Memory Seal- Volume 1

by Insane Mooncake

  So, he might as well go all-out.

  Both Marcus and Wesley had similar drawing speeds, and they activated their seals at the same time.

  Bolts of electricity flew out of Marcus’s seal, while icicles flew out of Wesley’s. Several bolts of electricity came into contact with the icicles, and burst them open before dissipating.

  However, several icicles made it past the electricity, and the opposite was the same.

  Marcus managed to raise his arms to protect himself before the icicles knocked him to the ground. At the same time, Wesley had been electrocuted by the bolts of electricity, and had collapsed to the ground.

  However, both duelists had maintained consciousness, and promptly climbed to their feet to cast the second round of spells.

  The fight had only just begun!

  Chapter 21

  Despite having been electrocuted, Wesley quickly refocused his mind, and tried to work through the pain, as well as a few lingering muscle twitches.

  On the other side, Marcus was incensed that he hadn’t won the duel yet, and was busy complaining in his mind while drawing his second seal. Wasn’t his opponent supposed to be a mage initiate? Why the hell could he draw seals? Furthermore, how did he have the mana to cast a spell that could create and fire so many icicles at once?

  For Marcus, unexpectedly, the first exchange had already made him feel as if he were fighting a peer.

  With a fierce expression, he quickly drew his second seal, intending to end the duel in a swift manner to save his pride. After all, if he, the genius of the Larwin Kingdom, could only struggle to defeat a mage initiate two years younger than he, then what face would he have left?

  Without an ounce of mercy, Marcus unleashed his family’s signature spell, Lightning Dragon! Despite the spell’s fearsome name, Marcus lacked the mana to use the spell to its fullest - all that came out was a small lightning dragon, only a few feet long.

  Despite its size, this dragon was brimming with an alarming amount of energy - basically all of Marcus’s mana pool had been consumed in creating it. After casting the spell, he looked toward Wesley, his eyes brimming with confident.

  ‘You may have survived the first clash, but the second will be your last!’

  However, when he saw the result of Wesley’s second seal, his eyes bulged.

  An ice dragon, almost identical to the lightning dragon he’d just created, was soaring his way, ad was about to come into contact with his lightning dragon.

  Furthermore, the ice dragon was actually slightly bigger than his lightning dragon!

  The two dragons quickly collided with each other midair. Despite its larger size, the ice dragon was broken apart by the lightning dragon, but the energy of the lightning dragon had also been completely spent on destroying the ice dragon.

  Marcus stood still, his eyes glazed over. Without any mana to cast additional spells with, had he lost? He, the genius of the Larwin Kingdom, had actually lost?

  Actually, as Wesley had used all of his mana as well, the fight had actually ended in a draw, but the reactions from the two fighters were polar opposites.

  As the announcer announced the results, Marcus simply stood still, still unable to accept the outcome.

  Meanwhile, Wesley had been joined by Gust on stage, where the two were celebrating. Despite Wesley not having won the battle, they’d be getting a modest payout from the duel.

  “We’re going to be fancy boys tonight!”

  Wesley and Gust quickly collected their earnings on the way out, then went back to the fancy, two-story restaurant they’d been kicked out of yesterday.

  This time, however, they were immediately seated and given menus. With the menus, however, a new problem quickly arose.

  What the hell were all of these dishes? Gust was quite confounded by the names of all of the dishes, and was starting to get a headache.

  “Uh, let’s see, they have Red-wine braised black lamb shanks with a side-salad with dressing options of balsamic vinaigrette, ranch, uh…

  “Oh okay, let’s see, oh wow, here’s an expensive one. Roasted golden duck legs served with spring onion, cucumber, sweet bean sauce, flour pancakes, and caviar…”

  Gust felt his headache getting stronger.

  “Hey little man, how about we just save our money and eat at food stall somewhere?”

  “Yeah…”

  Although Wesley had eaten fancy dishes at birth, and had learned proper table manners, he’d never had to deal with actually ordering the food. Hence, just listening to Gust earlier had given him a headache.

  The two promptly stood up and left the restaurant, leading the hostess to stare after them in confusion. After walking a bit, they came by a food stall that served beef noodle soup.

  Gust looked toward Wesley. “What does Mr. Nose say?”

  “He says it’s good.”

  “Good enough for me.”

  The two sat down and quickly ordered. “Two bowls of beef noodle soup, extra beef please.”

  Nice and simple.

  The two quickly devoured their bowls of beef noodle soup, then ordered another each. By the time they were finished, Wesley’s stomach was poking through his shirt, and Gust’s own belly had grown significantly as well.

  Having sated his stomach, Wesley’s mind wandered to the bigger question at hand.

  “Hey Gust, when can we cross the Alaki Mountain Range?”

