Chapter Twenty-Seven: Sea of Blood
The two, Alexandria Feloncia and Alez Zander stood in front of the barrier, they knew it's dangerous but they couldn't turn back. Alez would if his friend wanted too.
The foul scent they perceived, they were sure it came from the other side. A powerful Mage must've placed a barrier to trap a Dark Mage, and if he defeated it, that made him eligible to be a powerful Mage's apprentice.
"Wait, that doesn't make sense." Alexandria stopped his thoughts and turned to Alez. "If the Dark Mage is trapped here, his sword wouldn't have come out."
Alez stared at him with tired eyes. Did he just realize? "It seems the Dark Mage doesn't want anyone getting in there, so the smart choice is leaving."
Alexandria nodded in agreement but he didn't move. If the Dark Mags wasn't trapped in there and could leave to cause chaos within other districts then why didn't he just do it? "I'd still go in and find out why."
Why? Alez felt like pulling his hair. Many might think his friend, Alexandria Feloncia, was a smart creature but that was far from the truth, in most cases.
Shouldn't the obvious decision be to leave the Dark Mage alone? "You don't even know if its Sir Zenith that trapped him in here, you know, during the morning hours when he left."
Alexandria froze and kept his eyes on the ground. If that's true, that meant the Dark Mage would be SS-Rank or SSS-Rank since Sir Zenith had to release his bands. He couldn't defeat an S-Class Dark Mage at his prospective B-Rank.
He nodded at Alez. "You are right, we should go—"
There was a swirling sound, as if they were being sucked in and the two boys got pulled into the barrier and traces of them disappeared.
They found themselves in a dark bloody environment covered in blood and bones and disgusting smells.
Alexandria's stomach back flipped and his lunch escaped his stomach. Alez looked around in fear, his beating chest could be heard from outside his body.
Would he die like this? He looked at his hands that were stained with blood, he was standing on top of bones and he could only see blood, bones, bones with blood, and bones with little flesh for miles and miles.
"One of you said something about a 'Zenith'." A voice echoed within the space they were in.
Alexandria fell back, and noticed the reflection of a throne in the sea of blood they floated in. But there was no throne in sight.
He tapped Alez and pointed at it, and Alez tried to find the throne the sea reflected, nothing was on the sea or above the sea. Could it be under the sea?
One thing was sure, this was the work of a Dark Mage, and they usually had unusual and special types of magic. This was definitely one of those 'forbidden use' magic. The boys telepathically agreed on that.
"W-We are his students." Alez said, looking around to see where his voice would echo from. "We were on our way home when we saw this. We really have no intentions to disturb whatever you were doing—"
"I wasn't doing anything." The voice came behind him and when he looked, he only saw a ripple. "Your teacher deceived me and abandoned me here, so I connected the place to my palace. You two are my very first guests."
Alexandria swallowed down saliva. This was his palace? Hopefully, they'd be his only guests. Non-mages might not survive here as the air was really heavy and the sight would make them puke.
If not of levels of training as Mages, from class 7 to class 11, neither he nor Alez would be able to handle this. "What do you mean by 'abandoned you'? Weren't you a villain that attacked a district this morning—"
Alez nudged him to shut him up. How could he speak so rudely to a Dark Mage and call him a villain?
Some of them were twisted and wouldn't sure mercy. He's no coward but he wanted to play it safe till he leaves the place, someone else should handle it. The festival shouldn't end with his death and he still had many things to accomplish.
The voice stopped coming and drops of water and the ripples' sound were all they could hear, it was almost eerie and the boys stayed together on top of a small hill of broken bones and metal.
"He left because you called him a villain." Alez accused Alexandria immediately.
Alexandria said nothing, knowing fully well that the mess that they got in was his fault so everything that happened should also be his fault. "Well, sorry. I didn't know Dark Mages were so whiny."
Alez sighed when his friend kept talking. There was no one responding and it was as if they were all alone inside the space. Alexandria stood on the bones and looked at the distance. "I have an idea."
Those words were curses to Alez, but at the point that they were already in a mess, any idea that could bring them out was highly accepted.
The sea of blood looked disgusting to attempt swimming in to find an exit in this vast place so Alez crossed that out as Alexandria's idea. "What? And I hope it doesn't involve killing us faster?"
Alexandria stooped down and stared at the sea, Alez frowned, hoping that he didn't really want to try swimming in it. Alexandria gently placed his hands into the sea of blood and Alez lost it.
"What the hell are you thinking of!! Swimming?"
They didn't even know which sad victims owned these blood. Or if they even belonged to human beings.
"Electrification."
Alez became quiet. Electrification? In the sea of blood? He stooped besides the sea. "You want to know your chances or you've really thought it out?"
"I don't know what I expect to see but bones don't conduct electricity so you are safe." Alexandria shrugged.
"Am I?" Alez sighed and stayed away from the sea of blood. Electricity wouldn't work on the sea of blood and if it would, his friend would've to expend a lot of essence to make it a good effect.
The effect he expected, Alez had no idea what it'd be, or what the sea should 'bring out' after being hit by the electrification.
Alexandria's body shuddered when he placed his hands on the sea's surface, sparks ran through his veins and towards his wrists, pooling in his joints.
He knitted his brows as he tried to concentrate on gathering as much current as he could in one place to shoot at once.
Internally, he hoped what he'd be doing made sense and there'd be no adverse effect because if anything happened to he and his friend because of his stubbornness, he'd never forgive himself.