name is Antonia, and she is a Dream Mage. Then on one unfortunate night, the town was attacked by the undead and the sorcerers who control them. They started by casting the Sleep Spell over the town, then they sent the undead to kill everyone, we would have been dead if it wasn't for Antonia who dispelled the spell."
Pascal nodded with furrowed brows, "And what about the undead, how were they?" He asked.
This time Duma spoke, "They were all skeletons, and they had green flames burning in their ribcages and in their hollow eye socket." She said in an uncharacteristically serious manner. "They were pretty easy to destroy but were in great quantities."
"You forgot the most important part." Conrad said.
"Which is?"
"The fact that they gave very little experience points when killed."
Everyone – except for Antonia sucked in a deep breath as they understood his words. When the followers of the God of Origins level up their magical power recharges, if they don't then they would have to wait a while for their magical power to slowly fill up. But magical power running out was a normal occurrence in their world, it's just that they were banking on the fact that they could at least have a constant source of mp when they fight the undead.
'Well, that rules that plan out.' Pascal though.
"But why was the town attacked? Was it built over a massive graveyard or something?" Sarah asked.
"W-well, I'm assuming they just wanted to cause wanton mayhem – "
"No." Pascal shook his head with a thoughtful expression, "They were stocking up, definitely."
"…amassing undead. They kill people, turn them into undead creatures and add them to their army." Ronan's eyes widened, "Add that to the already dead beings then…"
"The amount of undead they've gathered must be way more than we imagined." Pascal finished.
"And if the sorcerers aren't killed then they would be able to utilize an almost endless supply of undead, especially during a large-scale attack." Conrad said.
"Thankfully they are focusing on the Dragonstone Kingdom alone, but if what the High Priestess saw is true then they probably lost and ran to the Forsaken Lands to hide and recuperate." Ronan said.
"But don't you think it's illogical, them being able to control that much undead, I mean?" Sarah spoke, "No one has an inexhaustible power source!"
"Hmm, I don't think controlling the undead takes a lot of magical power, if it takes any at all." Ronan mused. "When we were fighting them, instead of being controlled the undead moved more like they were ordered. So, I'm thinking just reanimating the dead uses magical power, and after that they don't need to tap into their magical energy to make them do things."
"Then how are you so sure that killing the sorcerers would stop the undead?" Pascal asked.
Ronan and Conrad looked at each other, "This is mostly a speculation on our part, and it's because when I was fighting one of the sorcerers, I managed to poison him with Mamba. When people get poison the most common affliction is disorientation, I noticed that although the undead rushed towards me most of the got jumbled up together, like the sorcerer was seeing double." Ronan rubbed his chin, "The sorcerers and their undead are connected, I just don't know how."
Pascal sighed, "There are so many variables. But at least those in power have been warned and are probably taking precautionary actions already."
"You think?" Morgana asked.
"Yes." Pascal nodded, "A town was eradicated overnight, that's a huge deal. I guarantee you the news have already spread throughout the kingdom, or at least in noble families."
"Well, we've done our best help them, now it is time for us to focus on strengthening our defenses." Morgana actually.
Everyone nodded.
"And I have to say, it's pretty admirable of you to try and help the people who not only kicked you out but also tried to kill you." Morgana said to Pascal.
Pascal snorted, "I'm not helping the royal family, that thought hasn't even cross my mind. I'm looking after the people who are too weak to protect themselves, by announcing the upcoming attack keeping the forces of the kingdom on their toes. The more vigilant they are, the more people would be saved."
Then he clapped his hands, "Alright, that is the end of this discussion, Ronan, Conrad, Duma, thanks for your hard work, show Antonia around as you go to your houses."
"Antonia, you can stay with me. My parents won't mind." Duma immediately latched on to Antonia's arm as they all stood up. Antonia nodded and tried her best to smile.
"Has anyone seen Henry?" Sarah asked but everyone shook their heads, "Where could he be? It's been three days."
…
"Finally!"
Damon exclaimed when he saw the entrance of the library, they had been going down the stairs for almost an hour now and he was feeling quite winded. He tried not to think of the fact that he would have to climb up those exact stairs when they leave and focused on climbing down the remaining ones.
"Urgh!" Jolene had stopped carrying her back on her back and was dragging it on the ground. She was refraining from drinking more water from the half-full sack because she had to share it with Henry. She had gotten to know him a bit as they were walking down the stairs since they had nothing else to do, but he was mostly asking her questions about the library and the artificial realm, and he wasn't done yet.
"You were telling me about the elements this realm is composed of…" He was saying.
"Yes," Jolene swallowed spit to lubricate her throat before continuing, "A bunch of very powerful sorcerers gathered together and casted specific spells to create this small realm – "
"Small? This place is obviously wide, just like the outside! All those hills in the distance – "
"Are fake. When you walk a bit far you would be stopped by an invisible wall, the distance you see are basically painted on it. Now don't interrupt me!"
