“Call yourself whatever you want raven but you’ve lost.” Lynn said. She brushed her blonde mane back elegantly. She giggled as her rod chirped spark for her spell. “Had you stayed here longer perhaps Master Perim would had taught you his lightning spell as well.”
“How many times did you slept with Perim for him to teach you that spell?” Lola responded with a long smile, teeth clenched, her fangs glinted. Lynn grimaced and launched her lightning spell. The lightning went right through Lola. She shattered into crows. Black birds flew from every part of her body as if she were dismembering herself with crows. The birds flew all over the mansion’s lobby, a swarm of crows cawing and swirling around the ceiling.
“Dark magic” Lynn shouted with fear. Dark magic was feared by all mages. Crows were never a good sign. Crows meant that death was near. Their eyes were red unlike regular crows of the wild. These crows had carried the essence of the Necrovania, the land of the death. These birds do not feed from worms and insects. No. These birds feed from flesh and blood. Lynn raced up the stairs and the black birds chase her. A swarm of crows flew towards her. There were nearly a hundred of them or more. Lynn tried to slap them away with her rod. She shot fire at them but they persisted and dived towards her. They pecked her and bit her with their beaks. They bit her flesh and pecked her eyes. Lynn tripped and fell on the stairs. She lost grip of her rod. She screamed in pained and squealed like a pig being slaughtered. Blood seeped from her body as the crows pecked her and bit chunks of her flesh. She screamed until her life withers and all her lights faded.
The crows left Lynn’s body severed and bleeding. Her dress tattered, her face with holes and torn off flesh. The crows then flew towards the other apprentices. They ran down the hall of the second floor but the swarm of crows quickly caught them and pecked them and bit them till they could no longer breathe with life.
The crows then huddle. The swarm came together to reform a body. Legs, arms, a head, a long black skirt, a corset and her rod at hand. Lola was reformed by the crows she had summoned from her body. Dark magic indeed. Her powers were tremendous and she had practiced for three years in her travels through Alexandria perfecting them. “There is no escaping death when crows soar. Summoned by a dark magus.” Lola whispered her prayer. Her dark spell required much of her mana but her stamina had increased over the years thanks to the guidance of Dougal.
Lola saw the wolf crippling going up the stairs to the second floor. She ran to him with deep concern of her only friend. Dougal collapsed by the stairs. There was no bleeding but he seemed internally injured. He was hit by the lightning spell, Lola assumed. She kneeled down spreading her long skirt and cradled the wolf. She stroked his black fur and gripped his injured. She gently squeezed his leg and noticed a bone had snapped and his muscles were stiff from the lightning strike. “Worry not my love.” Lola whispers in his pointy ear. “This is nothing I can’t heal.”
“Don’t pity me.” Dougal refused to be weak. “It’s not the first time I have been crippled. I can still walk.” The wolf got off Lola’s lap and walked crippled. That pride of yours will be your downfall, Lola thought as she saw the way the wolf walked. It hurt her to see him like this and she worried. She understood how desperately he wanted to become a human again. That form was a curse and Lola was determine to find a way to break it. She was confident that her new power will help her find a way.
“Perim will tell me how to heal you or I will force it out of him.” Lola swore. “He no longer has power over me.” She took one last look at the Lobby and saw Lynn’s bleeding body on the floor. She looked at the debris that had fallen from the ceiling.
“Come on Lola stop stalling.” Dougal said as he paced down the second floor hall. Lola took the lead and walked ahead of him. “With that injury you should avoid any combat.” She suggested.
“I will not die here today my dear.” The wolf answered. “He should be in the third floor.”
“That, I remember. I am sure he heard the chaos that we caused in the first floor. I wonder why he has not bothered to come down here.” Lola said.
“He was confident that his apprentices would get rid of us.” Dougal said.
“If so then he will be highly disappointed.” Lola added and ran down the hall of the second floor. She noticed that she had run pass her bedroom. She ignored it and continued to run towards the stairs. There was nothing in there that she cared for anymore. She was eager to leave already, to grab the rod her father had given her and go back to the capital city. The mansion was a prison. Her paradise was the wilderness of Alexandria. The western forest and the southern mountains. She had found pleasure and freedom in being a drifter.
