Stygian Mage

Soren was stunned to hear those words. He was already on high alert so as soon as he heard that, he jumped up and backed off a few steps. The two girls giggled at his reaction and continued to eat their meat. Soren was a little confused after seeing their actions but he didn’t want to take the risk anymore. He quickly released his Grimoire and started to cast his spell. But just at that exact moment, he felt his head spun and had to use the cliff beside him for support.

He then looked at the girls who had already finished their meal and were looking at him with a smug smile hung on their faces.

“W-What d-did you do?” Soren asked a stupid question; a question which he already knew the answer to.

Alexa, the girl with the sword, laughed in a condescending manner and simply stated, “Don’t worry. It’s not poison but it will knock you out for a few hours. We don’t want to kill you; we will just take your stuff.”

Of course, Soren didn’t believe a word that came out of her mouth. He hadn’t asked the question because he wanted them to answer it; that question was just his reaction to what was happening to him. He was also aware why the girl said they didn’t want to kill him; it was simply to prevent a situation where he would attack them without any regard to his life. After all, even if he was drugged, he could still harm them seriously if he was to fight without any regard.

What Soren actually wanted to know was how they had drugged him. He still didn’t know how they had done it. They hadn’t been anywhere near his water and he hadn’t eaten anything that they had touched. But it was not the right time to satiate his curiosity. Right now, he needed to focus on the disastrous situation that had happened because of his own stupidity and naivety. He had realized now that he had made a wrong decision; he should have either attacked the twins right away or should have just run at that time. He had given them the advantage they needed and now, it was time to suffer the consequences.

….

Soren started getting more light-headed as time passed. He felt slightly nauseated and his vision also started getting blurry, but he ignored it and tried to pay attention to his main problem. He looked at the girls who had a concerned expression on their faces as they looked at him. Anyone who saw them now would easily believe that they were worried about Soren. But in Soren’s blurred vision, they looked like two witches getting excited upon seeing their prey breathing its last breath.

And Soren’s breathing had indeed become erratic and his face was covered with sweats. He tried hard to stay awake while casting the spell again and again but failed every single time.

Of course, the girls were not concerned about Soren’s health, but instead, they didn’t want to miss any moment of the events happening; this was quite important for them. Apparently, the girls were very confident in what they had given to Soren and didn’t do anything to stop Soren from casting his spell. Instead, they just kept asking how he was feeling or was there any discomfort somewhere; of course, they were not expecting an answer from Soren at that point. Their questions just made Soren feel like that he was their research subject, the research topic being the drug and its effect on living beings.

Their confidence and their attitude were also not without base. Even a complete amateur could kill Soren in his condition right now. Their confident attitude slowly turned into arrogance as Soren’s condition worsened. At this point, they were completely sure of their victory but still didn’t let their guard down. They maintained a certain distance from Soren all the time while he slowly succumbed to the effects of the drug. They did have long-range weapons with them but didn’t attack Soren even once; clearly wanting to see the effect till Soren’s last breath.

……

Even as his condition worsened and came to a point where he couldn’t control his urge to vomit, Soren didn’t give up on casting his spell. He really wanted to survive; he didn’t want to die yet; he just wanted to survive somehow. He didn’t care about the method, he just wanted to live. A deep desire for life started to grow within him; it was something that came from the core of his being.

Coming to this point, the girls didn’t even care if Soren made any last desperate attack. They already knew he was a Spell Caster and were confident that if he somehow succeeded in casting a spell right now, they could easily dodge it; it would be very predictable after all.

Their concerned eyes were nowhere in sight at this point, all that was left were four arrogant eyes looking at Soren like he was a guinea pig.

Soren knew what his fate would be if he just succumbed to the drug’s effect and slept like this; he couldn’t let that happen. But the truth was—he didn’t even know how he was drugged, let alone finding an antidote for it. He had to find some other way to nullify the drug’s effect if he wanted to survive through this.

