Lightning crackled past Kai's shoulder, followed by a blast of ice that burned with an unnatural cold. The heat of fire magic scorched the air just behind him.
More priests and inquisitors.
More hunters. And he was the prey.
Kai moved.
Ignoring the lingering echoes of Troy's memories, he sprinted forward, scanning the halls for the runes etched into the walls. They would guide him.
"Stop!"
A voice boomed from behind.
A shockwave of energy erupted, slamming into Kai's back like a battering ram. He barely had time to register the impact before he was sent hurtling forward, his body rolling across the cold stone floor.
Then, a CRACK.
Pain.
Sharp, blinding pain.
His left arm.
Broken.
A cry nearly tore from his throat, but he shoved it back down, the pain forcing him to his knees. He couldn't stop. He wouldn't stop.
'Shade, buy me a little time!'
A section of the shadow at Kai's feet twisted as a portion pulled itself free. Twisting itself into shape, Shade took its usual goblin-like form with one exception, he was larger and his claws looked deadly.
Kai stood before lifting up a wall of flame, larger than ever before.
The flames roared to life, crackling and twisting as they stretched from wall to wall, a searing barrier between Kai and his pursuers. The heat licked at his skin, but he didn't flinch.
'It's bigger than before… stronger. Both Shade and my magic. Are those the effects of going through magical assessment?'
Shade darted forward, its form shifting fluidly in the flickering light. Kai caught glimpses of its twisted goblin-like frame, the gleam of its dark sickle as it crouched, ready to intercept anyone who dared push through the fire.
He could hear their shouts on the other side, their hurried incantations, the sound of spells preparing to be unleashed, but he didn't wait to see what would happen next.
He turned.
And he ran.
Kai grit his teeth, clutching his broken arm as pain throbbed through his entire body. He had no time to stop. No time to think.
His vision blurred for a moment. His breathing was too fast, chest rising and falling in frantic, uneven beats. But despite the pain, despite the chaos, he could feel it.
The mana in his body. The new mana.
Troy's memories still swam at the edges of his consciousness. The sensation of holding a sword, the heat of battle, the warmth of his children's laughter. Everything was his now. A stolen life absorbed into his body.
Kai forced himself forward, ignoring the way his left arm hung limply at his side.
The hallways twisted ahead, the stone walls looming like a labyrinth. He had to find the entrance. He had to get out.
Behind him, the flames wavered.
He heard shouting. Not shouting, but chanting.
"Light pierces the dark-"
The fire exploded outward as a burst of divine energy shattered through it. The force sent a rush of heated air toward Kai, nearly knocking him off his feet.
Shade screeched, its body recoiling from the holy light, tendrils of darkness sizzling as it retreated back into Kai's shadow.
A figure stepped through the dying flames, golden light swirling around him. A priest. Not just any priest.
Father Aldric.
Kai's breath hitched.
The man's piercing blue eyes locked onto him, filled with something between rage and...
'Disappointment?'
"Kai," Aldric's voice was calm, far too calm for the situation. "You should not have done that."
Kai clenched his teeth. "I should've let you kill me instead?"
Aldric sighed, as if speaking to a disobedient child. "This would have been easier if you had cooperated."
'You mean died, not cooperated. You're stalling for time.'
Kai's instincts screamed at him to move, but his body was still sluggish from the surge of expelled mana. He needed to get his strength back. He needed to keep going.
Aldric raised a hand.
The light around him condensed, forming into a spear of pure energy.
Kai didn't think. He acted.
A blast of ice erupted from his palm, not jagged spears like before, but a solid wall of frost that surged upward, sealing the hallway between them in a thick sheet of ice.
He turned and ran.
'An ice wall might deter them better than flames.'
His legs ached, lungs burning with every breath, but he forced himself to keep moving. He had to be close.
The wide reception area opened up before him and Emille looked startled.
"It's the dumb kid!"
'If I had time, I would teach you a thing or two about manners.'
Kai rushed to the entrance door. His heart leapt in his chest.
'Freedom.'
He slammed his good shoulder into it, but it didn't budge.
Locked. Not physically, but magically, like he used to do at home when he didn't want to be disturbed.
And he didn't have time to unlock it.
"Dammit!" He spun around, searching for another way out, but the ice behind him cracked.
The runes on the walls flickered.
He was out of time.
Kai's mind raced.
'There had to be something. A window, another hallway, something...'
His eyes swept over the entire room, looking desperately for help. The frightened children probably wouldn't even work in a hostage situation. The walls were too thick to burst through, and the runes protected them from damage.
'Of course! The runes!'
He didn't just see them. He felt them now.
Magic pulsed in the walls, running through the very foundation of the Hall of Sorcery like veins carrying lifeblood.
And now, he had Troy's mana. But what Kai turned it into wasn't mana, but what the system called Life Essence. He turned the lives of people, their souls, into mana, and harnessed that energy.
Kai reached out with his good hand, pressing his palm flat against the cold stone beside the door.
He closed his eyes. Focused. Listened.
The runes whispered.
Not words, but intent. They pulsed with old magic, layered spells woven into the very bones of the building.
Kai took a breath.
And he pushed.
Mana surged from his core, raw and unrefined, colliding with the enchantments like a hammer against glass.
A thunderous boom echoed from the door as the wall of ice partially broke behind him.
Kai let forth another burst of pure mana.
The lock shattered.
The door flung open, ripping free from its hinges and flying outside.
Cold night air flooded in, crisp and sharp against his sweat-drenched skin.
Freedom.
But before he could take another step, a voice rang out behind him.
"Stop, now!"
Aldric.
Kai turned and a golden chain of light shot toward him.
He barely had time to react before it wrapped around his torso, burning into his skin like molten iron.
'Yeah. Of course divine magic works against a necromancer. That definitely clears things up. I am evil in this world.'
His breath caught in his throat as his body seized, magic surging through him in a desperate attempt to resist.
The light tightened, pulling him backward, but Kai wasn't alone.
Shade lunged from his shadow, its form stretching into something monstrous, something wrong. Something that even scared Kai. Its claws gleamed, and for the first time, Aldric's expression flickered with fear.
Kai gritted his teeth, pouring every ounce of stolen mana, of Troy's strength, into one final burst.
The chain shattered.
He fell forward, hitting the ground hard, pain lancing through his already-broken arm and all of his torso.
'No time. No time.'
Kai didn't even watch Aldric's fight with Shade. He pushed himself up and ran.
Out the door.
Into the night.
Streaks of several magics, including chains and arrows of light soared past him, some grazing him as he ran deeper into the city of Ylthara.
Kai lost himself to an unfamiliar city that night.