Revenge of the Sorcerer King 3 - 7

Good Morning Everyone! I plan to be moving RSK 1 and 2 into the classic heading soon. 

Chapter 7

Oberon

It looked like it would take a while for the girl to work through her decision so after about ten minutes I stood and started going through the things left in the tower. There were plenty of magical components lying around. Many of them even higher quality than I was expecting. They must have been used in either the formula for the liquid or in the magical artifacts attacked to her.

I looked at the girl. “I’m going to check something. Hopefully, you’ll have an answer for me by the time I get back.”

Moving to the back wall, I placed my hand on the sigil before pouring mana into it. With the grinding of stone, the wall split before it started to move back exposing a passage leading up. I climbed the stairs excited for what I might find.

Lit by the light from the burning town, a metal framework greeted me. There were several complicated spellwork interwoven that were creating various affects for mages in and around the tower. The main structure in the center was the device that was pulling mana from the lay-line.

My excitement turned sour in an instant. I recognized the spellwork with only a glance. Of course, I would, it was my own! I quickly took a deep breath to stop myself from blowing the entire place up in my anger.

“So! It looks like the mages felt since I was dead, they could use my spells as they pleased.”

My lay-line work was original magic! I created it from scratch. That sort of magic work was personal to a mage or a sorcerer. It was hypocritical of the mages to think they can use a sorcerer’s magic without consequences. I turned on my heel and went back downstairs.

“Girl. If you don’t decide soon, then what I’m about to do will kill you.”

“What…” she looked desperate, but I was too angry to give her any more time. “I… I… I want to live!” she exclaimed with force. “I want to be free!”

I nodded tartly before waving my hand to create a magical contract. She would have to let me study her body, with the least amount of pain possible, and I would make sure she could live naturally for at least a year. I wasn’t about to be held responsible for someone killing her in her sleep.

The spark of intelligence noticeably flashed when she started to read the contract over. She went to bite her finger before seeming to remember that it was made out of metal now. She grabbed a dagger from next to her and made a cut on her cheek wiping the blood on the contract. With a burst of flame and energy, we were bond.

“Welcome to the dark side. What is your name?”

She lowered the hand that had been maintaining the barrier and smiled just barely. “Maya… Master.”

“Alright. Catriona. Do you know how to disconnect from the Lay-line array on your own?” All I got was a dejected head shake. “No problem. I expected as much.” I patted the table for her to jump up while I shifted my eyes to magical sense. I examined the outer layer of magical rune work hoping to find a clue to the location of the magic runes related to the lay-line. It took a few minutes before I managed to locate it among all the background spells.

The spells involved with the transfer of mana of that volume would be decently sized. Thus, they had taken out her stomach and everything below that point to make enough space for the device. She had skin over her stomach, but there were so many scars that I wondered why they just hadn’t replaced it with metal or leather.

Placing my hand over her belly button, I began interfacing with the magic. It was sophisticated, but I was certain that Maya was the first of her kind. Everything just felt… rough. I was about to deactivate the link between her and the Lay-line array when I had a great idea. A wicked but great idea.

“Catriona. How would you like to get back at the people that did this to you?”

“You already… killed the man,” she said with a finger at the corpse.

“Yes, but I know you’re smart enough to know that one man couldn’t do this, even one tower. This is magic that is beyond taboo. Mages all over the continent had to be in on it for it to get this far. Don’t you agree?”

She agreed. I could see it in her eyes, but I felt she held out hope that not everyone was willing to go along with this heinous act. “Yes…”

“Do you want to help me?”

“What… do I have… to do?”

“Nothing. I just need you to endure a small amount of pain. I promise it won’t kill or even harm you. It will just feel like your stomach is burning.” Obviously, the thought of pain didn’t go over well with her at first. She screwed up her eyes before nodding.

Getting the go ahead, I withdrew my mana from her and took a moment to build a spell. It would be the most advanced spell I’d cast since returning, but I felt rediscovering my old work being used freely by this guild of thieves, it was only deserved. Once I was confident with it, I placed my hand back on her stomach over the lay-line connector.

“Take a deep breath,” I said then channeled the spell. She reached out and grabbed my arm as the burning sensation started. I blinked when I heard my bone crack but thought it was only fair.

