The vehemence of the sun rays were naturally harsher in these desert environments. Sweat beads that had formed on his forehead now dripped down his face as he breathed softly, sitting on a bare rock. His shiny black hair, stopping short of his shoulders, was soaked in sweat, his eyes were closed to minimize distractions.
Concentrating on the energies that flowed in his body, he found the one he was seeking.
"Again." Agnar spoke to the man with him, still with his eyes closed.
Dipping his hand in a jar placed on the sandy ground, Demas, pulled out some of its contents. In his hands held a blue powdery substance.
Taking a step back to create distance between both men, he slowly muttered some words while tightly holding onto the powder. Blue fog began emanating from the substance and immediately, he moved it towards Agnar.
The fog surrounded him then forcefully went into his nostrils. Agnar's eyes were forced open and now glowed dark blue. He fell off the rock and onto the ground, groaning in pain. He gritted his teeth and pulled on his hair, trying hard to fight through the pain, but it only got worse.
The fog seemed to be trying to entrap a certain black mist in him. The struggle between both powers were causing a great deal of pain. It was getting hard not to scream.
Finally, after groans and eventually letting out a few screams, followed by pounding of the fists on the ground, the pain subsided. The black mist had won and moved in his body rapidly, while the fog disappeared. His eyes returned to its normal colour.
Placing his hand on Agnar, who was now on his knees, Demas shook his head. "I'm sorry, Agnar it's still there." He said disappointingly.
Slamming his fists on the ground, he yelled. "Fifteen years, I've been searching for a way to undo this stupid curse and it fails every single time!" He let out his pent-up frustration. This was the seventh time in three days they tried this process to see if it would work, still its result was same.
"This might just be the closest you've come to breaking it. The curse has weakened." Demas smiled. "But, there's more bad news." He lifted the jar up and turned it so its opening faced the ground. He shook it repeatedly and nothing came out. "We've run out." He said.
"We'll just have to get more then." Agnar said rising to his feet.
"That would be arduous . You said yourself the beast this was gotten from is hard to come by."
"I know. We'll just have to search for it. No matter how long it takes. While we do that, we can just look into your problem in Venus." Rising to his feet, Agnar said. His last statement put a gleam in Demas' eyes.
"I would be very grateful." He smiled.
Deciding to head back to the city, Agnar reminded Demas to bring their kill along.
With a snap of his fingers, the carcass of a green large snake-like beast with scaly wings and six legs on its lower body, scattered into tiny glowing particles and then disappeared. The men then turned to leave.
"I keep wondering where you got that, and how were you able to tame such a thing?" Demas said staring at the vicious beast Agnar climbed up on. Its appearance was like that of a grey wolf but had a huge difference.
Its fangs were thick and long, too big for its mouth that it had to stay open. It had three green eyes and large powerful bat-like wings. One flap of them can cause a wing strong enough to send people flying. Compared to the two men with it, it was about the size of a two storey building. Agnar only moved around with the beast when he's with less people.
"I have my ways." He replied with a smile. Demas hopped on the back and they headed back to Raldon. It didn't take much time for them to arrive even though they were in another kingdom, that's how fast the beast was. Landing a few metres away from his house, he took a left at a hidden pathway by some shrubs.
"How do you ride on that everyday? I feel sick." Demas said with one arm on his abdomen and the other over his mouth. His stomach churned and he felt queasy.
"You might just be getting too old for this." Agnar replied. They walked for a while through the bushes before getting to their destination.
The torches hung on the walls of the cave they entered lit up immediately as soon as they walked in. Walking deeper into it, a makeshift shelf could be seen on one side of the wall with different bottles filled with potions in them and rare minerals. On a small carved mahogany table beside it, books were placed.
The other side of the cave was an oven with floors of stones, which was the main source for the radiant heath. It was constructed from branches of willow, which was bent to look like an igloo, covered with clay and isolated further with turf.
Two pots, one small and the other, large were placed in the centre of the cave, each on top of burning wood. On the large unoccupied space in the cave, tiny bits of light shone and the dead beast from the desert reappeared. Saying nothing to each other, the men immediately got to work.