  “That, little man, is more of a question of how. Let’s walk and talk.”

  Gust handed over a few coins to the stall owner for their meals, then took Wesley’s hand to lead him to their next destination.

  “Anyway, I’ve got something personal I need to talk to you about regarding this shitty mountain range. In the meantime though, might as well fill you in on the general details of the mountain range.

  “Crossing the Alaki Mountain Range will be, by far, the most dangerous part of our trip. After all, the mountain range is why the Reiniad Kingdom, despite being larger than the Larwin and Kenta Kingdoms combined, hasn’t tried even once to invade their neighbors.

  “The mountain range is inhabited by hundreds of mountain tribes, all of whom are ruled by six large tribes. They don’t exactly take kindly to ‘outsiders’, and they’re typically great fighters. Actually, I learned how to fight in the mountains myself.

  “Anyway, in order to safely cross the mountain range, we’ll need to join up with at least a few hundred travellers, or we’ll have next to no chance of crossing the mountain range, even with the chaos gems.”

  “The mountain tribes, they’ll attack any outsiders they see, and the tribes live just far apart to not interfere with each other, so if you’re not walking through one tribe’s territory, you’re walking through that of another’s. The only way they won’t attack you is if you’re with a big enough group for them to not want to deal with.

  “And that, is why we’re here.” Gust made a grandiose gesture toward a signboard next to Border Town’s eastern entrance.

  “Where?”

  “Uh, the eastern entrance to Border Town. There’s a board for people to sign up on, to show that they want to cross the Alaki Mountain Range. Once there’s enough people, the officials will add a date on the top of the signboard, which’ll be the date that everyone who signs the board leaves Border Town as a group.”

  “Oh, that’s fairly handy.”

  “Yep. Now, let’s see...”

  Gust quickly signed their names on the signboard.

  -Gust: Experienced light-armored fighter. World-famous bard

  -Wesley: Rank 3 Elementary Mage

  Having finished, the two began their trip back to the inn. Wesley didn’t mind the walk much, but as they approached their destination, Gust’s steps grew heavier and heavier.

  It was time to face his past.

  Chapter 22

  “Ahem.”

  The two boys sat, facing each other, in the room they’d rented from the inn. They’d actually been sitting like this in absolute silence
for the last five minutes. Wesley had felt increasingly uncomfortable until he simply couldn’t stand it anymore, and loudly cleared his throat.

  “Oh, my bad, little man. Lost track of time.”

  “So what did you want to tell me?”

  “Well...alright, I might as well start from the beginning.”

  “A little over sixteen years ago, I was born under the name of Gust Vann Belson, to the mayor and mayoress of a town very similar to this. However, the town had been far closer to the base of the mountain range.

  “A dangerous place to live, but a very lively place, and I guess my parents liked it that way. However, one unfortunate night, when I was but six years old, those damned barbarians from the mountains attacked.”

  Gust sighed, his eyes narrowing as he felt moisture gather there against his wishes. Wesley, on the other hand, was completely silent. This story of Gust’s sounded awfully similar to what he had experienced himself… and he could feel Gust’s pain as his own.

  “They killed most of the people in the village, including my parents, but a bunch of us, including myself, were captured and brought to their villages. There, we were thrown into pits, and each day, a few of us would be pulled into a closed arena, kind of like the ones we’ve been fighting in, but much shittier, and be made to fight to the death. Children were made to fight against other children or animals and monsters, while the adults were made to do the same with their respective matches.”

  Gust paused.

  “Of course, it wasn’t just people from our village that were there. As long as you won your fights, you’d be thrown back into the pits, allowed to live until your next fight. Over time, most of those who’d been brought there from my hometime perished, leaving only me and a few adults who were fairly adept warriors.

  “It was at this time, however, that I made a friend. A big sister, as it were. When I’d arrived at the pits, she’d already been there for nearly half a year, and looked positively savage.”

  Lost in his memories, Gust quietly chuckled.

  “I still remember, the first time I saw her, I think I pissed myself in fright. Still though, as time went on, she became the big sister I never had, and as if the gods above had finally shined their loving light upon us, she and I weren’t made to fight each other for a full four years. Unfortunately, one day, we accidentally overheard that the barbarians had decided to have the two of us, the most talented “children” fighters of their beloved death pits, fight to the death to honor their chief’s son’s ceremony for becoming a man or some shit.”

  Gust waved his hands in the air, as if to distract himself.

  “Anyway, the two of us decided that instead of killing each other for the goddamn barbarians’ enjoyment, we’d try and escape. We tried to get others to help, but they’d all lost hope long ago - it wasn’t as if we were the first to try and escape.”

  Gust closed his eyes, and fell back onto his bed, and started speaking towards the ceiling.

