My eyes twitched in disbelief, I took a step backwards as it was quite difficult to believe what was just revealed to me.
"That's not true, I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding! Xerxes saved us from Delkon! the same person who attacked this town, it can't be true!."
I yelled in disbelief, I refused to believe that Xerxes was really responsible for this.
"Follow me child."
A voice spoke behind me and like any other human I reacted swiftly turning around to figure out who spoke. To my surprise it was a short old man. He had a stick in his hands to support his movements. It appeared there were more survivors than I anticipated.
The old man turned around and left, I stared at him for a few moments before my legs started moving behind him. I looked over my shoulder at the man who mourned the death of his family and couldn't help but feel sad for him, seeing it was now an experience both of us shared.
I followed the old man deeper into town, my eyes met with the deaths of so many unfortunate individuals. It was safe to say at least 30% of Terre Lane's population were caught in the compact wind ball Xerxes launched.
"Where are we going pops?"
I had to ask, several minutes had passed and we still journeyed through the havoc which was the utterly destroyed resident of Terre Lane, the destruction of Terre Lane affected mostly the center of town as that was the point of impact, the other part of town were affected mostly by the shockwave created from the blast.
"To where it all began."
He replied softly, I was confused by this statement. The old man came to a halt in front of a already demolished building.
"I don't understand old man, what exactly can we find here?"
He ignored my question and continued moving, he took a turn and headed to the back of the demolished structure, out of curiosity I followed him and to my surprise we found a lever still intact.
"This was once the Terre Lane's community library."
He finally spoke as he pulled on the lever, a weird creaking sound was made in the space between me and him and the entrance to a secret bunker was revealed as it's door was raised open.
"What is this?"
Out of astonishment I questioned the old man. It was a normal thing to do when one can't understand what happens around them.
"There are some knowledge...that is not supposed to be accessed by all, now then."
He walked down the staircase at the entrance with his left hand behind his back and of course I followed, I wanted to see for myself what this knowledge was.
As we ventured deeper the path became darker due to the absence of light. The old man stopped moving as the path became completely darkened. He raised his left hand and flames spouted from it.
"So..your a fire mage."
He nodded as he continued walking forward and I followed, eventually we arrived at the entrance of a huge door, carved into the door was the image of an elf. The old man placed his flaming hand in the middle of the huge door and exhaled.
As he exhaled white smoke escaped his nose and his flame spread throughout the corners of the door, the sound of the door being unlocked was very much audible and creaking sounds were made as the door was pushed open.
"Whoa!."
I exclaimed as my eyes saw what was beyond the doors, the secret library was huge and spacious. Several large wooden frame works which housed multiple books were situated at all corners. The old man simply walked forward, surprisingly it was more brighter compared to the secret passageway.
We arrived in front of another door at the edge of the secret library, this time three things were carved into a circle on the door. An elf, a dragon and a four legged animal, it had a uncanny resemblance to the beast that attacked me in the forest.
"What do those carvings represent? I saw something like this at the other door."
The old man brought out a key from his pocket and placed it into the keyhole before speaking in a low tune.
"Behind this door...is the beginning and also the legend of the three great Sage's."
My eyes widened a bit at the mention of the three great Sage's, if I remember correctly Xerxes had mentioned something like this before.
The old man unlocked the door and pushed it open, there were a lot of wooden frame works with multiple books inside as well, on each wall in the room were the huge carvings of an elf, a dragon and a beast.
In the middle of the room was an altar and on the altar was a large book. We approached the altar and already taken out by curiosity I asked the man.
"Is this why you brought me here?"
The old man looked at me while standing in front of the altar, he had the same focused look I had when I found Terre Lane like this.
"This book contains the legend, the history of the three great Sage's, 375 years ago during the heat of a magical war, three mages received a great power from the elf king as well as the dragon king who are now considered extinct, they deemed the three worthy and granted them the power of a sage. The three mages, Rachel the creator of Terre Lane, Jacques Vet and finally Xerxes Advent gained the power and title of the first Arcana Sage, the Greek dragon Sage and the Roman Dragon Sage."
This came as a shock, a powerful one at that, was everything Xerxes really told me was a lie?
"What are you saying old man? Xerxes told me the three great Sage's were the Arcana, dragon and Beast, are you implying there's no such thing as a beast Sage? that Xerxes was lying?!"
The old man could see I've grown fond of Xerxes quite a bit, he sighed as tried speaking to me calmly.
"Xerxes was once renowned as the Greek Dragon Sage, however everything changed when his obsession for a better world clouded his judgements, he propounded absurd theories that there was a threat far greater threat than what we could possibly imagine and it resulted in him killing innocent civilians. He even killed a member of the royal family, it took the two other Sage's to defeat him as Xerxes was the strongest of them all, he was exiled to the dark society 300 years ago."
I sat down on the ground and my eyes twitched as I gazed upon the old man, was everything Xerxes told me really all just a bunch of lies?
"The dark society is a realm, an evil realm. It is usually a place where the most dangerous of criminals are banished to, and there's nothing more dangerous than one of the three great Sage's going rogue, no human can survive the atmosphere of the dark society, it's dark essence eats through the souls and magic of a mortal. However we made a big miscalculation."
I gazed upon the old man flabbergasted, everything he spoke till this point sounded like Greek to me.
"We made a huge mistake sending Xerxes there, we don't know how or why but the evil essence from the dark society strengthened his will and entangled with his magic, that's what a Beast Sage is, a sage who has absorbed the evil essence of the dark society, that's who Xerxes Advent is. The most dangerous being in this world."
There were no words to describe my current expression, this was something beyond shock. Was this who Xerxes truly is? evil incarnate? if so what exactly does he want from me?