"Oh lord it stinks in here." Ines coughs and opens the window to let the dust out.
"How long has it been since this tiny shack occupied." I look around to find a suitable place to put Ari on.
"Ever since I abandoned the art of killing and knowledge gathering." She said it with a sad tone, probably because she remembered her past.
"What happened?"
"I should say the same to you."
"Can you make a comfy carpet to put Ari on?"
"Oh yes, I'll just sweep the place with spirits. Go outside." She walks to the middle of the room.
I step outside and see the old destroyed floating island of the lich lord Kadan. I could make out several imps flying around the island. That is a bad sign.
"Come in." Shouts Ines.
The place is much cleaner than before and isn't dusty as it used to be.
"Put Ari there." She points at the king sized bed that is old fashioned. I place Ari and put the blanket on her and walked back and sat on a chair.
"Explain. My slumber got interrupted." I mutter as to show my bad mood.
"Listen, were having breakfast and then all of a sudden, a knight comes and tells me that I should go and give damage report on yesterdays invasion attempt. As I get there, there were multiple people and an assassin waiting for the signal to kill me. They figured out that I was indeed, Ines and I teleported out of there. I run back and see you with Ari."
"I'm sorry that I ruined your new path. I hope you could forgive me." I held out my arm with open hands to initiate a handshake of shame. It is a tradition that we used to have in our squad back then. Either the handshake or you would punch your chest as hard as possible.
"Oh that is fine please lower your hand, you actually saved me from that boring life." She chuckled "Also I met you again! Fufu~".
"Who tried to kill you? Portos." I open the portal to access my notebook. It is filled with knowledge that Ines and I wrote down since working together.
"It was Irene from Aziena." She scratches her head trying to remember her last name. "I don't know her last name."
"I have never heard of an 'Irene' before. Could be new blood." I write her name in a new repository.
"Any note worthy skills?"
"She was invincible until I sensed her attack for my neck. Still surprised I managed to get out of that." She fondles her neck. I write down her technique.
"Noted. Portos." I put the notebook back in the storage portal.
"Anything else you want to say before we continue?" I cross my arms.
"No…, yes, what happened with you and Ari?" She stuttered a bit trying to figure out what she wanted to say.
"Ari fended off the knights with fear." I take a look at Ari, she still is asleep.
"Fear? How can this adorable little creature make them scared?" She giggles.
"You see that book, the book that you wrote while you were on your knowledge seeking spree. She had it on her hands when she fell unconscious, from using a spell that is written down." I point at her 'I' shaped book.
"How? Does she even know how to read? What spell did she even use?" Ines had a puzzled face trying to figure out what she used.
"P-y-r-a."
I slowly say it to not accidentally cast it, and destroy our new home.
Ines was speechless. She is probably thinking, how could she cast that high of a spell.
"Sh-e shouldn't be able to cast that right? You must of misheard it…" Ines slowly gets up her chair and is shaken by the news.
"…" I stay silent.
"How? She never used magic right? Did you teach her something about magic or trained her personally?"
"No." Ines picks up the book and frantically flips through the pages. Trying to figure out what caused that spell to be casted.
"Check her magical essence reserves. After using that spell, surely her gate has been decimated." We both walked up to Ari and she casted her spell.
"Way of Ines: Reserved Mana." She places her hand on her chest feeling her heart. Based on that she can see her mana quantity.
"fascinating, she has a giant mana reserve. It might be on paar me." She was astonished by it.
"Makes sense. She also had different body features. She had a demonic voice echo that spoke for her. She had a gem in her forehead and she had a weird smile on her face."
"Demonic voice? A gem? Is it possible that she got possessed?" She shed a sweat.
"Could be. You are the expert on magic so I expect you to know." I let out a sigh of disappointment.
"Well then, Who is to blame? You or me?" I look down in shame. I couldn't protect her, I failed my duties. I deserve punishment.
"Doesn't matter, why did you write your own book in the human language?" I look back up and stare at her.
"You know… maybe I thought I could get disciples to teach. I love sharing my knowledge that I have gathered. So instead of teaching them myself, I chose the form of a book. I figured it's the most popular way of teaching." She put an enigmatic smile while saying that.
"I also wrote it in the undead language. Just it in case fufu~."
"Well it seems our new disciple has found their way with magic, care to teach her now?"
"Oh yes, I would love to teach her! She reminds me of my younger self, searching for purpose. I want to teach her everything she wants to know!" She giggled and brushed her hair. "Do you not want her to learn, the way of the blade?"
