Within thirty minutes, a smell circulated the house that made the child’s stomach growl.
“Alright,” he yelled into the living room, “come and eat.”
The child walked over to the dining table and eyed the plate curiously. Picking up her fork, she stabbed into the meat and slowly brought it to her lips. With one tiny bite, her eyes lit up. “Delicious!”
“I have confidence in my cooking,” he said with pride in his voice.
The duo ate the meal in no time at all. Leidolf felt the warmth of the meal spreading throughout his body. The child, who had been slightly pale before, had some of the color return to her face. He may have ‘neglected’ to mention that some of her food was enchanted to speed up the healing process.
“Well,” he put the plates away, “now that we’ve eaten, how about we introduce ourselves properly?”
Sitting down across from the child, he closed his eyes in thought for a few seconds before responding. “My name is Leidolf—Leid for short—and I am a mage who specializes in Runic Arts. I’m good at enchanting items and using minor rune spells, but mostly for combat.”
She responded in kind. “My name is Arietta Euphony, or just Aria.”
“Well, Aria. I’m sure you have more questions and want answers. I’ll tell you whatever I can.” Keeping secrets was somewhat pointless by now. So he’d tell her whatever she wanted to know.
Aria had many questions she wanted to ask Leidolf. He was an enigma—a hero who didn’t think of himself as one; a person who could do amazing things but acted so calm about it; and a brave man who showed no fear, at least in her eyes.
Gathering her courage, she asked him where it all started. “Why did you move to this city?”
“Straight to the soft spot, huh?” A sad smile graced his face and half-closed eyes. “I ran away from my home by coming to college here.”
“You left your parents without telling them?” Aria couldn’t imagine anyone doing such a thing, but then again she was only a child.
“I didn’t have any parents. Not anymore. My only parent was my mother, who died from an illness that killed her slowly, while my father wasn’t in the picture.”
She sat there with her a tear falling from her eye, empathizing with the death of a family member. Leidolf felt a twinge of guilt at reminding her, but decided against stopping his story since he promised to tell her everything.
“Mother had a very large life insurance for us to collect. That’s where the problems started. Rather than splitting it evenly, my older sister and brother started fighting over it violently.”
“Over money?” Aria asked so innocently.
“…The world isn’t a nice place to everyone. Maybe they had debts to pay off, maybe they felt like it was a final gift from our mother, or maybe they were just greedy. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome either way. Once they started fighting physically, I said ‘screw this’ and applied to a college here, leaving in the dead of night with only a note saying goodbye and changing my name to Leidolf—which came to me in a dream.”
“Don’t you miss them?”
He shut up for a few seconds to try and put the thoughts in his head together in a way that would make sense to her. “…I never really felt comfortable around others, even other family members. For some reason, it always felt like they were fragile. Enough that I could break them with a touch.”
Rubbing her eyes, she thought over his words. It was an odd statement to say the least.
“Anyway,” he concluded his story with a clap of his hands. “It’s my turn to ask something. What are you going to do when all of this is over?”
That caught her off guard. Before he appeared to save her, Aria hadn’t even planned on living for more than a few seconds. Noting her confusion, he clarified his request.
“I mean, where are you going to live from now on? I doubt there’s anyone else here besides you, me, and the one behind this crimson night. Once this barrier drops, the police and rescue services will swarm over this place like an infestation, searching for survivors. Since this is one of the few standing buildings, they’ll come here as soon as they see it. After treating you, they’ll have to find relatives to take you in.”
“Won’t they find you too?”
“No, they won’t.” Leidolf rested his chin on the palm of his hand. “If they find me, they’ll have questions that I can’t duck under too easily. Since you’re only a child, even if you tell them the truth, they’ll simply say it was your imagination coping with the stress of the incident.”
To be truthful, he didn’t expect to survive his next battle. He gave it a one-in-fifty chance of defeating the one behind this and dealing with whatever gave off that malice. He knew he’d need Tyrfing again, and if he was too tired he’d wind up taking the energy directly from his life force.
It wasn’t like the situation was hopeless. It was just that the odds were—once again—really stacked against him. This was part of the reason he never gambled.
I’ve got the two spells programmed into my gloves, five Kauno runestones, a sword, and a battered cloak. Mentally taking an inventory of his remaining equipment, he figured he’d be alright if he laid off the projection spells for some time.
It would take an hour at least to reach the skyscraper hotel. As for climbing the building once inside, he figured that the mage would be at the top floor and the building would be guarded inside and out. Screw it; I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.
“Would it be possible for me to just stay here,” she asked in an almost begging voice. “With you?”
“Raising a kid is outside my comfort zone. I mean, you’re a nice girl and all, but even if I made up a lie to explain all of this…A single, barely legal adult student—well, former student—wouldn’t be the best choice. There’s no guarantee they’d let me keep you.”
He looked at the clock on the wall. It was only two hours and fifteen minutes before Midnight. “I’ll have to leave in a few minutes to end this. But let’s chat more.”
