by Weiqi Wang
‘He gave you a space-ring?!’ Before Soarame said anything, Ericson’s voice sounded out of nowhere. ‘Did he really?’
‘Eric!’ Soarame jumped up. ‘What the heck are you doing? And why?’
‘Well, it’s a long story. For now, just enjoy the palatorium.’ Ericson snorted. ‘You know how rare this thing is, don’t you? It cost me so much to rent one, just for you!’
‘I’m flattered, but there’s nothing to enjoy here.’ Soarame mocked. ‘It’s dark!’
‘My bad.’ Ericson sneered. ‘How about this?’ The next second, the boundaries of the palatorium became transparent, so that the two could see what was going on outside.
‘Look, the ghost gust!’ In the scene, a group of girls screamed upon seeing Ericson, and started to approach him. Apparently, despite the fact that Ericson hadn’t participated in the beastide mission, he still had lots of fans due to the Dragon&Empires.
‘Damn it, I’m so sick of this!’ Ericson’s voice sounded inside the palatorium. ‘Thanks to you, Soarame, I had to play with a bunch of stupid kids for months!’ With that, Ericson hastened away for an escape, just as he usually did these days.
The two in the palatorium watched this in silence, wondering who Ericson really was. Meanwhile, Ericson ran towards the campus exit, passing the Water Department along his way. To his surprise, there were an unusually large number of students heading for the department. This confused Ericson. ‘Since when has Water been so popular?’
Soarame and Halgon looked at each other, nodding silently. It was because the battle between them and Sandoray was supposed to start soon in the Water Arena, and many students were coming to watch. This troubled Ericson a lot, because everyone recognized him and tried to come over.
‘We must do something to get out of here!’ Halgon was anxious to see that Ericson swiftly broke out from the crowd. ‘He’s trying to leave the campus!’
‘Break the walls!’ Soarame insta-cast a wave of windblades at the boundaries of the palatorium, only to see that they didn’t even scratch the surface.
‘It doesn’t work that way.’ Ericson’s sneering voice sounded. ‘The space inside a space-ring or a palatorium is indestructible by any ordinary means. Plus your Adept-level windblades are just pathetically weak… Wait a minute! Those were Expert windblades? You levelled up?’
‘Ericson.’ As Ericson was distracted, a familiar voice sounded from aside. The two inside the palatorium also heard it, and suddenly saw a beam of hope — it was Sandoray!
‘Greetings, professor.’ Ericson frowned at this and slowed his pace. He would have seen and avoided her if he hadn’t been distracted.
‘You are heading off? You are not coming to see your friends’ show tonight?’ Sandoray seemed to sense Ericson’s nervousness, but she didn’t think about it much — everyone was nervous in front of her.
‘I am. I will be back in a minute.’ Ericson said. ‘I’ll see you there, professor.’
Watching Sandoray nod and turn away, the two inside the palatorium got madly anxious. They’d been shouting out loud, but Ericson must have chosen to make their prison soundproof — it was an option in palatoriums. ‘Save it, boys. You’ve been really noisy.’ Ericson sneered. ‘And Halgon, I thought you had some knowledge about the space? Why were you yelling too?’
‘To test the leaking parts.’ Halgon sneered back, holding a comatose Icer in his arms. ‘An intact palatorium space is supposed to be indestructible, but yours is not, is it?’
‘Halg, the badge!’ Soarame suddenly thought of this. ‘Jankide is indestructible too!’ With that, Soarame hurriedly hurled the badge at a wall. But again, it didn’t work — not even a scratch.
‘Pathetic. Yes, it’s an incomplete palatorium, but you still won’t be able to break out.’ Ericson’s voice became cold. ‘The wall isn’t really a materialized wall. It’s the boundary of this space, which seals it up to form the palatorium… You wouldn’t understand it anyway.’
‘What now?’ Soarame was frustrated. Ericson was right; he didn’t really understand anything about the space. He looked at Halgon surreptitiously, trying to get some helpful ideas, only to find that this most knowledgeable boy was also at a loss this time.
‘Now, we are about to leave here — forever.’ Ericson had arrived at the exit. ‘I’m gonna offer you one last glance of this big cage of a campus. From now on, you and your magimals will serve me.’
‘Serve you?’ Dragging Halgon to a corner of the room, Soarame said coldly. ‘Whoever you are, you really need to know your place.’