Up the stairs to the third floor she went. She scampered up and Dougal jumped up the steps behind her. In the third floor she did not stop to look anywhere. She knew where he was. His room was the door at the end of the hallway. Lola and Dougal sprinted. “Pikan Granda” She yelled and a blast of fire flew from her rod and detonated the door of Perim’s room.
She walked in through the smoking door and there he was. He stood by the balcony gazing at the two moons. A glass of alcohol in his right hand and he swirled it. He did not turn to face Lola. The dark magus took slow steps inside Perim’s bedroom. It was spacious with book shelves, a fire place by the bed and many alcoholic beverages on a round table. Maps of Alexandria hanged from the walls and jewel embroidered swords. The curtains of the balcony door billow from the outside chilly breeze. Everything was tidy and organized. Nothing has changed, Lola thought. She had nightmares of this room. Horrible dreams that woke her up in the middle of the night with sweat and tears. Omegus you have given me strength, she prayed to her god and thankful that the nightmares were over as she reclaimed the old.
“Stay behind” Lola told Dougal and as she paced to the balcony the wolf did not move but he kept his eyes on her. “Don’t hesitate to kill if he tries to attack” he advice Lola.
She griped her rod and raised her guard. She stood just before the door of the balcony.
“Why do you need it so much?” Perim asked still refusing to face Lola. He gazed up at the moons as he sipped his beverage.
“Why do you want it yourself?” Lola asked in return. “Is not as if you know any dark magic…Do you?”
Perim chuckled and place his glass cup on the parapet. He spun and faces Lola finally with her father’s rod at hand. The rod that she longed for. It was black with bat like wings at the end and a large onyx jewel embed at the top. It was a fiendish rod and Lola needed its power. “It is said that darkness is more discipline than the holy element.” Perim lectured. “According to the ancients scrolls of the Alexander dynasty. Odealeous began in darkness and what lies beyond the skies is nothing but darkness itself. I had long studied this subject silently under his majesty King Alexander who trusts me enough to share his secrets. I am sure you know all about darkness since you have been learning its arts.”
“I didn’t come here to be lecture, Perim. Give me my father’s rod and I shall leave in peace.” Lola responded solemnly.
“After murdering most of my apprentices you think that there is a slight chance I will let you walk away in peace. You are sadly mistaking my dear Lola Raven.” Perim stared at Lola with an empty face expression like staring at a statue.
“I am no longer Lola Raven. I go by the name Lola The Black now.” The magus replied. “I am not the same weak and innocent little girl you once knew. You disgusting pig.”
“That is no way to speak to the one who raised you.” Perim frowned and gripped on the rod as if he was ready to cast a spell on Lola. “I saved you and took you as my own child. I gave you protection, food, a bed, friends and luxury in my mansion. Then you try to take my precious treasure.”
“Liar!” Lola roars from deep in her throat. “Your treasure? That rod you hold is my father’s. You took it from me telling me that it had dark power. You knew I need that rod. You knew of my powers and you were afraid of me. You were afraid that I would awaken m
y dark magic.”
“Of course I was.” Perim said loudly interrupting Lola. He turned away, back to the balcony and stared down at his courtyard with dozens of his students dead and burned. “I was afraid that you would hurt the other students Lola. Had you awaken your powers you would not know how to control them. You had no discipline back then. I did not trust your ability to control your powers. Not even after your sixteen birthday. Dark magic requires strict and attentive training. I did not know what to do with you so I held on to your rod.”
Lola took a stepped forward. “I understand now what you were trying to do.” She said. “You force me to give myself to you in hopes of gaining any bit of my dark magic. You are a pig. Not just me but you would take advantage of the other female apprentices as well. You corrupted your students and brain washed them. I however resisted. I got tired of being one of your puppets going on missions, fighting for you while you profit from the king. You did not care about me. You only cared about what you gained from the orphans that you raised.”