Carving a section of the snake beast, specially the chest region, they pulled out a brightly glowing, clear crystal. While Agnar placed it in the fiery oven, Demas pulled out every organ from the beast and placed them in the small pot which had some liquid elements boiling in it.
At intervals they would look in one of the books on the table, following it's instructions carefully so as to not make mistakes, they carried on with the process of harnessing the beast's ability, which was wind.
Every process was time consuming and hectic. Adding bits of potions from the bottles on the shelf, they took out the organs and poured in the now melted crystal slowly, while stirring in the larger pot. Turning off the fire underneath the pot, they left it to cool off.
When it cooled off, the liquid was poured into a clay moulded basin big enough to fit a person.
"Day after day, night after, i take back what was mine." Agnar spoke as the liquid shone a bright blue colour. The basin shook violently, wind blew around the cave, not too tough to push down anything, it only blew back their hairs.
Taking in a deep breath, Agnar was feeling euphoric. "Three out of five." He mumbled. The wind current grew stronger.
Agnar took off his shirt, stepped into the liquid filled basin and sat. He closed his eyes and the glow got brighter when Demas stopped him.
"Need I remind you, you are cursed?" He spoke. "Let me do it."
Demas then held a staff with a blue crystal on it and spread his arms. Faint lines appeared around him and slowly it began to glow, getting brighter and brighter as he muttered some inaudible with his eyes closed. The liquid which Agnar sat in glowed brightly as well and began to rise up in form of a fog moving round the cave with the fast blowing wind.
Clasping his hands together, the glow and the wind was now concentrated around Agnar. His eyes twitched a bit and he opened them, revealing two brightly glowing eyes.
"I believe you can handle the last part." Demas said trying to grasp his breath with his eyes glowing as well as he held onto his staff.
With a smile on his face, the word 'absorb' left the lips of Agnar as he concentrated in the power that now entered into him. He was surrounded by a great force of wind and glow that Demas couldn't see him.
It hit him directly on the chest and the bright glow was now around him. Demas had to look away for it was blinding.
The feeling Agnar got from it was excruciatingly painful. He clenched his fists and bit his lip, stopping himself from screaming. After the moment of pain, he got a pleasurable feeling, his insides were tingling. It felt like a flame had been put off inside of him. His muscles more relaxed.
Getting up, the glow around his body slowly died down and he stepped out of the basin.
"Was it successful ?" Demas asked.
Agnar only swung his hands at him and a great force of wind sent him flying across the room, crashing into the cave's wall. "It was." Agnar smiled.
Getting up off the ground, Demas held his back. "Do you plan on killing me? I'm too old for such things."
"I'm sorry, you don't look in the least close to your age, I must have forgotten." Agnar replied.
He was overjoyed at the moment. Before being turned to stone, his abilities were taken from him and now, slowly, he's getting them back. Unlike most people who could handle at most three abilities, he could use five.
Though, he would not be able to use magic as much as he wanted for now, to avoid death, he would have them and wait till he could.
"Growing up, I actually thought my father exaggerated the stories he told me about you. But now I see he wasn't lying one bit. That makes me wonder, who was able to subdue and trap you?" Demas aired his thought.
The expression on Agnar's face changed. His forehead wrinkled, his lips curved downwards into a frown. "A trickster who was nothing but envious. He had better be dead or pray that I never find him. I will surely make him pay for everything."
The aura about him changed when he spoke. Just by mere looking at him, Demas had chills run down his spine, his hairs stood on end. The last time he felt this way when standing beside him was the night Grace died.
"You have done a lot for me, Demas. Thank you." He smiled.
"No need thanking me. It's actually quite fun doing this. Life gets boring after living for so long." Demas replied with a smile as well.
Agnar then froze staring into space. Red rings formed around his eyes and his eyes brightened up. He had a large grin on his face.
"What's so amusing?" Demas asked.
"My sons. They finally decided to go in."
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Author here: Sorry for the slow updates. More chapters will come in, and more often as well.
Still a novice here, you can point out my mistakes in the comment section.
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