She charged him with dagger in hand. Nela was a master assassin and daggers were her specialty. Her dagger was small, and she used it to deceive her opponents. They let her come closer, unthreatened by the tiny weapon, but once the dagger connected with her target she sent a lightning charge through it, paralyzing them. It was her mastery, manipulating her level three spell into a lightning pulse capable of paralyzing any living thing. Yerra knew her too well. He was prepared for this.
An evil smile twisted her features when she came inches away from him, but she didn’t know Yerra had already planted a small fire ball on the ground, which detonated the moment she stepped on it. She stumbled when the ball blasted below her leg.
Yerra jumped over her and vaulted off her shoulder to jump higher. He smiled at her while clenching his hands together into a fist. He raised the combined fist over his head, wanting to hit Nela on the head while she recovered from her fall. But before his fist connected, she vanished and appeared on top of him, hitting him with a lightning disk.
Yerra’s shield saved him from the incoming damage. He moved away from her, also making sure he wasn’t headed toward Patrick by mistake. His task was simple: hold them off while the AI prepared the new spell. He just had to bide his time with the remaining twenty five percent energy he was left with.
Nela disappeared and appeared next to him with a lightning disk in her hand. She swung her hand in an arc, trying to cut through Yerra’s shield.
Yerra saw the chance. Nela was close, and he still had an ace up his sleeve. He threw a level six meteor near her face. The tiny ball of fire attached to her shield and burst with a large boom. Meteor was considered a long-distance spell, but a small number of mages knew it could be cast very close. There was only one downside of casting it closer: it blasted the caster as well. The blast caught Nela by surprise and threw her back. Yerra too got pushed back; even with his shield up, he suffered considerable damage. But he was content with the knowledge that Nela must have suffered bone-shattering damage at the same time.
Nela hit the ground face first, still smoldering. Angry red, blistered skin shown through burned away patches in her clothes. She struggled to get up, but eventually managed to push herself up and stood. Half of her face was burned. Her upper right lip was completely missing. Blood painted her whole right side.
She groaned in pain. “You fucking moron! You’ll pay for this with your life.” She walked forward, favoring her right leg. She tried to conjure her lightning sword, a level five manipulated spell. It was a magnificent spell to watch, and usually her control amazed everyone in the palace. But today she couldn’t control it. Her sword shattered as soon as soon as it formed.
Nela looked at her hand in disbelief. “You fool! You severed my aura lines. No, this can’t be happening now.” She cried in pain and tried to conjure the spell again but failed. She turned back and ran toward Patrick, who was almost done transforming into a spider by that time. His hands had dissolved into two segmented legs, and his face was turning into a long spider mouth shape.
“No, Patrick, come out of this thing!” Nela grabbed Patrick’s shirt and tried pulling him free. The shirt came off in pieces, but the thing underneath didn't look like a human body anymore. The creature finished transforming into a black spider with eight legs and four dark blackish red eyes popped out of its uneven face. It stood two feet taller than Nela, who was six feet herself. The spider lowered its head until it was eye to eye with Nela and screeched in her face.
Nela stepped back, eyes wide with fear.
She gave Yerra a frantic look, then jumped up and rushed toward the creature, grabbing its leg. “Give my brother back! What did you do with him?”
The creature batted her away with a swipe of its leg.
“Nela, open your eyes. That is not your brother!” Yerra shouted, hoping to put some sense into her. He hated her to his core for killing his innocent sister but seeing her chasing a mirage pained his heart. If only she had known what she was getting into!
I should just let her die and perish in the land of her sins.
No, I can’t let that happen. His heart battled with his mind.
But she killed our sister.
Either way, she will remain dead!
His sister was dead, long gone, and he could do nothing about it. That’s the truth he’d learned in many years of fighting: that loved ones always slip out of your hands. He lacked the power to save them all, and sometimes you just had to let it go. But if this creature got out into his world it would cause hundreds more deaths, and it would be many people’s brothers or sisters. He wouldn't let that happen.
Nela jumped at the thing once more. This time it was done being considerate. A small tendril came out of its leg like a branch and stuck Nela in the neck. Nela’s body went limp the moment the tendril pierced her neck. Yerra knew what was happening; the tendril was draining out her magic. It had happened with him too, but he had his AI to save him.
And she has you, Yerra.
His mind awakened the brother in his heart. He couldn’t let her die like that. He had to save her for the council to make a decision about her. He wouldn’t lose another sister to some weird creature.
Yerra jumped to his feet, conjuring his strongest shield—a level eight shield. The best thing about shield magic was it took very little energy to conjure and sustain.
“Master, I would prefer not going near that thing.”
Yerra ignored her and zipped forward. The moment he was close to the spider creature he threw a large meteor at it. It was a risky move because though the room was giant the ceiling wasn’t high enough to call a meteor. He did it anyway. A large blob of fire energy formed over the creature, distracting it for a moment. It was enough for Yerra. He fire punched the tendril away from Nela, grabbed her, and ran back.
The creature extended another tendril from its head and sucked the life out of the meteor while it was still forming.
Yerra stumbled on a piece of stone and dropped Nela by accident. Her face twisted in pain, but her hands hung at her sides like she’d lost the life in them.
