Chapter Thirteen: Call The Cops
Office of the Arcane Safety Head
Damien Hastle was seated behind a brown desk, reading a book. With the runes and strange languages in the book, it was obvious he was reading a book about magic.
Auburn hair, sea blue eyes and beautiful lips made him an exceptionally handsome man with an intriguing demeanour.
He was focused on the rune book which lay before him, reading with all manner of seriousness. He wanted to increase his knowledge about magic so that he could cultivate his Magical Body and advance quickly to the High Magic Array. He had been in the Array Seven for two years now without any development and this was making him impatient with advancing.
Advancing to High Magic Arrays was very difficult and dangerous—a mixture of the two with a higher tone. Unlike the Low and Middle Arrays where sorcerers had to build up their Magical Bodies before advancing, High Magic Arrays were not like that. They needed some kind of ritual and this ritual could take days, months and years! It was something fraught with danger as there were situations where sorcerers either became mutated and transformed into evil creatures or dying instantly. The latter was better while the former was worst.
Damien had once witnessed an incident where a ritual failed a year ago. A sorcerer in the Theurgy School had undergone the ritual to advance to Array 8, Horde Warlock. At first the ritual was going on smoothly and then something went wrong. It was believed this sorcerer had been corrupted by Evil Eye for some time. The sorcerer was transformed to a monstrous beast which was equivalent to Array 8 and Array 8 sorcerers were star level! Luckily there were many other Array 8 sorcerers around who dealt with it before it could attack and brought everything under control.
He was still reading when a message was sent to him via electromagnetic waves. The technology of Duchy was very intriguing that phones were almost no longer needed to speak with people over long distances.
"Send in your Arcane Guards," a voice said. "An Arcane Guard stole the Book Of Mysteries and is headed to the MythVille Woods."
"What?" Damien was shocked. "Walter Anderson? How's that even possible to begin with? He wasn't corrupted in the first place."
"That's what we all say but now he's collaborated with Castor and is submitting the Book Of Mysteries to him!" the voice explained. "We, the Hands Of Arcane, are sending in sorcerers as well. We need combined forces to stop this Walter and Castor from causing any destruction. The powers of that Book is beyond comprehension. It's beyond comprehension, you get?"
"By the Name of the Goddess!" Damien was now very shocked. The Book Of Mysteries was known by all the sorcerers to be very powerful—even powerful than all the sorcerers combined. It was so mysterious that nobody had ever comprehended it for centuries now. And yet, this same Book Of Mysteries had been stolen and was about to be handed to an evil sorcerer from the Hall Of Corruption—a sorcerer from the School of Occultism.
This is very bad, Damien said and stood up from the chair. He walked to a machine in the wall which looked like a telephone boothe and then pressed the buttons on it. This was the machine used for controlling electromagnetic waves. The owner of this machine could send messages via electromagnetism over long distances. It didn't matter if the other person you wanted to communicate with had the machine or not. It just depended on your knowledge and skills at electromagnetism. This machine was called the Electromagnetic Telephone.
"All Units are required to send in half of the members of their teams to MythVille Woods," he gave the order. "The Book Of Mysteries has been stolen by Walter and it's only a matter of time before he hands it to Castor."
After sending the message, he sighed. He gave the instruction for only half of the teams to be sent in and not all. This was because he feared a storm was brewing and the city would be left defenseless. Although he was an Array seven, he didn't dare take risks. In a period like this, the enemy would seize the chance to throw in surprise attacks. Who knows the threat level the enemy's attacks would be and how many attacks he would send?
So he kept half of the teams here to deal with attacks which might arise in case he was caught up with fighting off another threat.
He then sat on the chair, rubbing his temples with his fingers. A storm is brewing—it's brewing.
~
Unit 005, Tenth Floor
"What!" all the team members were shocked after they heard the message. How could Walter have collaborated with Castor to get the Book Of Mysteries?
"This is unbelievable for me too," Wilfred said with a sad face. "I don't even understand why he would do that."
"He was so filled with loathe for Castor," David said, his face wearing a sober look. "He wanted revenge so badly and couldn't wait to kill Castor."
Donald stared at David without saying a world. It was obvious he was lost in his own thoughts about the situation.
"It's unbelievable indeed," one of the team members said. He went by the name Mark and was queer looking.
"I think he was corrupted," Dan said, his brown eyes staring at team leader, Wilfred and then back at his teammates. "I mean Walter couldn't have done that if he wasn't corrupted.
"Team leader, what Dan said is plausible," Victor agreed, nodding his head. "What do you all think?"
The others didn't reply. They only maintained their sober looks without saying anything.
"I think we should go the location first and arrest him," Wilfred said firmly. "Only then shall we find the truth from him. If he's corrupted, we can also try to use magic to remove the corruption."
"You're right," David said. "We shouldn't jump into conclusions about Walter."
Then Wilfred said, "Donald, Mark, Victor and Dan, you all have been assigned to this mission. David, Alfred and Don will stay in the city to protect it."
