Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘It’s not?’ Soarame was interested. ‘What else?’

  ‘You ever wonder why sound can be isolated?’ Ecrif looked at Soarame, but found the boy disappointingly clueless. ‘It’s because the vibration of air can be constrained by Wind magic — have you ever wondered why there’s sound in the first place?’

  ‘Because… the air vibrates?’ Soarame was smart enough to pick up the hint.

  ‘Exactly. The air vibrates and passes sound to our ears. And the air is made from Wind Elements so Wind magic can control it.’ Ecrif was intelligent enough to spot Soarame’s trick, so he decided to educate the boy with basics. ‘Think about what you saw when a sound isolation seal was set up.’

  ‘Ah.’ Soarame smacked his own head hard. As Ecrif said, he could vividly see the grey-coloured Wind Elements immobilized around the sound isolation seal, compared with how they floated around and randomly shook in their normal state. He also recalled that when he spelled wind summoner, the grey dots gathered and moved so that they gave rise to actual wind — that’s how Wind magic works.

  ‘Good. Now you know, as long as you can immobilize Wind Elements, you can isolate sound. There are different ways to do that; for example…’ Ecrif came over to Soarame as he spoke. ‘Any Halfgod or above can summon a Godrealm around him, so that within his realm he rules — not only can he restrain the air, but also control everything else.’

  ‘Sorry, but I don’t get it.’ Soarame was at a total loss.

  ‘To give you an example, when I say “no sound spreads out of my realm”, it obeys.’ Ecrif was nice enough to offer an explanation. ‘Or, when I say “this boy rises up to the air, incapacitated”, he does.’ With that, Soarame suddenly found himself immobilized. However hard he tried, he could not move any part of his body even an inch. In the next blink, he rose up to the same height as Ecrif, so that they could look each other in the eye.

  ‘Oh my!’ After a few seconds, Soarame found the indescribable constraint withdrawn from his face — thanks to Ecrif’s mercy — so that he was able move his eyeballs and even talk now. Although in a total state of shock, Soarame knew this man wouldn’t hurt him, so he tried to focus on feeling the Godrealm. It felt completely different from any kind of Wind spell that would lift him up, but Soarame was just not able to describe this unique feeling in words. ‘What exactly is the Godrealm thing, sir?’

  ‘Just call me Ecrif. It’s essentially a force field — if you understand what that means.’ Ecrif seemed to be chuckling. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Not… not sure.’ Soarame cracked a bitter smile. ‘How big is your Godrealm? Could you drag Kardy and Omi here from their bedrooms?’

  ‘I don’t want to be rude to them. They don’t even know me, and they didn’t ask about Godrealm like you did.’ Ecrif seemed to be teasing. ‘Although I did talk to one of them once.’

  ‘Wait, what?’ Soarame was sensitive enough to catch this right away. ‘Are you talking about the Fledglings’ Tournament?’ Soarame was referring to the mind-talk that Omifo had heard when he was competing against Kriagon on the stage. It was the very reason he had been able to win that match, but then the friends had to use Snower’s ‘cure’ to heal the poor Kriagon.

  ‘Yes, that was me.’ Ecrif sighed again for some reason, and he let Soarame down to the floor. ‘I didn’t want to, but I had to.’

  Soarame frowned subconsciously. Although he had encountered many uncanny things, such as a half-dragon, he still found the conversation today very hard to understand. Before he had a chance to ask why, Ecrif handed a bronze-coloured ring to the muddled Soarame. ‘It’s yours, from Scankeen.’

  ‘Master?’ Soarame waved his head, trying to clear his mind. ‘Wait… is this… a… A SPACE-RING?!’

  ‘Next time let me know before you shout, so that I can withdraw my realm and let everyone hear you,’ Ecrif teased. ‘I thought you’d learnt the importance of keeping secrets from the MagiMax battle?’

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ Soarame blushed, but his eyeballs were still almost popping out. ‘But it’s just… is this real?’

  ‘Bond with it and find out yourself,’ Ecrif teased again, and a flame emerged from his palm. ‘But if you think it’s a dream, I can help you clarify it.’

  ‘No, thanks.’ Soarame hurriedly took over the ring, dancing. ‘Master sent me a space-ring?!’