She continued after Henry nodded, "Like I was saying, different types of elemental spells and formations were used to create this realm. Fire to create the artificial sun, Wind for breathing, they used Earth to shape this place, and Space and Time to isolate it."
"Wow, all that for a library?"
"This library contains archives from the Old World and archaic magical spells, most of them unknown to the sorcerers of today. In fact, most of the spells and formations used in this era weren't taken from the old system but are instead a new system." Jolene said in indignation.
"Is that bad?" Henry asked.
"No," Jolene sighed, "but the young won't prosper unless they learn and fix the mistakes of the past."
"Well then, why did the Acanti's hide this place?"
Jolene lapsed for a few seconds before responding, "They didn't hide it. The gem is a key that controls many things in the library, and only the Acanti family had the right to possess it. Studying in the library was a privilege that not everyone could get, and people could only stay in there for a few days at most. Some people did try to break that rule, but the Acanti's weren't just keepers of knowledge but also powerful sorcerers, anyone who broke the rules were blacklisted, and if they were beaten back if they tried to use force."
"But even the powerful Acanti's couldn't protect themselves when everyone ganged up against them, and they were killed one by one in an attempt to steal the gem." They reached the entrance of the library while she spoke, Henry couldn't see a handle and was thinking they'd have to push the huge doors open but then Jolene brought out the gem from her sack and raised it up.
The gem glowed brightly, and a corresponding light appeared on a part of the doors, then a dull groan sounded and the doors slowly creaked open.
It was dully lighted inside because all the windows had gathered dust, Henry and Jolene slowly walked in awe and eagerness. The very first thing that grabbed their attention was the giant statue of a person wearing a robe with the hood covering the face so the gender couldn't be discerned, and the tome it carried in one hand. The statue was magnificently tall, reaching half the height of the tower.
At the barefoot of the giant statue was a dais with a small hole carved into, a hole the same size as a particular gem. Jolene kept the gem in its place, as she did the gem thrummed lowly, then the library became… alive.
Alive, that was the only way Henry could explain it. The air shimmered slightly as magical energy awoken in the library, Henry activated [Sense] and instantly overwhelmed by the immense magical energy flowing from the gem.
'Just how much magical energy is contained in that gem!' Henry gasped inwardly.
"Did you finally see its worth? Do you feel the urge to steal it now?" Jolene looked at him with a playful glint in her eyes.
Henry rolled him eyes at her, "I wouldn't even know what to do with it if I took it."
"Really? You're not a competent sorcerer then, are you? I mean, the reason we met each other was because you made a mistake during your spell casting…"
"That's not why. It's just I…" 'I'm a mage, not a sorcerer.' "…I just know that it would be useless to me."
"Hmm." Jolene pursed her lips and nodded, "Well then, after an hour of climbing down those insufferable steps, we've finally entered the library. So, explore!" She spread her arms out, then ran to a random direction. "Make sure not to damage the books, they are invaluable – ugh, more stairs!" Henry could hear her voice coming from the corner she ran too.
He shook his head and grabbed one of the books that were discarded on the floor, the book felt rough on his palms, like he was touching a bark of a tree. He opened the first page of the book and his face immediately scrunched in confusion.
'What the heck is this?' He was looking at paragraphs of an unfamiliar language, but then again he didn't really now that many languages. He decided to look for Jolene and found her sitting cross-legged with different books surrounding her, she was browsing through all of them like she was looking for something.
Henry plopped next to her, "Hey."
Jolene glanced at him for a second, "Hey." She replied.
He dropped the book he took on top of one of hers to gain her attention, "Do you know what language this is?"
She sighed before taking a look at the book, "Those are Glyphs, Elven language. Now, stop disturbing me!"
"Elven language?!" Henry grabbed the book and scanned the foreign syllables and briefly thought about Veronica, "Can I take this book out of here? I have an elf friend and I think she would like this."
Jolene rose her eyebrows, "You have a friend who's an elf?"
"Well, half-elf. But she was raised by both her human father and elf mother."
Jolene stared at him for a few seconds before nodding, "Sure, you can take any book you want, no one else is using it." Then she stood up and walked away while grumbling. Henry shook his head and chuckled, Jolene's mind wasn't in the same place as her body. He stored the book in his [Storage Space] and followed her closely.
Jolene rummage through the books like a whirlwind, she would take the books of their shelves and throw them down after examining them a bit, Henry found her actions perplexing.
"What exactly are you looking for?" He asked when she threw yet another book on the ground, this was an ancient library filled with books of great knowledge yet she was treating it like her wardrobe.
She huffed and answered without facing him, "I'm looking for a book, a very special book. It's so special that you would know it was special if you saw it."
