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"That scroll is cool and all, but none of us here can use magic, how are you going to summon a light spirit without any magic?" Viktor asked, and for that, Valeria started to ruffle around in her side pouch.
"I had stored these things just in case something like this had to arise, and look how useful it is now." She said, a smug tone in her voice as she pulled out a piece of Eldorite. I noticed that it was glowing a soft blue, casting a surreal light over Valeria's face as she brought the stone close to the scroll.
"All we have to do now is bring the stone close. There's a part of the scribe where any contact with a magic stone will activate this light spirit." Valeria said.
As she brought it to the scroll, and placed it at the top of the papyrus, the glow from the stone slowly lit up all the symbols and patterns on the scroll. These scrolls were designed by Nexalysts who will weave these intricate patterns and symbols together, and you can supply magic in them to do all sorts of things.
After another minute, I started to spot something at the center of the concentric pattern on the scroll. I watched on in awe as a small light spirit slowly materialized out of thin air.
The spirit had round, cute-looking eyes that sparkled with curiosity and kindness. Its form was ethereal, resembling a tiny, fuzzy creature with a warm and inviting aura. It was as if someone had taken the essence of coziness and cast it into a form.
Valeria slowly brought up her hands to the spirit, and then cupped it into her hands and took it gently.
"Light the way for us, spirit," Valeria said, in a soft voice.
The spirit seemed to understand, and it slowly made its way to the wall of the castle, it oriented itself upwards and started to slowly rise, and turned around, expectant eyes looking at us, expecting us to climb too.
"All right, let's get up there quick," Viktor said, as he made his way to the cobblestone wall, and grabbed a small protruding ledge.
"Wait," I said, a very pressing question nagging me at the back of my mind.
"What is it?" Viktor turned around and asked me.
"Aren't you afraid of heights?" I asked, curious as to why Viktor was comfortable climbing a two-hundred feet wall, but was afraid of Valeria pushing him down what was essentially less than half that distance.
"Well, I'm only scared if I look down, so I will just keep looking up and climb, and not look at the ground," Viktor said, and a bead of sweat rolled down his face as he said that.
He was nervous. If he backs out now, mentioning his fear of heights, I'm pretty sure Valeria would make him climb up somehow, and push him off the ledge.
I walked up to Viktor and leaned in close "I understand your predicament, but you have to go along with it somehow. "
Viktor nodded along with a nervous expression as he went up to the giant wall again now, and clutched the ledge again.
With a determined nod, Viktor turned back to Valeria, who had a very determined look on her face. The light spirit was floating a couple of feet above Viktor, illuminating his way.
I looked on as Viktor's hand shook with a bit of hesitation, and he seemed to flinch.
"Viktor, time to haul ass! Let's get up there quick!" Valeria said, her voice sounding a bit impatient.
Viktor then grabbed the ledge, placed his leg on the first ledge, and finally brought himself up to the first level, and the spirit slowly ascended a bit, while watching back down.
"Alright E- er James, now it's your turn," Valeria said, turning to me.
I too, walked up to the bottom of the wall and started to scale up, soon being followed by Valeria, with the light spirit leading the way.
As we got up higher and higher, the road and tree line from the bottom turned tinier and tinier, and I could visibly see Viktor trying his best to keep his composure, as maintaining it was necessary for everyone's safety.
"Are you doing okay up there!?" Valeria screamed from the bottom, as we got higher the wind had started to pick up, making it difficult for us to communicate.
I nodded, knowing she couldn't see it. "Yeah, we're good!" I hollered back, the words snatched away by the wind almost as soon as they left my lips.
At this rate, we would make it to the top without being noticed in like ten to fifteen minutes. Just like I expected, we were making good progress-
*bang!*
A sudden, deafening bang echoed from high above the castle. Our hearts skipped a beat, and we exchanged alarmed glances.
Valeria's eyes widened and glowed with concern, and in that moment of crisis, she didn't hesitate. "Transference!" she exclaimed.
In mere seconds, Valeria teleported right next to us, and she grabbed my arm, I could feel a familiar surge of energy flowing through me, and she hauled me up to Viktor, and her eyes just commanded me to grab Viktor's hand.
I complied without saying a word, and I could feel another surge of energy flow through my body, as Valeria powered our bodies up, lunging to the top of the castle with blistering speed, as Viktor screamed "Stooooooooop!"
Before I could even process my senses, we got to the top of the castle, and we floated down on the target balcony.
As I anxiously looked around, another bang echoed, and I could see Hagen stumbling out, with another person on the other end whom I did not expect to see.
It was Abaddi.
I could instantly feel a vein popping out in my head, as my hand instinctively reached for the hilt of my sword, and I channeled as much of my power as I could into my legs.
As the world around me blurred, in the blink of an eye I found myself in front of Abaddi, whose razor-sharp eyes instantly latched on to me.
"We meet again, Ed? Not bad at all. because you were brave enough to attack me this time around." He said, his voice still having the same terrifying undertone to it.