  With a scratch on a finger, Soarame let a blood-drip soak into the space-ring, so that he could bond with it — compared to bonding with a magimal, bonding with an Epic magigear is much easier. Soon enough, Soarame sensed a mind connection to the ring — just like his connection to Snower and the token on his necklace. With that connection, Soarame could visualize a large space within the ring, in a similar way to that in which he visualized his mind ocean. In the space, there was a broadsword, in pure black, floating in the middle.

  ‘This is…’ Soarame couldn’t help muttering, at the same time making an attempt to reach the broadsword in the space-ring using his mind power, so that he could take it out. However, as soon as Soarame reached it, his face paled and he grunted at the effort.

  ‘Careful.’ Ecrif said. ‘How much mind power did you lose?’

  ‘Almost half of the total!’ Soarame tried hard to bear the sharp pain from the mind ocean — it felt like a head-splitting headache.

  ‘Then learn to be cautious about the unknown.’ Obviously, Ecrif was expecting this; it seemed that his teaching style was to intentionally let small accidents happen under his watch.

  ‘But what happened?’ Soarame somehow managed to regain his balance. ‘It ate my mind power?’

  ‘It costs a great deal of it, if you try to use the sword by any means.’ Ecrif sat back down on the couch. ‘That includes taking it out of, or putting it back into, the space-ring.’

  ‘What?’ Soarame was shocked. According to Scankeen, grabbing a magigear from a space-ring was as easy as breathing, and it cost almost no mind power. But if one tried to trigger the magigear’s function and use it, that was a different story.

  ‘It’s different, I know.’ Ecrif wasn’t surprised to see Soarame’s reaction. ‘It costs much more if you really use it, so you do need to stay alert and try not to use it unless absolutely necessary — once you are able to take it out.’

  ‘What kind of magigear is this?’ Soarame recalled the MagiMax incident — he’d luckily cut off Max’s right hand and the battle had turned around after that, because Max tried to save his mind power on the Godmade and thus didn’t trigger its defence function. It seemed that a similar scenario was happening here — ‘Don’t tell me my master sent me a Godmade?!’

  ‘If you don’t like it, I can take it away.’ Ecrif said. Seeing Soarame anxiously claiming otherwise, Ecrif continued. ‘It’s a Godmade, but not from your master. It’s from me.’

  ‘What…’ Soarame felt as if his brain was lacking oxygen. ‘Why do you do this?’

  ‘Hold on — it’s not a gift to you, so don’t lose your mind just yet.’ Ecrif seemed to be teasing Soarame on purpose. ‘It’s just a loan, to help you to improve your Water magic faster. Don’t ask why; all that you need to know is that I’m on your side, and I have to do what I have to do.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Soarame didn’t know what else to say. He’d always believed that the MagiMax incident was a big mess that he’d accidentally got involved in, but now it seemed there was something bigger waiting ahead. Thinking of this, Soarame couldn’t help being worried, but at the same time the boy was madly curious.

  ‘Remember, don’t rush it; try it bit by bit.’ Ecrif advised seriously. ‘When you can take it out, you’ll be an Expert wizard already.’

  ‘What the… ?’ Soarame took a deep breath. ‘It’s that hard? Just to take it out?’ Although resurged from the MagiMax battle, Soarame had barely reached Grade 6 in Wind. After three years’ hard practice, he still remained in Grade 6 and fully appreciated the difficulty involved in levelling up to become an Expert. Meanwhile, his Water barely reached Grade
4, and that was largely thanks to the resurgence too.

  ‘You’ll find out by yourself,’ Ecrif said casually. ‘The sword has a lot more benefits than just testing your power. It’s a Godmade in Water — try observing and feeling it using your mind power, and you’ll see what I mean. Be careful, though.’

  ‘Hmm…’ Soarame nodded as he was trying to imagine it. ‘I’ll certainly make good use of it.’

  ‘And keep all this to yourself as much as you can, just as you did with your Wind gift before.’ Ecrif stood up. ‘It was a pleasure meeting you.’

  ‘Wait… You’re leaving?’ Soarame hastened forward to Ecrif — once again he marvelled at the size of the man. ‘Just like this?’

  ‘Or what?’ Ecrif asked. ‘What else do you want?’

  ‘May I please ask… about my parents?’ Soarame had a quick ponder and decided to ask this first; he had always borne in mind this suggestion from Scankeen. ‘Have you ever heard of a Jadeking family?’