Henry nodded thoughtfully and filtered through the memories he had of the books he had glanced at when he entered the library and remembered a book that had looked important, "Well, I don't now if this counts as special but I saw a very weird book. Well I couldn't see it clearly since in was in a glass case."
Jolene raced to his side and grabbed his shoulders, "Where? Show me!"
"It's right there." Henry pointed to the other side of the statue where another dais stood, but this one held a book protected by a glass case..
Jolene cocked her head to the side, "How did I not notice that before?" Then she ran towards if, Henry followed her and quickly overtook her.
"Ooh, I wonder what secrets this books hold!" Henry laughed as he got closer to the book, he didn't notice the circle of runes around the dais. Immediately his foot crossed over it, the runes lit up.
"No! Stop – !" Jolene yelled behind him.
Henry felt dense magical elements gathering around him and quickly jumped back, but it was too late. A ball of fire rose from the ground and shot towards him; the fireball looked ordinary, but it was actually filled with the fire element but was condensed into a small form. Henry could sense it clearly, if that fireball touched him it was going to explode.
Henry thrusted his arm forward and used [Inverted Universe] to isolate the explosion in another space, the force, heat, and sound were separated from him and were unable to cause him harm.
He looked calmly at Jolene who stared at him in shock, but he was anything but calm. He had actually forgotten about the [Inverted Universe] skill, his first choice was to use [Splice] or [Mirror] but then he suddenly remembered the skill. And thank god he did, he had greatly underestimated the magnitude of the explosion and using any other skill would have been useless.
"You seem quite capable." Jolene walked to his side, she looked at the place where the explosion happened, although there wasn't anything there anymore. "If I could do this then maybe…" She sighed lamentably then walk towards the book.
"Hey!" Henry ran after her, but she waved her hand at him.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to me." She crossed the runes and grabbed the book, "Members of the Acanti family don't need to worry about the traps of the library."
She walked out of the circle of runes and opened the glass case in a rush, the book within it was black but had an orange color that seemed to grow from within the book, like an infestation.
"This is it." Jolene whispered. She brought out a needle from one of her pockets and pricked her five fingers with it, then she closed her eyes and kept her trembling palm on the book.
Henry watched her in mild anticipation as she stood still, but after waiting for a few minutes it became clear that nothing was going to happen. Jolene suddenly screamed and heaved the book as far as she could, Henry watched as her eyes became redder and wetter until tears finally streamed from them. She slowly knelt down and silently cried on the floor.
Henry calmly watched her do this, he didn't offer her words of sympathy since he didn't know why she was crying, it wasn't until after her muffled sobs stopped that he finally walked to her side.
He sat down beside her and sighed, "So, you're an Acanti? That's why you seemed so worked up as we were coming here. I don't know what happened to you, but even then, I still offer my condolences." He tentatively placed a hand on Jolene's shoulder, but she didn't shrug it off, "Do you want to talk about what happened?"
Jolene sniffed and nodded, she cleaned her face and steadied her breathing before she began. "It's true, I'm an Acanti , the last one remaining. Many years had passed since the downfall of my once great family, but although the greedy forces wanted to wipe everyone with the Acanti name some people were able to escape – although they were very few – and took with them the one thing needed to enter the library: the Power Key.
"Years passed by, and the Acanti family had been reduced to one household: mine. From a very young age, my father had been transferring knowledge about the library to me. He stressed heavily on the fact that there might still be people who know about the library and the Power Key, so we had to live our lives inconspicuously. We did, but it wasn't enough."
Tears had begun to drop from Jolene's eyes at this point, she trembled with watery eyes as she recalled a terrible moment. "A man came to our house a few weeks ago, a very powerful sorcerer. Logan, he called himself, and he said that name with pronounced pride. He demanded we gave him the Power Key, but my father refused."
"My father was also a sorcerer, but an inadequate one. While my father did his best to stall him, my mother prepped me up for my escape. She didn't let me stay no matter how much I begged her, after giving me a final kiss she took a kitchen knife and went to help my father."
"I swore to get revenge for my parents, but I couldn't use magic nor was I able to create a sword Aura. I came here specifically for that book because it was said to be able to stimulate one's magic potential, but even that was for naught."
"I wouldn't have felt so bad if it was another day, but I swore to get revenge, I swore – " She bit her lip to control their trembles, her tears had begun to stain her top.
Henry looked carefully at her tear-stained face and her watery eyes, 'She's beautiful.' He thought. On an impulse, he grabbed her chin and kissed her on the lips. She paused for a second, then kissed him back.
Even though they had only met for a few hours, their fondness of each other had grown into strong. Their banter was delightful, without knowing it they had grown somewhat close, in fact they had clicked as soon as they met.
Their kiss lasted only for a short moment, but it was able to confer their feelings perfectly, Henry wiped all the tears from her face and looked at into her eyes.
"There's another way," he said, "another way for you to get the power you seek."