“I knew you would return.” Perim replied calmly. For the moment he showed no malice. “I knew you would return to reclaim your father’s dark rod. For the past three years that you were away. I have been trying to discover how to use its power. With this rod I will have many more apprentices like you at my command. I will have my own army one day and go up the ranks in this Alexandria.”
Lola clenched her teeth and her eyes narrowed. Her eyes turned pale white and her fangs creep from the sides of her mouth. “I knew it. You were up to no good. I saw what you did to them. Those headbands with onyx stone. You were manipulating their minds. You had all of them against their will. You are a pig. You raped your own students.”
“Rape!” Perim barked. “After all I have done for these lost children the least they could do is please me. I don’t ask for much. I kept you all from poverty in this country ruled by selfish monarchs. You are better off living for me and assisting me at achieving my goals. What better purpose could you serve? Omegus won’t help you. He is but a god who sits and watches your actions. Nothing more.”
Lola seethes with anger. His words were as she predicted. Back then she was just a defenseless girl. Hearing Perim finally admit his true intentions gave her the signal to take his life. “I guess there is no reasoning with you then.”
“Pikan Granda!” Perim yelled and from his palm a large sphere of fire swelled. He launched a fire blast destroying everything in its path. Lola stopped it with her rod. She tried to absorb the spell and was pushed back by the impact. He boots slide over the wooden floor as the fire blast pushed her. Everything around her began to get blown away by the energy of the spell. Little by little she absorbs Perim’s fire spell. The energy burned her but it was nothing that she could not tolerate. She has been through worst. Her rod steamed and the ruby gemstone of her rod glowed with an angry red of lava. Lola looked at the balcony and Perim was gone.
“Are you fine?” Dougal asked crippling towards Lola. She had forgotten that he was here for a moment.
“I have been through worst. Leave this to me and stay out of it.” She commanded Dougal.
“As you wish. With this injury I am of no use in this fight.” Dougal said and ran off into the halls of the third floor. Perim’s room was now a great mess with the debris the fire blast had created. Lola hurried to the balcony and surveyed the mansion area believing that master Perim had escaped somewhere. She eyeballed the courtyard and gardens below. He was nowhere to be found.
“I take my eyes off him and he vanishes.” Lola remarks. Suddenly she gets the warm sensation of fire above her head. She dips and above her head flies a bullet of fire and explodes down on the courtyard.
“You have learn more than what I was willing to teach you my dear Lola.” Perim commented from atop the mansion’s roof. With the two moons behind him, he stared down at Lola with a wide smirk, his yellow teeth creep from his mouth of small lips. “You want your rod back then come and take it.” He taunted her, spinning the rod playfully.
Lola’s frown turned into a cocky smile. Her eyes turned pale white and fangs creep from the sides of her mouth. “You better pray that Omegus is on your side. I will not depart until your soul drops to the darkest pits of Necrovania.” Lola jumped on the parapet of the balcony and balanced on it. She opened her arms, rod at hand and a cloud of purple smoke billow on her back. The cloud began to take shape. Wings of black and purple feathers spread long and wide on her back. Wings of an angel of darkness that could cover her whole body. Her nails grew and sharpened. She flapped her wings and ascended.
Perim’s eyes bloom with awe and fear. Lola’s transformation was beyond his expectations. This is not the girl he saved seven years ago. This is not the girl who cried every time her fire spells would reverse on her during her training. This is not the girl he took to bed. This new person. No. This entity, this creature she had become was no longer human. “You are a fiend!” He shouted. “You are a monster. I knew it. I knew this was the real you.”
“I might be different now but I will never be as good as you.” Lola said as she hovers in the air, her black swan like wings thudding. “You are the real monster. You tried to take my powers when I was a young girl. You raped me and used your students as well.”
“Only a monster would kill her own friends.” Perim responded. Lola could see the fear in his grimacing face. “Pikan Granda!” Perim yelled, a large ball of fire launched from his rod. Lola laughed at Perim’s spell. Using her rod she smacked the ball of fire and redirected it back at Perim. He dodges it leaping to the side and his spell detonated on the roof of the mansion creating a large hole.