******
“That’s weird,” a young woman said, staring at her phone. She had been calling all day, but she couldn’t reach her friends, Luke and Lucia. At that moment she felt something was wrong and wondered if she should take a plane there later this week.
While thinking about her two friends, another face popped into her mind. “I wonder what Leidolf is doing right now…”
Chapter 10: The Tenth Hour
“It’s me,” a familiar voice rang over the touch phone. “How are things on your end?”
“There’s been some activity,” a female voice spoke into the phone, slightly hiding behind a tree near the edge of the barrier. “Mages from the Arcane Syndicate are here. They’re wearing the uniform from the combat branch.”
“Yeah, it seems that an order has been quietly issued to them. Apparently, the one who put up that barrier was a Class B mage called Armel. There’s been an order to bring him in for questioning.”
“But we scanned the area and didn’t detect any other mages nearby when I arrived. So how did they know he put it up?”
“That’s the weird thing…it was a Class SS mage. She said that he stole some of her equipment and research on making a barrier similar to the one that’s in front of you.”
Class SS mages were considered the strongest mages this world had to offer—at least by the syndicate’s standards. Robbing one of them was suicidal. He wasn’t getting out of this situation alive.
“There’s more,” the male voice added. “She’s the one heading that combat team. They’re planning on making a hole in it and breaching the barrier at Midnight.”
“And now it’s complicated.” She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Is your spy positive on that information?”
“She is,” he confirmed. “Luna, be careful when you get inside. It feels like something dirty is going on behind the scenes. Look for the source of the demonic energy and anything or anyone connected to it.”
&nbs
p; ******
An hour and seven minutes left until Midnight, and Leidolf found himself facing a small army of at least one hundred creatures—all protecting the entrance to the skyscraper hotel.
Wordlessly, he charged into battle like a medieval knight with a shield and sword. Black steel flashed, leaving dancing arcs drawn in the air to take out the fliers, and the blade sliced through them one after another while his shield took an impact from the wolves below.
Changing his stance, he avoided the next few claws and cut down three wolves in a single strike. No sooner than their dissolving bodies hit the ground did Leidolf feel something slamming him in the back, forcing him to step forward—apparently, there were a few bears running around.
Had it not been for the cloak’s enchantments, that blow would have left him crippled. To drive it off, he overloaded the shield and repelled it into a small group of incoming wolves. He instantly re-invoked the spell and summoned a new shield to continue the fighting.
He’s here, Armel thought as he heard the commotion from below. Walking towards the window, he witness Leidolf’s rampage against his creations. He doesn’t seem like anything special.
Compared to the earlier display of magick, this was nothing impressive. Even as he watched their numbers dwindle to half, Armel grew confident that the mage was nothing compared to himself—not even realizing he was acting the same as the mages who looked down on him—until Armel noticed the change in the stray’s tactics.
Leidolf jumped back and fed his reserves into his projection gloves, while creatures charged him. The rune of Kauno burned itself onto the surface of the gloves as he held out his left hand—braced at the wrist with his right—and bent his knees to help withstand the upcoming recoil.
“I’ll let you all hear it,” His hand became shrouded in flames. “Fire Giant’s Roar!”
A sea of blazing hot flames streamed from his left glove—burning it completely—and engulfed everything inside the target area under a wave of fire. It took no time for the creatures to become ashes, while melting the loose rubble and scraps of metal.
Armel immediately commanded the Guardian of Water—a gelatinous blob over twenty feet high with two thrashing tendrils—to exit the building and shield the lower level from impact. The creature moved to protect the building, squealing in pain as it did.
Once the flames dissipated, Leidolf charged straight towards the Guardian and drove a punch into it. He opened his fist and pulled out his hand after leaving it a present. Triggering the runestone implanted inside its body, the Guardian evaporated within seconds of being exposed to the intense heat.
“That’s not possible!” Armel shouted with shock and rage. The last of the Guardians had fallen right before his eyes. Without its four pillars of support, the barrier could no longer support itself, even with the demon’s seal. The barrier shattered like glass and rained down, revealing the pure white moon in place of the crimson one.
******
Once the barrier shattered, all the mages nearby saw past the illusion and gasped in horror at the destruction of the city. The mage leading the combat group immediately ordered them to set another barrier to prevent normal people from seeing this before she could find Armel herself.
Luna slipped into the ruined city, shadowing the woman. She hadn’t seen destruction this bad since the mage civil war in India. Even then, it wasn’t this bad.
The combat unit wasted no time in setting up another illusionary barrier, factoring in a sleeping spell to the mix for anyone who got closer. They contacted the main branch for more support, as they would need to erase any trace of evidence later on—including altering the memories of anyone inside that was still alive.
Chapter 11: The Eleventh Hour
Armel fell to his knees wordlessly. Everything he had worked for was gone. Without the crimson moon and barrier, he couldn’t awaken and control the demon properly. If he hurried and put the final sacrifice into play within the next ten minutes, he could probably force it awake—although he’d lose all control over it.