When Yerra tried to make her stand, she fell against him. Yerra sat on the ground with Nella’s head in his lap.
“Why did you…?” Nela asked. Her face had drained of color. She had lost a lot of energy, and that seemed to be causing her excruciating physical pain.
“I can’t lose another sister. I’ve lost two already because of my stupidity.” Yerra paused. “I don’t know what the council will do with you, but I can’t let you die either.”
A tear rolled out of Nela’s eye. “I was wrong about Patrick. He really is dead.”
“Shut up. You don’t have enough energy.” Her face was almost white, and that wasn’t a good sign. Yerra cursed himself for consuming all his healing potions. One or even half of one would have come in useful right now.
Her eyes flickered. She was losing it. “There is not much time left for me, but I want to tell you this. Talia is alive, safe in a room behind the creature.” Her eyes slid closed, never to open again.
Yerra screamed his heart out. Even if Talia was safe, he’d still lost a sister. He leaned over Nela, crying hard.
“Master, I’m sorry for your loss. But you’ve got to pull yourself together and kill that thing.”
Yerra howled in rage. He got back on his feet and looked at the creature, who was still drinking from his meteor spell. “Let’s do it, Sera. What do I do?”
“Just one thing. Get yourself kidnapped by that thing.”
Yerra looked at the creature, which was still draining the energy out of the meteor.
“Get myself kidnapped?”
“Yes. Trust me on this. The spell works on a target point imbued with your magic. But we don’t have time to bind the spell to anything we can throw at the monster. So, we have to use your body.”
“Are you crazy, AI? That thing would kill me before I activate it.”
“You’re forgetting I can act on my own.”
Yerra ran through his options. He had to save Talia, and that meant he would have to kill that creature, no matter the cost.
“What are my chances of survival?” Yerra asked.
“Better than forty percent, Master.”
Yerra’s resolve turned stone hard. “That’ll do. If I die, make sure you kill it with my dead body’s support.” Yerra launched himself at the creature. As he got closer, a black tendril shot out of the creature’s body and wrapped around him. Before the magic drain started, Yerra sensed a point of fire forming inside his body. Then all hell broke loose. Swords of fire formed around the whole room and shot toward him. The energy loss was intense, and he felt himself slipping toward unconsciousness but fought it with all of his might. He had to see his new awesome spell killing the bastard creature. The swords passed through the creature and converged on his body, but he felt no pain. The swords just melted away as they touched him, but they had done their job. The creature had hundreds of holes in its body by the time the spell was finished. It released Yerra, who fell to the ground and scrambled away.
The creature screeched in agony. Its wounds oozed black blood, but the wounds began to seal before Yerra’s eyes. The creature was healing.
“Master, you have enough energy left for one of your new level nine spells.”
Yerra was exhausted, and his magical energy pool was nearly empty. But even if he didn’t have any left, he would have used his blood to cast the spells. He would go nuclear to kill that creature if necessary. He raised both of his hands in the air and called upon the level nine spell: fire disk.
A disk of fire formed on both of his hands, and he shot them at the creature. The disks broke into ten smaller disks each and pierced the creature’s body one by one. Yerra watched the final fight of the creature with the fire spell, but as its core broke it couldn’t nullify the fire spell, the creature screeched and sprayed a black liquid all around it. Yerra had to jump out of its spray. He was wise to do it, because where ever the spray touched – it burned the ground with it. But finally everything stopped when the creature stopped moving and died.
“Burn it, Master.”
Yerra followed the AI’s suggestion and blasted the creature’s corpse with large fireballs until every piece of it burned to ash. When it was done, a cracked crystal dropped out of the air and landed amidst the ashes. Yerra too dropped to the ground. He’d had enough fighting for one day.
Chapter 13
Y erra strode into the palace with Talia in his arms. She remained unconscious, but stable. If he’d been in better condition, he would have brought Nela’s body too. But he left it out in the pod, anyone from the royal army could fetch her. Talia's health was more important.
He walked into the hospital wing of the palace straight away rejecting servants came for taking Talia from his hand. He would carry her himself.
Once he entered the hospital wing, head nurse Martha came forward, bowed and took Talia from him. “Master Yerra. Good to see you.”
“Good to see you too, Martha” Yerra smiled. Talia would be safe in her hands. “Let me know as soon as she wakes up. I want to have a chat with her.” It'd been a while, almost two years, since he’d spoken with Talia. Now would be a good time. There were so many things to discuss with her, and from now on he wanted to make sure he didn’t lose contact with his siblings for years at a time.
His mother walked forward greeting him with a smile. “Oh, son. You’re back. Where is Nela?”
Yerra hung his head. “She is dead, and I'll tell you everything once I get a few hours of sleep. I need it badly.”
Her mother sunk in a nearby chair, clenching her hand on the chair-hands. “Nela…”
“I’m sorry mother, but I couldn’t save her, but let me tell you all at the dinner.”
Queen stood up, she was the head of the family after all. “I’ll see to the cremation. The hair died, and I hope you’ve a strong reason for this.”