Lola ascended up in the air and dived towards Perim. He ran up the slope of the roof as Lola shot bullets of fire. Perim dodge her fire and retaliated. “Pikan Granda!” He continued to launch that large ball of fire. His spells were powerful, bigger and contained more energy. He was a master in the fire arts and refused to lose to one of his students. On the flat surface of the roof he ran across. Lola dived, her wings spread wide and the end of her rod bath in fire. She aimed to kill him and knew the right spell that would take his life instantly. She was a dozen feet above him now and yelled “Pikan Ray!” Then Perim stopped, spun, jumped and from his cloak he drew a sword. He swung at Lola while in the air. She was not expecting such a bold move from him. She pause her spell and guard with her rod. Their weapons collided and vibrated. Lola was shocked and ascended. Perim fell and rolled on his back once he touched the ground.
Lola had never seen Perim wield a sword. She thought he was strictly a mage. That won’t happen again, Lola swore. She spun back and dived again. She saw a bundle of fire bullets flying towards her. She tilted and dodged the bullets. More flew towards her. They were like arrows of flame, Perim shot from his rod. Lola dodged them in mid air and batted them aside and dived. “Pikan Ray!” She yelled. A red beam burning like lava flew from her rod. Perim used his sword; the beam hit his sword and absorb the spell. His sword is enchanted as if it were a magic rod, Lola assumed. Perim lashed his sword and line of red glowing energy left his weapon. Lola gasped and ascended dodging his attack. Had she continued to dive, he body would have been cleaved.
I must be at a closer range to defeat him, she plotted and spun around. Lola decided to hover over the center of the roof. Perim saw that she was close to the ground so he ran towards her, launching missiles of fire from his rod. Lola deflected his missiles and absorbed some. She flapped her wings, they thudded blowing heavy winds. Her wings flapped faster and faster and blowing gusts at Perim. The man tried to grip on the tiles of the roof. The gust was strong and the wind got in his eyes, blinding him. Lola then shot bullets of fire from her rod but this time it was black fire. Fire like the ones she used to burned Perim’s apprentices.
Perim was able to dodge a few but one hit him and burned his cloak. The black fire burned quicker than regular flames. He immediately removed his cloak and tossed it. “So you have also learned air magic with tha
t demonic form of yours.” Perim commented and laughed as the wind lashed him. “You won’t be able to defeat me with a few new spells. You lack combat tactics.”
Lola ignored him and continued to blow gusts of wind and launch black fire. She began to feel her mana slipping away. If she used too much she won’t be able to defeat Perim. She descends down to the roof and panted. “My mana is fading. I must find a way to kill this bastard quickly but he is too fast.” Lola gambled with her remaining strength and launched a bullet of black fire. Perim stood up and deflected her spell. The bullet hit a pinnacle of the mansion. Perim ran, his sword raised and burning red. He swung it and from it left a line of red glowing energy. A sharp beam that could cut much like a sword. Lola tried to fly and dodge the beam but it slices her left wing. She screamed in pain and her wing fell and shattered in a thousand feathers. Her dark powers slowly left her. She scurried back as she shot bullets of black flame. Perim ran towards her. He had quickly learned of her dark spells and deflected her black flames. “Try running away now!” He yelled.
I can’t die here, Lola’s heart pounded. She might be stronger than him but Perim’s combat skills were greater. Lola was tired and panted. Never had she fought like this before. Her recent battles that she had throughout Alexandria were not as difficult as this. She had never faced anyone with a sword before. No one had ever cleaved off her wings in her dark form. This was a first time for Lola. Perim was close now. Right in front of her. He swung his sword and she dipped. His sword cleaves her wing. Lola screams and received at kick to her chest. She falls back and scurries away from Perim.
“You must be a child of a fiend.” Perim told her, his voice cold and slow. He paced towards her and Lola slowly scrawls away from him. “Had you not challenged me, your powers could have been of great use? It is still not too late my dear Lola. King Alexander will compensate us handsomely once he sees your dark powers.”
Tales Of Lola The Black Page 4