That bastard, he thought to himself. He couldn’t wait for the mage to come through the traps. He had to kill him right now. The soul of a mage was the final key necessary to awaken the demon after the number of sacrifice already provided by the city.
“I’ll shatter him like—” The pointless rambling was cut off by a sudden explosion coming from below, and the moaning of creaking metal as the walls collapsed around him. The floor gave out and Armel began to fall to the bottom of the building.
******
Wielding the cursed blade once again, Leidolf watched from outside the skyscraper hotel as it collapsed on itself and whistled once the building finished crashing into the ground.
“Wow, they really don’t make buildings like they use to. If all it takes to destroy the building’s support was four runestones, they really should have added more fireproofing.”
His long hair began slowly moving with the breeze of the night air. With the destruction of the main barrier, the stagnant death-filled air was being blown away and replaced. Of course, Leidolf felt another barrier go up shortly after the first, but at least it allowed the wind to pass through gently.
Holding Tyrfing with both hands, he pointed the blade at a sphere of earth—created by a spell that made loose debris huddle together. The rocks fell away to reveal Armel with an angered, bleeding face.
The pair took a good look at each other before Leidolf ran along the ground and prepared to cut down the mage. Armel pulled out a yellow pentacle—the symbol and color of the earth element—and pushed it into ground. “Calculus Consurgo!”
Hexagonal pillars of gray stone erupted from beneath the earth. Leidolf barely avoided them, halting his assault. The pillars rose higher into the air, hovering above Armel as he held the pentacle in the air. “Terra Pluere!”
The pentacle was swung downward in an arc. The pillars broke apart, releasing a downpour of heavy and large stones upon the battlefield. They crashed into the ground around Leidolf and kicked up a dust cloud large enough to consume both of the mages.
As the wind blew the dust past Armel, Leidolf—who was covered in a fine layer of dust and blood from the shrapnel—jumped out of the cloud. His blade was chambered and ready to be released. Armel tightened his grip on the pentacle in the palm of his hand, sending his magical energy into it.
“Ferrum Creo!” The remains of the stone pillars to flew towards the pentacle and melded into a new shape, an axe-sword the same size as he was. Using both of his hands, he hauled the large stone blade upwards and attempted to cut through Leidolf.
“Die!” They told each other, as the blades collided.
Despite them both having less than a fourth of their original power, they released a swirling torrent of magical energy when the blades impacted. The two mages took the stage and entered into a life or death battle.
******
An earth spell, Luna thought to herself. She had stopped shadowing the female mage in order to investigate the scorched earth from Tyrfing’s first attack until she felt the intertwining of two colliding forces.
The battle between two mages with their lives on the line had begun. To her, their magical energy felt roughly near the same amount, so the winner would be determined by the one with more skill and luck. Either way, their fighting was stirring the demon that slept beneath their battlefield.
******
Staring up at the beautiful moonlit night, Aria had tears in her eyes once again. She never thought that she would see the night sky as it was before. The tears fell, and left a trail of water down her face.
I never told him ‘Thank you’, she thought to herself. With all the excitement and destruction, she never personally thanked him. So she resolved to do so the moment he came back.
******
Two blades danced under the full moon. Unaware of the impending arrival a potential disaster, the two men fought with all they had to slay the enemy in front of them.
&nb
sp; “Damn you!” Armel cursed at Leidolf, bringing the axe-sword down to tear him in two. “Do you know how long we planned this?”
“Fuck you!” Leidolf retorted, blocking the axe-sword with his own blade and counterattacking with thrust. “You killed everyone here without mercy! What do you think human lives are!?”
Neither one of them was holding back—in battle or in language. Both men had reached the breaking point when it came to the other. In one day, Armel had slaughtered everyone in the city and angered Leidolf to a level he never reached before, and Leidolf had shattered Armel’s ambition and dreams.
“You slaughtered them like cattle!” Leidolf’s blade tore through the air, leaving a scarlet trail behind it. “You did it for no reason!”
“The aim of all mages is to advance forward! My actions are no different!” The axe-sword left a gray trail as it met Tyrfing head-on and clashed, releasing a shower of sparks. Both men were knocked backwards, sliding on their feet. “They should be proud to have been useful.”
Tyrfing and the axe-sword became blurs that passed in front of their wielders, being swung and pulled back at an incredible speed. The two mages began to slowly nick and scrape each other, eventually turning the blur of gray and scarlet into red mist.
The deadlock was wearing them both down. Sweat fell like rain from the intense movements and concentration. Both men were breathing harder than ever before. Their hands ached from the constant force of the clashing blades, tearing into their flesh and adding to the blood loss.
Leidolf had enough and decided to end it. After ducking under the horizontal slash, he brought his foot straight up and into Armel’s crotch.
He winced in pain and bent downward, vomiting from the shock. Leidolf brought the blade down in an attempt to decapitate Armel, but he blocked with the axe-sword.
Leidolf took a step back and kneeled while swinging the sword, attempting to cut off the mage’s legs. Armel narrowly avoided it by jumping upwards and summoning a stone platform to support him while he caught his breath.