  ‘Yes and no; it’s complicated.’ Ecrif seemed to be expecting his question too. ‘If you want to know about it, become strong enough first.’

  ‘How strong is enough?’ Soarame’s eyes brightened, his face reddened and he began breathing faster — he was actually prepared to be completely disappointed, but Ecrif’s answer meant that there might actually be a clue, at least!

  However, Ecrif’s next words poured freezing water right on Soarame’s overheated head — ‘A Master.’

  What the heck?! Soarame so wanted to swear; he tried hard to look less indignant. ‘You are serious this time, right?’

  ‘Don’t disappoint me by seeing Master as an unachievable goal.’ Ecrif frowned. ‘With Magic-magnetic Physique, if you can’t even become a Master, that’s really disappointing — why do you think Scankeen decided to spend seven whole years on you?’

  ‘What is that thing anyway?’ Soarame was choked up by Ecrif’s words; he had to calm down and start seriously thinking about all this new knowledge.

  ‘It’s a very rare talent, even in my world.’ Ecrif’s words had been obscure so far. ‘Briefly, your body acts like a magnet and attracts Magic Elements spontaneously. In your case, it mainly attracts Lightning, and also Wind, Water, Earth and a tiny bit Light; but not Fire or Darkness.’

  ‘But I can see Fire and Darkness?’ Soarame couldn’t help asking.

  ‘Every Magneer, such as yourself, can see all seven lineages of elements.’ Ecrif seemed to appreciate this question. ‘Not only that, but you can also see energy of life, spark of wisdom, and so on.’

  ‘What? Spark of wisdom?’ Soarame’s ears stood up; he had never ever heard of that, not even from his master.

  ‘There’s a lot you don’t know yet, but what you really need is to focus.’ Ecrif didn’t answer this last question. ‘Good luck with your Water improvement.’

  ‘Wait!’ Soarame shouted hurriedly, but it was already too late —

  ‘I won’t see you again very soon, good luck on your own.’ With that, Ecrif’s figure started becoming vague; but he did ask a question before he’d totally gone. ‘Soarame, do you believe in fate?’

  ‘At least tell me the name of the sword!’ Soarame made a desperate try, but in his eyes he saw Ecrif’s body dispersing and becoming a massive amount of Fire and Water Elements; after a few seconds, they were totally gone.

  ‘Oh my…’ Soarame rushed out of the dorm and flew up to the air, trying to capture the scattering red and blue dots, although he knew he couldn’t really stop Ecrif from leaving.

  ‘Soar, what the heck are you doing there?!’ Kardiac’s anxious voice called over from his window. ‘I trusted you!’

  ‘Hey Kardy… pardon?’ Soarame was startled by the loud voice, and got confused by Kardiac’s words. ‘What do you mean, you trusted me?’

  ‘Oh, nothing… never mind!’ Kardiac hurriedly closed the window and pulled the curtain. Soarame caught sight of Catheray hiding behind the bulky boy, with a blush on her face.

  Oh dear. Soarame chuckled. ‘Kardy, next time let me know before you two kiss.’

  ‘Shut up and go away!’ Kardiac didn’t respond, but Catheray complained aloud…

  ‘Soar, I heard you shout something about a sword.’ Before Soarame had landed, Omifo’s voice sounded from another window. ‘What sword?’

  ‘Sword?’ Soarame instantly realized what had happened — he was yelling but the Godrealm was gone. After rolling his eyes, Soarame pretended to be puzzled. ‘What are you talking about? I was just taking a nap.’

  ‘Oh man, don’t tell me you are dream walking again!’ Omifo chuckled, with a curious Pipi on his shoulder.

  ‘Well, dream-flying, if it helps.’ Soarame teased himself. ‘Anyway, I’m gonna run for classes, see ya!’

  THE QUEEN

  It doesn’t make sense! In order to avoid attention, Soarame landed and walked on his way. Fire and Water? How could this happen?

  Taking another look towards the sky, Soarame was thinking hard about the scene when Ecrif’s body had dispersed into Magic Elements and scattered away. First of all, he couldn’t understand how such a big man could become Magic Elements. Second, let’s say it could, but why Fire and Water? They are supposed to be incompatible!