"Yes team leader!" they all nodded.
"Now get yourselves ready," Wilfred said, standing up. "This would be a very dangerous mission."
Donald, Mark, Victor and Dan immediately rushed out of the room with their wands towards the elevator. They had to join the other team members from other units who were going for the mission of retrieving the Book Of Mysteries from Walter.
Wilfred sighed and turned to look at the other three who were now standing, "It's now us in the city."
The others nodded, knowing what he meant. Now would be the perfect moment for evil beings to attack the city. This mission would be fraught with danger and not all of them would survive.
~
The teams of Arcane Guards and sorcerers moved into the MythVille Woods, one party dressed in starchy uniforms and the other dressed in robes—a cluster of two different dressing.
The Arcane Guards and sorcerers were comprised of Array twos but then they were not weak. Each team carried a mystical item which was at least at Array three. This mission would be fraught with danger so they had to be amped to the fullest.
They had heard about MythVille Woods and knew what it was. This Woods served as a node which connected with other dimensions. Most of these dimensions belonged to evil creatures which were chaotic and corruptive. Once in a while, the dimensional fabric separating other dimensions from this dimension would weaken and many creatures would rush out of the dimensions to cause havoc. Higher dimensional beings could not go through the dimensional fabric and could only try to affect this world from their dimensions. This alone was sufficient to cause chaos and havoc to the whole world.
The number of teams present were up to ten and the team members were about fifty—a very great number.
As they advanced through the dark woods, they heard shrieks, howls and shrills. Most of them who were inexperienced were filled with fear.
Several meters from them, a speck of blackness appeared in the air. It was so black that the darkness of the woods seemed like day when compared to its blackness. The speck of blackness ess spiralling at great speeds.
"Be on alert!" one of the sorcerers shouted. "The dimensional fabric has weakened and the connection to other dimensions is strengthening."
The Arcane Guards and sorcerers nodded, staring the the speck of blackness several meters away from them.
They could feel faint auras of evil and corruption seeping out of the speck of blackness.
The speck of blackness then began expanding, twirling like a vortex till it became very large.
Howl!
Shrill!
Shriek!
Several horrible sounds escaped from the portal, filling the environment with eerieness.
The Arcane Guards and sorcerers stopped, activating defensive spells as they prepared themselves to use the mystical items that they had. They didn't rashly go near the portal to close it for fear of been corrupted. They had no idea which dimension the portal led to or which dimensional beings resided in it. They could only watch from afar with all manner of alertness.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
They began hearing sounds of water dripping. It echoed from the portal throughout the whole woods.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The hearts of most sorcerers began beating very fast, racing like athletes. Before they could realize it, their minds became chaotic and they could not control their thinking. Their thoughts went adrift, collapsing into the surreal ocean of chaos.
"Ah!" the sorcerers screamed as they held their heads. Their Magical Bodies was immediately turned into Bodies of chaos, filled with chaotic energies. They could not withstand the chaotic energies and immediately exploded into smithereens, shooting towards the other Arcane Guards and sorcerers.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The smithereens collided with the magical barriers which had been activated, causing sonic booms. Several magical barriers faded with the smithereen bombardment, becoming weak. The smithereens then transformed into green liquids, going right through the magical barriers.
The Arcane Guards and sorcerers who had their magical barriers broken into by the green liquids could not react and defend themselves as their thoughts became chaotic. The liquids dropped on them, transforming them into pools of green liquids.
Goddess's Light!
One of the sorcerer teams immediately used their mystical item. It was a bulb which was the size of the closed fist of an average child.
The bulb glowed with a bright white light, illuminating the environment. Everything became sacred. Everybody became sacred. Every thought became sacred. Everything in the woods underwent purification and became sacred, devoid of evil and corruption.
Sizzle!
The pools of green liquids produced sizzling sounds as they were incinerated by the divine light, destroyed by the sacredness. They immediately evaporated into nothingness, leaving black specks in the air.
The light in the bulb then died down till it was completely extinguished, making the bulb return to its normal form. It looked as ordinary as before.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The dripping of water continued but this time the sorcerers were not affected by the chaotic thoughts. The Arcane Guards would not have been affected anyway as they had control over their thoughts and emotions. Their physical condition was higher than the sorcerers.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind swept out of the portal towards the environment.
Immediately, the trees blackened and their barks began swelling. From the inside, worm-like creatures began wriggling disgustingly, causing the barks to peel off.
The Arcane Guards and sorcerers watched with alertness, ready to use their magic anytime. They didn't dare use their mystical items as all of them had side effects—they couldn't be used anyhow.
When the barks peeled off, they expected to see the worm-like creatures which were wriggling inside but they didn't. Rather they saw the faces of people moving, trying to get out of the tree. And some of these faces were the sorcerers that had just died!
"We want meat! We want meat!"
Several voices escaped from the faces as they wriggled to come out.
Crack!
They finally broke out of the trees, swarming towards the Arcane Guards and sorcerers like bees. Their desire for flesh increased and they craved for it with each distance they covered.