“I do, mother, I do.” Yerra’s grief didn’t eased. Even though he had a strong reason, he couldn’t get over the feeling that he couldn’t save her.
“What’s with the helmet? Why are you still wearing it?” Queen asked.
“Tell her you are in love with your AI,” the quirky AI said. Yerra was already wondering when the next joke would come from her.
“I'm all dusty and gritty. That's why. Anyway, I'll catch you at dinner, Mother.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Yerra entered the prime dining hall when his servant notified him of the queen’s arrival. He felt free, mostly from a foam bath in the giant infinity pool and a few hours’ peace from the AI’s incessant chatter. It’s not that he disliked her voice, but roaming free—without knowing someone else was watching over his shoulder—was a great feeling.
“My Queen.” Yerra bowed.
“Come and join me, my son.”
Yerra relaxed on a chair. The exotic food in front of him roused his hunger. It’d been so many days since he’d had an exotic dinner like this. In his line of work, eating was considered useful only because it let the man live, and if science could enable the human body to make its food automatically and remove the need for eating, every spy in the world would be happy. A spy's life had never been a comfortable one, especially for a spy who reported directly to the emperor.
“I miss this sometimes.” Yerra put a piece of meat in his mouth that melted like cheese on hot bread.
“You are welcome to come back and pursue the throne, my son. You’d be at the top of the race after Nela's departure from our world.” The queen's face remained emotionless, but Yerra thought he saw a hint of sorrow in her eyes.
“I'm sorry, Mother. I failed to save her for judgment.” Yerra was sorrier for failing to save another sister, but he kept that to himself. In the end, she’d bluffed about killing Talia while protecting her from harm.
Yerra then went on to tell his mother the complete story.
“Traitors have no place in our planet, son. Even if the traitor is an heir to the throne.” The queen gave him a fake smile.
Yerra nodded, but he’d lost his appetite for the tasty food in front of him. He was ready to go back and join his friend Aman on some random mission. It was better to remain outside of politics.
“Well, let's leave that topic,” the queen said. “Let me tell you a surprising thing. I was checking my locker, and I found three health potions missing. I wonder if Nela stole them.”
Yerra's face heated. It was a criminal offense to steal anything from the queen’s preparation room, even for the prince of the planet.
The queen continued. “But seeing the need of the situation, I've already replaced them with new ones and changed the locker’s password.” His mother smiled at him. Did she really know the truth of what had happened to the missing vials?
Yerra smiled back at her a little sheepishly. “I have a question for you, Mother. What do you mix in the health potions? In the temple, I encountered a strange room, a room with magic in a solid state. Can you believe it?”
“A drop of the guardian’s blood can do wonders, my son. And the temple is actively maintained by the guardian, so a room like you mentioned wouldn't surprise me.” The queen had a mischievous smile on her face.
Suddenly everything made sense. His power up, his armor’s power up, that was all because of the healing potion mixed with the guardian’s blood.
Can I power level with one?
“When can I get an audience with the guardian? I have so many questions for him.” Yerra pushed his luck.
“When you become king, or if the need arises.” The queen sighed.
Yerra understood her sigh, she'd been on the throne for almost one hundred fifty years, and she hadn't found a worthy heir for throne yet.
Yerra continued to eat without asking another question. He had lost his appetite, but leaving the food in front of the queen would be an insult, and he wasn't ready for any of that stuff.
“How is Talia doing?” he asked, puttin
g down his fork. Dessert would soon be served, in his experience.
“She is awake and eager to see you. How is your new armor performing? I bet it helped you a lot in the physical rooms.”
“It did exceptionally well.” The AI was the best part of it. It was quirky but still an advanced intelligence. She’d saved his life many times.
But should I be talking about it with Mother?
“It's the armor of Hephaestus, after all,” He said. “It has some interesting spells.” The last spell, firestorm, was awesome. Yerra kept wondering what spells he would receive once he upgraded it again. “Mother, if you don't mind can I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.” The queen stopped eating her salad and stared at him. She was a vegan and only ate salads. Though, each salad ingredient cost many thousands in gold chips, and they were sourced from all over the universe.
“How did Nela get her hands on the Crystal of Souls? And why was that in your possession?”
The queen sighed. “It was a gift from the mage emperor a few years ago. I had three more, and they’re all missing now. I couldn't trace where Nela hid them. But I'll search her chamber myself for clues. That crystal is definitely not a tool for a fool's hand.”
Yerra choked on the water he was drinking and coughed to clear his airway. “Three more?” And they were out in the world, somewhere. Who knew what apocalypse they could bring. “Do you need me to search for them?”
“No, I'll have my Herald take care of it. The crystal you faced proved difficult for a level nine mage, so I won't put you in unnecessary danger.”
“A Herald?” Yerra gulped the whole glass of water in one go. The Herald title was something even Yerra dreamed to obtain one day. There were only five Heralds in the whole universe, and one of them worked for his mother. Heralds were more powerful than any king in the world. They were saints in the sacred art of elemental magic, explicitly kept away from all politics.
“Yes. It's time she got her lazy ass moving.” The queen giggled.
Crystal of Souls_Fire Mage_Star Mage Novella Page 6