  Soarame knew he wouldn’t be able to figure this out any time soon, so after a while of bewilderment, he chose to move on to other questions. One of them was Ecrif’s identity — the man claimed he was not a Halfgod, yet he had Godrealm.

  And the ring and the sword. Soarame looked around and made sure no one was there, then secretly fondled the space-ring with his fingers. A real space-ring! With a Godmade inside! Oh my craziness!

  Soarame rushed, jumped and even looped around for quite a while to let out his burning energy, then slowly calmed down. Ecrif’s words contained too much information for him to digest at once, so he had to carefully recall all of them and file them away in his mind before they were gone, so that he could take his time to comprehend them bit by bit.

  Do you believe in fate? As Soarame finished his mental filing, he remembered the seemingly spontaneous question that Ecrif had asked at the end. But what exactly is this supposed to mean?

  With a slightly reddened face caused by the excitement, joy, confusion and all that, Soarame found himself in front of the Wind Department. He raised his head and watched the semi-transparent buildings in streamlined shapes, marvelling once more at their inspiring design.

  ‘Soarame, hi!’ A gentle voice came, and Soarame knew exactly who that was. It was the same voice that had sounded in the MagiMax’s maze two years ago, and led the friends out of the dangerous place.

  ‘Alicey, how’re you doing?’ Soarame smiled at this pure and delicate girl. He really felt good about her, and had been treating her as his little sister so far. ‘Good game this morning, by the way.’

  ‘It took you this long to say it?’ Alicey curled her lips. ‘Don’t worry, Halgon will be just fine.’

  ‘I’m sure.’ Soarame nodded hard. ‘I’ll think about how to deal with the coming Championship though, it’s unfair for the rest of the team if we keep the Darkness spot vacant forever, and lose because of that.’

  ‘No, it’s fine. We all care about Halgon more than the tournament.’ Alicey looked into Soarame’s his eyes. ‘No one cares about winning or losing a game! At least I don’t.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Soarame felt touched. He looked back into Alicey’s eyes and approached her subconsciously. Just when he felt unsure as to what to say next, he saw Alicey’s face turn a little pink. A few seconds later, the girl promptly turned around and walked away fast. ‘I’ve got classes, I’ll see you soon!’

  Hmm… today is Friday, and there’s no Wind class on Fridays, Soarame puzzled, but he soon realized what was going on. Oh god, really?

  Wait, if there’s no Wind class, why am I here? Soarame had to laugh at himself — he had been too distracted by all the odd messages brought by Ecrif. Thanks to the exceptionally lucky resurgence in MagiMax, Soarame was now a Grad
e-6 in Wind, and the only student on campus who could fly without a flightcloak. In principle, he should have been forced to graduate; but his mind ocean had not reached Expert level yet, although he had accidentally learnt an Expert spell. Besides that, due to the nearly fatal incident in MagiMax, Gazbell didn’t want Soarame to take any risks, so he had forbidden Soarame from leaving the campus until further notice.

  Because of that, Soarame had to cancel all his travel plans after the incident, although he so wanted to visit Filton during the holidays. Fortunately, He had received two letters from the old man — they were short, but they did settle Soarame’s anxiety. According to the letters, Filton had been travelling the world, and he asked Soarame to focus on his studies and not to bother writing back — the man was not sure where his next stop would be yet. Therefore, there was little point in Soarame visiting his hometown. The good thing was that the campus was enormous, so it kept the boy busy enough not to miss the wider world too much.

  Soarame knew that Filton had longed to go and see the world thanks to Scankeen’s novel descriptions of it, but he was a little worried about Filton’s wallet. So the best thing he could do was perhaps to graduate as Scankeen had instructed, then go and look for all the people he cared about — who had all been missing from his life for years, for god’s sake — as a proud Expert wizard.

  With that in mind, Soarame turned to the direction of the Water Department, although he had been a bit hesitant about going to Sandoray’s classes in the first place and had been skipping them for a while. The reason was that the cold beauty tended to use Soarame as a training partner for her classes — whenever she taught an attacking spell, she would use Soarame for the demonstration. Of course, Soarame was allowed to defend or fight back in any way, including Wind spells, magigears and whatever; but how could an Adept defend himself against an Expert anyhow? Not to mention that this Expert was actually, as Soarame finally realized, a Water professor! That was to say, she could beat Max, the owner of MagiMax, in a fair one-on-one!