‘Really?’ Ericson laughed. ‘We’ll see about that…’
BOOM!
The next second, there was an explosion in Ericson’s hand. If he hadn’t reacted as swiftly as he did, he would have been badly injured — not by the explosion, but by something else —
A broadsword.
A big broadsword emerging from a vast cloud of vapour — due to the sudden coldness in the air.
A big black broadsword, inserted into the ground, freezing everything around it!
‘WHAT. THE. HELL?!’ Ericson’s voice was trembling. Although he’d survived the explosion and the deadly cold from the broadsword, he was still injured because part of his body had been frozen. Staring at the broadsword from a distance, Ericson cried out involuntarily. ‘A GODMADE?!’
‘What…?’ Halgon was stunned too. Everything had happened amid bolts of lightning and sparks of firestone, so that even he didn’t know what was going on. He struggled to move his eyes away from the bulky sword — which had silvered a layer of frost on the surface of everything, to the boy who shielded him from the lethal cold.
‘SOARAME!!!’ The next moment, a thunderous roar sounded from underneath. With a world-shaking explosion, a huge crack formed in the ground, as if the entire earth was being torn open!
‘Chelonad, help!’ Seeing a familiar large figure coming out of the scary crack, Soarame yelled. ‘This Ericson is abnormal! Examine him!’
The sudden ferocious earthquake almost knocked Halgon over, because he was so distracted by Chelonad’s appearance, just as Soarame had been the first time. Snower and Icer were shocked awake, moaning in fear. As a comparison, Ericson didn’t look confused or astonished, but just angry. This shocked Soarame greatly — Ericson had seen Chelonad before!
Right now, Ericson wasn’t even paying much attention to Chelonad; instead he was focusing on the broadsword — he seemed to be trying to grab it somehow. But, judging from his face, his efforts weren’t working.
‘HUMPH?’ The angry giant boa turned to seize Ericson. ‘He made you do this?’
‘WHAT’S GOING ON?!’ Sandoray’s voice came from a distance; it sounded as though she was coming nearer. This wasn’t surprising at all — if the explosion of the palatorium hadn’t been loud enough to attract the attention of the people around, the splitting of the ground was more than enough to do that. ‘All of you, stop following and fall back, NOW!’ Obviously, Sandoray was not the only one approaching — she was being followed by a big, curious crowd, and had to stop and order them back.
‘Damn you, Soar.’ Ericson looked vexed and outraged. ‘Great job on the prison break!’
‘Eric, what the heck is going on?’ Soarame was shaking out of coldness, because the entire surrounding area was frozen solid, thanks to the broadsword. ‘Who are you after all?’
‘I guess I can’t keep this face much longer anyway.’ Strangely, Ericson cracked a smile. ‘Chelonad, long time.’
‘Nac… NACLAD?!’ Chelonad’s voice instantly sounded alert. ‘You dare to come back?’
‘I didn’t want to, but this boy wouldn’t go out.’ “Ericson” looked at Soarame, as his body began to reshape!
‘What the freak…’ Patting Snower’s head to calm her down, Soarame stared at the reshaping figure. “Ericson” grew slightly taller, with a totally different face — instead of the somewhat ordinary face he’d used to have, it became a very unique one, with a pair of piercing eyes.
It was these very eyes that suddenly reminded Soarame. ‘I think I know you! I’ve seen you before!’
‘That’s not totally surprising.’ “Ericson”, actually Naclad, shrugged his shoulders. He looked a lot better after stepping away from the freezing broadsword. ‘Scankeen must have shown you some of my fights as his lessons… am I right?’
‘How do you know that?’ Soarame was shocked. ‘I never told you who my master is!’
‘I know things that I want to know.’ Naclad sneered in pride. ‘And you don’t.’
‘Really.’ Soarame sneered too. ‘Do you know what my master said about you?’
‘Oh, I’m not bothered. I know he wouldn’t have said anything good.’ Naclad stared at Soarame. ‘He didn’t like me — he wouldn’t even give me a space-ring, but he gave you a freaking Godmade!’
‘What?! You…’ Soarame’s eyes widened. ‘You were his…?’
‘Soarame, enough.’ Several pieces of wall emerged from the ground and enveloped the boys and their magimals —Chelonad was making them. ‘You can use the symbol inside to fly the cell away. Or at least stay inside.’