He then thought of the most clichéd way anyone could think of and bit his tongue—hard. Blood sprayed out from his mouth as he almost cut off his tongue in half. But alas….it didn’t work. The stinging pain that would have left anyone screaming only gave him a small jolt; he did sober up a little but went under the drug’s effect very soon.

He was really running out of ideas now. Even Isaac was trying his best to come up with any way to make Soren stay sober. He had already scanned Soren’s body and figured out the drug that the girls had used on Soren. But he didn’t have any way to counter that. The only thing he could do was that to make Soren’s immune system run much faster and harder to counter the effect of the drug.

But in the end, it wasn’t effective. The drug couldn’t be countered so easily and in such a short time. Soren was on his last rope now. Out of all options, he finally decided on a course of action and betted his life on it, but the most important point was—he had to do a successful cast to even have that chance.

He then focused hard, as his life depended on it, and tried casting the spell he had chosen.

C-Create….U-U-Undead!!

…

He failed.

But the desire to live within him was growing even stronger now. Regardless of the cost, he wanted to survive. And so, he didn’t give up and cast the spell once more.

He failed again.

His actions seemingly amused the girls as they controlled themselves from laughing out loud. This was their way of showing respect to the dead, or soon to be dead.

But it only worked towards pissing Soren off even more. His desire for life slowly started changing towards something much darker. With those dark thoughts mixed together with his survival instinct, he cast the spell one more time.

This time….he succeeded.

It seemed like luck was tired of playing games with Soren and had finally decided to help him. Black mist swirled around as a dark magic circle formed under him.

The girls were a little surprised to see such a unique spell. They had enough knowledge about spells and Spell Vessels that they knew the spell that Soren had just cast was not a normal one. But their confidence and arrogance got the better of them as they chose to do nothing to counter the desperate last move of a dying man. Instead, they once again looked at him with curious eyes, hoping to see the spell’s effect.

The black mist disappeared as a dark ‘thing’ floated in front of Soren. It looked translucent and seemed extremely weak, like a strong gust of wind could blow it off. Soren had created a ‘Weak Wraith’.

A weak smile formed on his face as he saw that he had finally succeeded. Now, only the last phase of his plan had to succeed and he could survive this. The girls didn’t look down on the weak ‘thing’ but they were still confident enough to win against it. But the next action of Soren made that confidence go away as they looked at the man that had seemingly gone mad from the fear of death.

Soren didn’t use the ‘Weak Wraith’ to attack the girls. No matter what he summoned right now, he couldn’t have defeated the girls in his condition. So, the first thing he had to do was to fix his condition.

And that’s what he did.

He made the ‘Weak Wraith’ attack himself.

The Wraith flew back and then stabbed its ‘arm’ into Soren’s body on his own order. Soren suddenly got a weak Soul Shock as the Weak Wraith’s ‘arm’ stabbed into him. But before anything could happen, he quickly bent forward while clutching at the place where the Wraith had stabbed. He didn’t want the girls to see what had happened.

And as he bent forward, the effect of the Soul Shock showed its effect. Like he had thought and hoped, the effect of the drug decreased from the jolt of Soul Shock. He was truly ecstatic upon this discovery but didn’t start celebrating right now. The effect had only decreased and not eliminated, so he had to continue this for a few more times.

The ‘Weak Wraith’ stood in front of Soren and stabbed him a few more times at the same place. Soren also efficiently hid that place from both the girl’s eyes while basking in the clarity that was coming back to him.

The girls were very confused by his actions. Is he really gone mad from the fear of death—this thought went through both of their minds at the same time; maybe it was because what they were witnessing was just that crazy or maybe just because they were twins, they thought the same thing at the same time. But while being confused, they got ready to face the ‘thing’ that Soren had created. They had never underestimated him, to begin with, and they were not going to start doing that now.

…

After the Wraith stabbed him a few more times, the effect of the drug finally subsided and Soren completely sobered up; yet at the same time, he was injured. Getting so many Soul shocks had given him a very minute soul injury but he had no time to pay attention to that. It was something that would heal in no time anyway.