"Up for her to decide. If she does want to learn it, she would eventually surpass me with the combination of sorcery and swordsmanship." I snicker to the thought of that.
"I can see her potential, after she did that stunt." She suddenly realized something.
"Rui you still do have my equipment right?"
"Yes, Portos." I open the portal and pull out her armor, staff and a blade. Holding them and seeing them gave me nostalgia.
"You do know you could've taken it out at any time?" I hand her arsenal.
"Ehh? What? Uhmm…" She looked around trying to come up with an excuse but she gave up with a sigh of defeat.
"I'm sure you have your reasons, for now let's plan what happens next."
"Wait for me outside, I'll meet you once I'm done changing."
I went outside and looked around. Back then there was no green. It was all a depressing Grey color. It is a beautiful sight to behold.
I hear steps coming from behind. They are loud stomping of high heeled boots. I turn around to see a familiar set of crimson red eyes. A beautiful body in a black dress. The tree symbol of rebirth marked above her chest. The scarlet red staff on her back and a short sword on her waist. The magical presence of her blonde hair emanating from her. Indeed, it is in fact, Ines the unholy warlock.
"What do you think leader? Does it look good on me?" She strikes a few poses to impress me.
"You are as beautiful as I lost you before." Ines turned bright red and looked away and said.
"Of course I am, hmph!" She says it arrogantly to hide her smile.
"Haha." I missed these interactions. I shushed myself
"Back on topic."
"You see the floating island? There flying imps there." I point in the general direction of where they are.
"Yeah they were always there."
"My point is, that they increased in number. Look to the left, there are around a pack flying around."
"Oh I see now. Want me to wipe them out?" She stretches her hand behind and holds on to her staff.
"No, we need them to be like that. We can't alert whoever summoned them here." She had a shocked expression when she heard that.
"Someone summoned them? I thought summoning magic was long forgotten." She scratched her head trying to figure out if there are any noteworthy users that use this art.
"I interrogated one ghoul when they attacked that kingdom yesterday. It seems they were summoned from somewhere I'm familiar with.
The land of Eden." I sighed loudly while getting flashbacks of the past.
Ines noticed my internal struggle.
"I'm sorry Rui, I'm sure that kingdom changed overtime." She approached me and leaned in for a hug. "I've heard that new generation elves inhabit it now."
"I hope you are right." We hug it out and the both of us go inside the shack.
"Ari is not going to be awake for a while, her mana did get depleted and it hurt her soul. I will try my best to nurse her back." She had a pained expression and felt the room getting sour.
"I'm surprised and thankful she didn't die from true death." She secretly wiped a tear behind me.
"She kept her faith and it rewarded her with a third chance of life."
"Now then, I'll take that time to also get back my magical essence with a long sleep." I made myself comfortable somewhere on the floor. "Do you need protection, just in case?" I can offer up my sword to protect them both.
"There is no need for it, now that I have my gear, no one is going to kill us." She unsheathes her crimson edged Scimitar and inspected it. It can cut anything easily. It can even damage my armor if I don't get careful.
"With her no one can match me in basic sword fighting." She sheathes it back.
"Good luck." I take one last deep breath in and out out. I stand up again just to brush Ari's hair one last time and go back to cast my spell.
"Way of Thaemine: Slumber." My vision slowly faded in black. I hope I could recover more than what I lost today. I spent a lot of magical essence.
An hour passes by
"Thy strength hast not gone unnoticed young fool, for I myself handeth picked thee to hand over a portion of my strength to thee." I pose around to make myself look cool and godly. Sadly I can't get it to work.
"Achk I can't get this sound cool enough, even Rui's old language doesn't help much, not that I know much of anyway." I murmur to myself. Rui didn't teach me enough about his old accent. He told me they talked like that before he was a normal knight.
I should probably go back and revise all my important skills. I haven't used them in a long time. I walk outside and It is still the afternoon. The shadow from the floating island is almost hitting the shack. Meaning half of the day has already passed.
Now unto the main course, what should I start with? I slowly walked around thinking of a spell to use. Oh of course! How could I forget my favorite skill!
"Way of Ines: Presence." An aura starts to emitting from my body, wind starts flowing behind me making my cape float around. My face gets covered with shadowy cloud darkening my face and makes my crimson red eyes flash through them. My voice deepens and makes an echo every time I speak. Ah yes, my magnum opus. With this spell everyone shall fear me!