‘Chelonad, you know this Naclad?’ Looking out through the barred window, Soarame couldn’t help asking. ‘He’s really my…?’
‘I SAID ENOUGH!’ Chelonad commanded. ‘It’s complicated… so, not now!’
‘Chelonad?!’ Sandoray had arrived, full of astonishment. Obviously, she had heard part of the conversation. ‘And Naclad?!’
‘Sandoray, step back.’ Chelonad commanded again. ‘It’s beyond your capacity, so don’t engage!’
‘Yes, sir.’ Although Sandoray had tons of questions, she decided to obey at once. This greatly surprised the two boys in the cell — they were expecting the queen to do almost anything other than that!
‘Don’t be rude to her. She’s the only refreshing one among this entire mouldy school.’ Naclad looked at the giant boa. ‘I so wish she’d been there when I was.’
Naclad didn’t seem to be that worried in front of the Baron-level boa — having witnessed Sandoray’s reaction to him, Soarame was now certain that Chelonad was a Baron. But this wasn’t such good news — if Naclad wasn’t nervous when confronting a Baron, that probably meant…
‘So, you’ve levelled up again.’ Chelonad sounded alerted. ‘And you came here for Soarame… is it about Max and your loss?’
‘Compared with that, I’m more interested in this sword now.’ Naclad took a deep breath. ‘I still can’t believe my dear junior fellow carries such a scary thing… I guess I just found another reason to take him with me.’
‘Why am I not surprised at all? How could a thief not want another Godmade after stealing the one from the Druids?’ Chelonad humphed in sneer. ‘Don’t try to deny it. We’ve got evidence now.’
‘Oh? What evidence?’ Naclad raised his head to look at the giant boa. At the same time, Soarame suddenly saw a spark of golden colour shone up from him.
It was him? What is it after all? Soarame was suddenly enlightened. Many times in the past, he had noticed some faintly discernible golden light, but he’d never realized that it came from “Ericson”. ‘Careful, Chelonad! He’s spelling something!’
Unfortunately, Soarame was a bit too late — Naclad seemed to have got what he wanted and nodded in silence. He was in the middle of smiling towards the cell, but the smile froze halfway upon Soarame’s words —
‘How do you know?!’ Naclad suddenly yelled at Soarame, with another spark of golden colour shone up around him. ‘How do you know I was spelling?’
‘I…’ Soarame was caught off guard and didn’t know what to say. He’d accidentally said something that made people suspicious about his Magneer speciality, but luckily it was just a suspicion. After all, the concept of Magneer was almost unknown — at least Soarame thought it was. However, things could go unexpected from time to time —
‘You…’ Naclad stared at Soarame with his mouth open. ‘You are a Magneer too?’
‘Magneer?’ Everyone was puzzled. Soarame, in contrast, simply couldn’t believe what he’d heard. So many thoughts and guesses were springing up in his mind, making him unsure what to say. Therefore, a moment of weird silence occurred in the middle of the confrontation.
‘So it is.’ Naclad broke the brief silence. ‘No wonder Scankeen took you as another disciple, and gave you so much treasure!’
‘I’m a Magneer too?’ Soarame tried so hard to suppress his surprise. ‘So you are a… Magneer too?!’
‘NACLAD?!’ A large voice sounded from the sky — it was Gazbell this time.
‘Don’t play smart.’ Naclad squinted at the rapidly approaching Gazbell, but he was still talking to Soarame. ‘Interesting. Scankeen actually got a Magneer as his disciple. That’s really lucky of him.’
‘On the contrary; I would say rather that I’m lucky to have him as my master.’ Although shocked, Soarame tried to stay calm. ‘What made you want to disappoint him so much?’
‘You really think you deserve to question me?’ Naclad was instantly mad. ‘Just because you are a Magneer?’
PLONK! The cell was suddenly knocked over and rolled on the ground like a bumping rock. Inside, the boys and magimals, unprepared, banged their heads. Fortunately, the sneak-attack didn’t break the cell, so they had survived. But even so, the walls were fracturing badly, with a deep mark that almost cut them through — it was a vancoblade!
‘How dare you!’ Meanwhile, Chelonad and Gazbell were already attacking Naclad. Sandoray hastened forward to check the boys in the cell. She was frightened to witness the insta-cast of vancoblade. Although she didn’t practise Wind magic, she was certain that not every Master was able to insta-cast vancoblades — after all it was a level-9 spell!