  “Well, we somehow managed to climb out of the pit we’d been kept in, but when we tried to sneak out of the village, I guess someone spotted us. The village instantly lit up, and the two of us ran just ran as fast as we could to the outskirts of the village.”

  “Along the way, we killed some of the villagers who tried to stop our path with our bare hands, and were able to grab their weapons for ourselves. Me, I’d grabbed a pair of kukris, whereas she...she always favored longer weapons, such as staffs and spears.

  “Well to put it short, we got cornered before we made it to the outskirts… and she sacrificed herself for me.”

  Gust couldn’t help but skip over the details - he didn’t want to play that scene out in his head yet another time.

  “So, Wesley. I have a request to make of you. I’ve checked the planned routes for travelling groups to take across the Alaki Mountain Range, and the next group is slated to cross through the territory of...that barbarian tribe. So… will you help me exact vengeance?

  “...”

  Seeing that Wesley was staying silent, Gust quickly tried to make his case.

  “Actually, I wouldn’t even need your help, as long as you’re okay with travelling with the rest of the group without me. With the chaos gems, even if I can’t eradicate the entire village, if i catch them off guard, I’ll probably be able to kill at least a few hundred of them on my own, and -”

  Gust abruptly paused. Although Wesley still hadn’t said a word, the temperature in the room had dropped significantly.

  In fact, he could see some ice forming on the room’s ceiling...

  “I’ll help.”

  Gust didn’t know, but this promise had been spoken with the weight of two lifetimes.

  In the area above Wesley’s mana pool, another section of the seal came to life.

  Meanwhile, a scene appeared in Wesley’s mind. He looked down, at his hands. They were far larger than he remembered, and much farther than he remembered.

  Where...was he? He looked around, just in time to spot a flurry of spells headed his way.

  “Ahh!” Wesley yelled and crossed his arms in front of himself in a futile attempt of self-protection. Luckily, none of the spells hit him.

  However, those around him were not so lucky. All around him, his...allies? fell to the ground. While Wesley was still confused, a figure flew in front of him, and quickly cast a mana barrier spell.

  “What the hell are you doing, Wesley? Don’t space out on me now, we have to fight back the Desert Kingdom’s advance!”

  “Yes, teacher!”

  Thomas gave Wesley a curt nod, then flew away again. Wesley gathered himself, then rejoined the battle.

  It was a very surreal experience, to cast spells and move without meaning to. Furthermore, Wesley didn’t recognize any of the seals his hands drew, nor did he recognize any of the people who swarmed around him, some assisting him, some trying to kill him.

  After a few minutes of fighting, Wesley heard someone behind him shout.

  “The Desert Kingdom’s King-class mages are here!”

  Looking up, Wesley saw several mages flying through the air, arriving from the Desert Kingdom’s flank.

  Craning his neck a little more, Wesley saw several mages ascend into the air from their own side.

  ‘Thomas…’

  The next few minutes were a blur for Wesley, as the fight below the King-class mages devolved into a melee brawl.

  Even as a mage, Wesley couldn’t avoid a few injuries. One time, a Desert Kingdom knight had fought through their front line, and had cut Wesley across his right shoulder. Another, an arrow had flown through the air, and pierced his left leg.

  Despite this however, Wesley fought on, using his left hand to cast spells, putting his weight on his right leg to trudge forward.

  However, panicked shouts from behind him brought him to look high in the air. What had happened?

  Unfortunately, all he saw when he looked up, was his teacher, Thomas, falling to the ground.

  Before Wesley could react, the scene disappeared into blackness.

  Wesley opened his eyes. Before him, he could see a blurry figure sprawled across a dirty, unmade bed. His mind flashed back to Thomas’s collapsed corpse on the battlefield.

  Wesley thought back to when he’d crawled out of the forest, having just escaped the assassins that’d murdered his family. Gust, despite not knowing him, had brought him to the village, had seen to it that he’d been bandaged and cared for. Then, without a second thought, Gust had accepted Wesley’s “promised” payment, that even Wesley knew Gust hadn’t really truly believed in, and had led him halfway across the continent.

  He, Wesley, had a big brother now, and his name was Gust.

  “I’ll help.”

  Chapter 23

  After giving his promise, Wesley promptly fell back onto his bed, and fell asleep. Meanwhile, on the other bed, Gust lifted his head up.

  “Huh, the kid actually fell asleep.” Gust moved to get out of bed, paused, then laid back do
wn. “No harm in sleeping in.”

  As they had to wait for a sizeable group to be formed before they could even attempt to cross the Alaki Mountain Range, Gust and Wesley decided to use their time in Border Town wisely, and developed a routine.

  In the morning, the two would wake, eat breakfast, then head to the stadium to compete in duels. Over time, the crowd, as well as the stadium’s veteran fighters, came to recognize the two.