"Foolish peasants taking a step in my garden, your blood shall be the new soil for this earth Muahahaha!" Muhahaha yes, yes, I love it!
I just realized what I said didn't make much sense.
I cringed so hard and my body shivered to the thought of Rui seeing my situation right now. Aughh, I felt wobbly like a slime after that. Well whatever it doesn't matter, Rui is asleep and so is Ari.
Let me calm myself down.
"Way of Ines: Recover." I felt a calm breeze come over me and I felt all my pain go away.
My amazing presence is gone! What a shame that my magnum opus is counted as a side effect, I got to work on that at some point.
Let's try another spell, hm. I walked around in circles trying to find something to get inspired by. My eyes darted around and saw a crane flying by.
Flying! Of course! Who wouldn't look awesome flying around with wings!?
"Way of Ines: Wings." My back ached and something irritated me. It felt like giant bugs were crawling on my back. The pain stopped and I felt heavier. Did this spell make me fat!? I took a glance behind me and see black feathery wings stuck into my back. Yay!! It still works. Now how do I control this thing. I wiggled around and forcefully trying to figure out how to fly.
Oh finally! I got one wing under control, now three more to go. I continuously kept put pressure on my back on different sides trying to get a hold of them. Two, three and four. Let's go!
I stretch out the wings and making sure that they are ready to go.
Those wings sure have a lot of power to them. The wings created a lot of strong wind in one direction, it could push an average knight away from you. Of course that was perfectly planned and suited for my tastes, just the way I like it. I stretch out my wings one last time and hop. Everything was going well I started floating but because of how much flaps I was doing I got tired really quick. I fell to the ground face first.
Aiiiiii, who would've thought that gravity would be my worst enemy. Forget it, I'll practice it later on a better surface.
"Way of Ines: Greater healing" The pain and the scratches were fading away and felt relieve again.
I am running out of ideas again. I am missing one last crucial step to finalizing my appearance. I think I wrote all my best spells in my own book. I run back to the shack and pick up the book and head back outside again. I flipped through the pages and found the hidden page.
Found you my precious little young.
"Way of Ines: Reveal." The book started flashing blinding bright light and slowly dimmed down. Yes, yes! The secret page has been revealed. Oh how beautiful this page is. The elegant golden striped edges, the attractive hand written letters from Rui and Sulyvahn. It is the forbidden spell that would bring disaster to the world if the caster doesn't take precaution and take the time to prepare. They even warned me of using this spell. Who do they think I am? A child? Heck this basic spell is merely a child's play, anyone could cast this spell if they have enough mana.
I went outside with the book.
Let me start with the appetizer.
"Ines: Presence."
My dark presence has been activated, now for the main dish.
"O death knight Thaemine and great hunter Sulyvahn, grant me the wisdom and courage to face my inner self. The power to overcome any foe and open a new path for change.
Shadow Double."
I felt sad, lonely and depressed. Those emotions are what the shadow felt through out being spawned. A dark portal appeared and someone walked out of it.
It was me. Exactly like me. The outfit, the presence spell, An exact copy of myself.
I griped my sword just in case it would attack me, but instead it spoke.
"What do you want?" the shadow stared at me with a blank face and slowly walked up to me.
"You know what I want, you know what you want." I snicker while saying it.
"Show off? I am perfectly ready." The shadow unsheathed the sword and held it out to its neck. "How cool do I look?"
I look amazing now that I think about it. Time to show off what I can do.
"Look at me now." I started dancing around while hoping and flapping my wings. I threw my sword at the air and elegantly bowed down. I picked the sword up while it was falling without moving a muscle. Now thats what I call a real show off. Top that off you amateur, muhahaha.
"My turn." The shadow flapped its wings and flew right up and down. The double made some targets with magic to slash on. It drove by all of them and slashed them so hard the wind didn't catch up to the speed of it.
"Wow amazing! Do you see how cool we are!?" The shadow flew back next to me and I faced it and shook hands with it.
"Indeed we could make a great duo and show off to the world!" We both laughed it off.
"You are dismissed, I enjoyed my match with you. You may go home now.
Shadow Double: Disperse."
The shadow waved me goodbye and it slowly faded away. Like blowing on sand. It actually made me tear up, I felt a part of me losing someone important to me. I won't summon a shadow again. It hurts me to see another one disappear. I wiped my tears and packed up.
"Way of Ines: Hide." The secret page also faded into a blank page. Now no one can decipher it, for now at least.
"Auntie Ines…?" A familiar voice came from the shack.