Back at Fort Endsege…
A tall half-elf man in a black coat wearing black gloves with a flat cap looked at his female partner conversing with the knights that had managed to survive the encounter with the destroyer of the fort, even worse–two mages were killed and the other severely injured.
He took in a puff of smoke from his cigarette and let out a sigh. Another troublesome case on his hands, nobody liked doing work especially difficult ones like this one seemed and he wasn't any different.
His partner, a dark-skinned middle-aged female demon came with a piece of paper in her hands, she turned it showing him her drawing of the man they described, red hair, tall and powerful, it wasn't particularly detailed as they saw him from the distance but it was something.
"What do you think? Should we head straight to the City or should we go to the capital?" she asked.
He took away his cigarette, tossed it away and placed his hands in his pocket like a child with cold hands.
"Minastoma it is."
Minastoma….
Rein and Tiagon emerged out of a portal in between two deserted buildings close to the church area. Tiagon proceeded to give Rein a tuck to his back prompting him to move.
"Don't mess this up. I only need the grimoire."
Rein left the spot and headed to the Grimoire Store. All was proceeding according to the plan until he spotted Rein coming out without the said grimoire in his hands.
Tiagon frowned, he didn't like it. Rein on the other hand continued his steps towards the opposite side of the store towards the registry, Tiagon had wanted to respond offensively but Rein gave hand symbols suggesting that he wasn't about to abandon his task.
Tiagon paused but he still had his guard up.
He went to a much larger building which happened to be the City's registry, records of citizens were kept there and some permits were usually granted in the building.
Rein needed to have his background checked before he was able to purchase a grimoire and after about thirty minutes, he left the building with a piece of paper in his hand and he headed back to the store.
"Alright Mr Rein, that will be two gold coins and three silver."
He handed over the money and received a green large hardcover of a book and on it was written "The All-knowing Book of Shapeshifting".
Rein walked back to the spot and Tiagon collected the grimoire, he couldn't help but smile feeling the magic book in his hands.
He opened it, spells, instructions and drawings all pertaining to shapeshifting could be seen.
"You've done well Rein and as a reward, I'll craft you into a special monster."
Rein knew he was screwed upon hearing the statement, his wand had been confiscated by Tiagon thus he was significantly restrained. This wasn't the gratitude he had expected.
He felt a shiver run through his skin and reflexively his body jolted and he thrust both arms releasing a charge of electrical energy.
"Blue senses!"
Suddenly multiple little balls of blue lightning appeared in front of Tiagon and they all rushed at him.
He struck out his hand in response and the mage's spell disappeared. He had shrunk them to nothing.
Meanwhile, the said mage had took for the skies zooming away with all of his might.
"They don't listen. I suppose you're not the one." Tiagon commented and sighed.
Suddenly, two swords of golden light appeared out of nowhere and pierced through Rein's torso, he gasped unable to communicate the pain.
He began to descend and he crashed just by the church. He died.
Tiagon disappeared back to the spot he had earlier with Rein. There he studied the grimoire, its history, its application, philosophy and rules.
'Shapeshifting is believed to have begun from an ancient tribe of Demons far to the east, they specialized in the ability mainly to ease hunting. The craft later developed in many areas and was prominently used in the great wars to fool enemies.'
Tiagon smiled upon reading the last sentence, the great wars were wars he had stood by against the humans and their allies and now it seemed like his efforts and the lives of his dead men were all for naught.
He had never tried learning shapeshifting magic, it never came to his mind in his days of menace and it wasn't a dignified magic craft.
The earliest step was to transform one's hair color into a different one.
'The composition, color and texture must be visualized properly to get an ideal result. Many tries will be needed to get a hang of it and never attempt transforming into non-sentient animals on your first try.'
So, Tiagon visualized his red hair as green and he muttered some incantations. Suddenly, his red hair became green and harder, it also stood upright against gravity.
'This is going to be easy.'
He smiled and continued studying.
It wasn't that Shapeshifting magic was simple, it was just that Tiagon had a special talent for magic, shapeshifting magic was actually one of the hardest magic to learn and many mages end up dying trying to learn its secrets.
"Something more difficult this time around. Morphing a part of me."
He stretched forward his arm and initiated the process of magic. He thought of the claws of a crab and there, his right hand writhed in an angle it wasn't meant to be, it inflamed and twisted some more and it suddenly changed color and shape.
However, it wasn't exactly what he had wanted that he got. He visualized properly and yet his arm stopped its transformation halfway stopping by his elbows while his upper arm remained a contorted mess.
Like the book instructed, he made many tries and ultimately, he got it right.
This would go on for hours and then days and then out of nowhere, Tiagon's stomach rumbled, he hadn't eaten since he awoke from his slumber.
He couldn't ignore the pangs of hunger and stopped his reading, he placed the grimoire into his subspace and stood up.
It was quite early in the morning, dew was everywhere and the sun had just begun to rise.
"It's time to hunt."