‘Not bad, Chelonad. Your scales are even tougher than I thought.’ Engaging in the battle, Naclad was displeased to see his attack fail to cut the cell open. ‘But it must hurt to bang against them.’
‘Soar, how are you?’ Inside the cell, a disorientated Halgon was trying to hold Soarame up — the sudden collision followed by the rapid rotations of the cell had knocked him out. If Halgon’s body hadn’t been so much tougher, he might have passed out too. Snower and Icer were much better off, due to their agility; but they were totally panicked. They kept meowing and roaring, asking the boys all kinds of questions via mind-talk.
‘Ouch…’ Soarame sat up. His forehead was bleeding. ‘Careful, my neck!’
‘What’s going on?!’ Just then, the two heard Kastico’s anxious voice and his brief instruction to Sandoray: ‘Look after the boys, I’ll go for Naclad!’
‘Careful! He looks even stronger than Gazbell and Chelonad!’ Sandoray urged before running over to heal Soarame — through the window of the cell. ‘You two! Fly it up and leave!’
‘No!’ Both Soarame and Halgon answered immediately. This made Sandoray mad, but there was no door for her to get in and control the cell, so she looked over to the battlefield for Chelonad —
Naclad was being besieged by the two Masters. He was dodging Gazbell’s blazebomb and Chelonad’s spit-poison, at the same time making counterstrikes. It was impossible to dodge all the spells, so Naclad had to summon three skeletons in front of him to block the poison spray — they melted into a puddle of pus soon enough.
‘Death Magic!’ Chelonad and Gazbell were both startled. They paused the attack. ‘You’ve made it, after all?’
‘If I hadn’t, do you think I’d have risked coming back?’ Floating in the air, Naclad sneered and pointed at the cell. ‘I never wanted to revisit this hellhole after you kicked me out, but I need that boy.’
‘You are not taking him.’ Gazbell looked at Naclad eye-to-eye, in a midair stalemate. ‘I can’t believe you are paranoid like this, Nac.’
‘Oh no, Mr Principal, you don’t call me that anymore.’ Naclad waved his index finger. ‘You did help me before, but you almost ruined me too. Since then we’ve been evened, as you said that day.’
‘Fine. But I just
don’t understand what’s wrong with keeping Darkness as just Darkness?’ Gazbell sounded sad. ‘Why do you have to go for Death magic?’
‘What’s wrong with you? For the power, of course!’ Naclad suddenly raised his voice. ‘And what’s bad about Death magic?’
‘What’s bad?’ Gazbell’s trembled due to the anger. ‘Everything! Everything is bad — because it’s called “Death Magic”!’
‘So after this school has prided itself on treating all lineages evenly and fairly for centuries, its leader actually supports discrimination?’ Naclad burst into laughter. ‘There are no good or bad lineages; there are only good or bad wizards — sound familiar?’
‘You remembered my words, very well.’ Gazbell said coldly. ‘Now tell me, are you a good wizard, or a bad one?’
‘In your rusted brain I must be a bad one, I’m sure.’ Naclad shook his head. ‘But for what I did, I did it for a good reason!’
‘The power? That’s your good reason?’ Chelonad cut in. ‘You were powerful enough as a Master, but you still went to steal. I can certainly see you did that for a good reason!’
‘Really? Being a “Master” is powerful enough for you?’ Naclad looked disappointed to hear this. ‘You don’t care that there’s a Halfgod above it?’
‘Let’s say you made it to a Halfgod.’ Gazbell said slowly. ‘What then? There’s a God above it?’
‘Haha, good one.’ Naclad made a long laugh before he became serious. ‘Once I become a Halfgod, the first thing I’ll do is clean up the world, to make it better — that’s my good reason, and I simply can’t do it as a mere Master!’
‘Yes, you can.’ Kastico had been watching and listening until now. ‘As long as you disappear, the world will be better immediately.’
‘Kastico, who the hell are you to have a say here?’ Naclad was instantly enraged. ‘You want to declare yourself as a Master too?’
‘I declare that my Lightning counters your Death.’ Kastico said coldly. ‘Just like last time.’
‘You know what, you just reminded me of the stupid Championship… there was a girl who hit me with Lightning.’ Naclad stared at Kastico in malevolence. ‘Back then I tried so hard to hold myself back from killing her, because she reminded me of you —’
