"Child, you should consider yourself fortunate. Few have the privilege of mastering the power of time, though such a gift comes with its consequences," the head commented in a deep voice, as the flames in its eyes admired the content of Eric's book. "Along with your other affinities, I'm sure you will be a great mage in times of war," it added seriously, just as the flames in its eyes began to contract and expand rapidly. "Ah, it seems my time here has come to an end. We may see each other again in the future, if you manage to live long enough. Allow me to reveal a truth that few accept: if you choose to stay in the tower and follow the path of magic without relinquishing your humanity, you will have an anonymous, happy, and possibly somewhat long life. But if you are willing to do anything to achieve power and knowledge, glory and immortality will await you. However, you will never be who you were before." The head concluded calmly, its voice descending into a whisper as the flames in its eyes extinguished. Its words lingered in the air, leaving an echo and a deep silence inside the carriage.
In that carriage, now shrouded in darkness, Eric sat with the book in his hands, his gaze fixed on the head, which showed no signs of life. The empty sockets of its eyes and its contours took on a mummified appearance. In his previous life, he had been willing to fight at any cost for his ideals and the people he loved. However, now he found himself in a new world, where those beliefs and the people he valued had vanished. Those ideals felt obsolete and meaningless.
"Ah... only time will give me the answer," Eric thought. "I must move forward and do what I believe is best. Now I am nobody, I have nothing to lose, but I have much to gain, and a world full of adventures awaits me out there, ready to be discovered," he thought, turning his gaze towards the book of the dead in his hands to study it. He knew that this book would be his starting point towards a glorious future, and so he did for several hours.
Outside Eric's carriage, the black knights continued to guard the three carriages tirelessly. In the main carriage was Aldric, who sat in the same chair, reading a black book with great concentration and drinking a mysterious liquid that, judging by the expression on his face, was to his liking. Nearby, Adam and Lanira were gathered around a nearby table, discussing: "It's like mixing light and darkness, they are obviously incompatible, but despite that, they coexist and love to attack each other," Aldric thought, a bit annoyed at not achieving his much-desired peace to continue studying his spells.
As Aldric was somewhat annoyed by what was happening, his mental power sensed a very strong presence, comparable to his own, approaching at high speed. "Who is coming? The dean did not mention anyone we should intercept," Aldric thought, alarmed. From the window, he fixed his gaze on the place from where he felt that presence. His pupils turned into slits, and were surrounded by some patterns, but, to his terror and amazement, he saw nothing with his spell through that passage. So, through his control over the black knights, he ordered them to position themselves at the front to try to gain, if only for a second, for him.
"What's happening?" Adam and Lanira questioned upon feeling the movement of the knights. But, to their dismay, they received no response from Aldric, as he had risen from his chair and was looking carefully at that passage. He grabbed his staff and prepared for what would happen next. Noting the state of the old man, both knew clearly what would happen next and were concerned, as for Aldric to be like this, it must be something problematic, and that would be bad for them, not having the ability to withstand such an impact from two beings of such power.
As the seconds passed, the atmosphere became increasingly tense until Aldric felt that the being was in front of the knights. But, no matter how hard he tried to see it, he could not. Thus, the being made its way through the wall of knights, but none of them were injured; it was as if they were trying to stop the air, only to fail. Ready to defend against any incoming spell or attack, Aldric emitted intense mana. To mortals, it was as if the wind surrounded him, but for Adam and Lanira, who were able to sense it, they were horrified by what was to come. Both were ready to flee with their spells and traits from that place the moment combat erupted, as, by their contracts with the tower, this prevented them from escaping without knowing the disparity of strength with the enemy.
Aldric, being the only one able to sense the enemy's presence and how it was getting closer to his carriage, was about to burst to confront the enemy. But he restrained himself, as the being made a sharp change of trajectory and headed towards the carriage on the left side. This calmed Aldric, but, remembering who was there, he quickly turned his gaze to that carriage, intrigued by what would happen, as it made no sense to him that someone of that power would seek a child.
From the window, Aldric scanned the carriage where Eric was located. He focused his spell in that direction and used multiple additional auxiliary spells to analyze that place, and finally found a mass of darkness the size of a golf ball that appeared on the ceiling, motionless in that place. Although he did not know what this dark sphere would do, he would not dare to interfere, as it was not worth risking his life for a child he picked up from the labyrinth. If it came to that, he would simply say that no one survived and take care of the rest.
Curious about what was in that sphere, he tried to communicate with his magical power, but failed. Apparently, the entity did not wish to communicate, so he remained in that place and ordered his black knights to continue doing what they were doing as if nothing had happened, resuming their advance normally, while keeping that carriage further away from them in case something occurred. Additionally, Aldric reached into his tunic to obtain the blue stone, infused some of his mana until the stone had a faint white glow. "We have a situation," he said in a grave voice.