As I chanted, the mana in the room built to insane levels. Any mages that looked at the tower would have started bleeding from their eyes. This was what a true master of the lay-lines was capable of, peasants. Finally, my chant completed, and the spell flowed through Maya into the Lay-line array before it was blasted up into the lay-lines themselves.

Maya fainted and I gently lifted the girl. She and I were going to be great friends.”

Kolia Lordship Capital Mage Tower

On the top floor of a grand tower that travelers often commented that touched the sky. The Grandmaster was looking over some spellwork that a few lesser masters had submitted. It was boring work, but took up a few hours every couple days. The grandmaster made sure to look over every parchment with care.

“Grandmaster Benko! We just received a sending!”

The concern in the lesser master’s voice made the old man pay attention. “What is it?”

“The town of Blue Garden was attacked by an army of undead, but that’s not the worst part.” The lesser master stopped almost like he couldn’t bring himself to continue.

“Spit it out!” Benko shouted his patience wearing thin.

“Delha was spotted!”

“DELHA!? Are they certain?”

“We haven’t been able to reach any of them. After the first sending the entire tower went silent.”

Another thought crossed the grandmaster’s mind. “Isn’t that where we were working on the Deathless?” Both masters started to sweat at the thought. The project had been four decades of tireless work to even get off the ground. If all the research into it was in the hands of the undead. “Let us hope they are too stupid to realize the value.”

“What do we do about Delha?”

“Only the world’s curse was able to wield Delha. I feel like it was an over reaction from the tower in the face of imminent destruction.” The old grandmaster had to hope that was the case.

“And if it was… the world’s curse?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“It was an army of the undead, maybe he was brought back by a lich or something?”

“I doubt a mere lich could bring that monster…” Before the grandmaster could finish, the mana in the room started to grow denser by the second. Soon it was hard for them to breath. “The lay-line… array!” the grandmaster gasped just as the top half of the tower was ripped apart by a storm of unaligned mana. The grandmaster was thrown halfway across the capital, only managing to survive due to his decades of warding everything that he owned. Even with that, he was missing his left arm and his right eye bleed horribly.

The grandmaster crashed clear through a restaurant in the middle of lunch time rush. Screams and yells of pain sounded out as his body landed on several patrons. The soldiers arrived at the scene only a few seconds later, but the sight of the mage tower, a building that was supposed to strike fear and awe in anyone that saw it blazed like a torch in the middle of town.

This was the case all through the Igerox continent and even a few of the Ethios continent’s cities as a mysterious spell traveled the lay-lines tearing through the Lay-line arrays. Hundreds of mages lost their lives in the span of a few minutes.

Alessa

Licking my lips, I pulled away from the woman. She collapsed to the ground and turned to ash, unable to handle the vampiric change. That was more common than not due to them being unwilling to change. Unlike the girls from the Gallery had been.

“How many does that make?” I asked Jade who was keeping tally for me. It was hard for me to concentrate when I got into the feeding.

“We’ve had one hundred and forty successful conversions while three hundred and seven have failed.”

“How many more do we have?”

“We have just over three hundred more, but I would like to remind you about feeding this horde you’re creating.”

“You’re right. Best not to stretch it too thin. Sarius.”

“Yes, mistress?”

“Add the men to your command. I want you to handle the south while Jade handles the north with the newborn women. You’ll each get a third of the senior ranks. You two are my most senior Familia. I expect you not to let a single rat through.”

“Who will handle the food?” Sarius asked though I could tell he was excited not to be the rear guard.

“Have Kamilia do it. She is versed and as well as strong enough to lead a few vampires to control the mortals. We have our ghouls and undead as well. Even if they do manage to escape, there is a horde of undead behind them and monster filled wilderness in ever other direction.”

“I shall inform her at once,” Sarius said with a bow then practically skipped away.

“I don’t remember the last time I saw him that happy,” Jade commented, and I nodded in agreement. “What do you plan to do?”

“My level is quite a bit higher than everyone else’s. I plan on staying close to the main road in case a force is dispatched. That will let me warn Oberon, not that anything Kolia could send now would be able to stop him.”

“Just don’t do anything too risky, mistress. I’m quite enjoying my new life and power.”

I laughed but nodded. “I won’t.”

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