The girls were already ready with their weapons out. Alexa, the girl with the sword, stood in the front; while Alana, the one with the dagger, stood in the back. Alexa was clearly playing the defensive role here while Alana was ready to attack on a moment’s notice. They had a simple plan; no matter how much stronger that ‘thing’ that Soren had created was, Alexa would block it and then Alana would kill Soren during that time. One thing they regretted at this point was that they had left all their long-ranged weapons in their bag and had no time to take it out now.

Soren also quickly gathered his wits and under the shocked eyes of the girls, cast ‘Create Undead’ again. The girls had no idea why the drug’s effect had suddenly worn off and why Soren could suddenly cast the spells one after another. They knew it was somehow related to that black ‘thing’ from before but were not sure how it could happen.

Disregarding the girl’s shock, Soren created a ‘Skeleton Soldier’ and got ready for the battle.

He didn’t send the Skeleton to attack the girls; instead, he let it stand in front of him in defense while ordering the Wraith to attack the girls. This formation was to defend against any long ranged attacks on Soren directly. He wasn’t aware of the girl’s situation and had done this just out of precaution.

The Weak Wraith floated forward at a moderate speed while the girls went on high alert. Their confidence had wavered even more now that Soren called forth another undead. But instead of changing their plan according to the enemy’s movements, they decided to stick with what they agreed upon before.

As such, Alexa took a defensive position against the Wraith while Alana stood behind her, ready to move out the moment Alexa stopped the Weak Wraith.

And this was something that Soren was counting on. They had no knowledge about his undeads, especially the Weak Wraith, and he was going to exploit that. To make sure of his success, he was still clutching at the place where the Wraith had stabbed and was bending forward to hide it from both the girl’s eyes.

The Weak Wraith flew towards the girls and as it was getting closer, it suddenly increased its speed. This action caught both the girls by surprise but they still didn’t fluster. Alexa, ready to defend, put up her sword in a defensive manner against the Wraith. But the next moment, she felt something was wrong. It was because she saw Soren getting up while his undead Skeleton running towards them. At this time, Soren had a smug smile on his face as he saw his plan come to fruition.

The Wraith, disregarding everything, went towards the girls at a high speed and just kept going without stop. Alexa realized something had gone really wrong and wanted to move aside but suddenly found a hand behind her holding her in place. Apparently, Alana had also realized that something was wrong and had decided to use Alexa as her meat shield against the Wraith.

This new development had actually turned the situation in Soren’s favor. Because what Alana had done now made them both stand in a straight line. She wanted to use Alexa as her meat shield but she didn’t know that Wraiths didn’t care about meat shields; actually, it didn’t care about any physical shields which were without any magical power. It was intangible in nature and such; its only job was to rush through the girls without caring for anything else.

And that’s what it did.

Swoosh!!

The Wraith swiftly passed through both the girls, giving them both a Soul Shock. The Soul Shock combined with the shock that they felt when they realized what had happened, had rendered them completely immobile. They had never thought that their enemy was something intangible and a meat shield against it was completely useless.

Soren had already planned for this and had already sent his Skeleton towards the girls. With its speed, the Skeleton very soon reached the stunned girls. It then grabbed both their heads with its hands and jumped forward towards the boulder behind them. It didn’t do any other attacks and just fell towards that boulder with all the power it had with the girl’s head in front of him. The girls were already suffering from Soul Shock and couldn’t maintain their balance at all. And such, they both fell back towards the boulder with a greater speed than normal.

BAM!!

A loud dull sound resounded as the Skeleton banged both their heads against the boulder with great force. The total combined force was so strong that it even shattered the Skeleton’s bones on its hands. Of course, being the direct receiver of that force, both the girls suffered the most.

The girls had already lost consciousness and were also bleeding from behind their heads. They slid down from the boulder like a lifeless doll as the Skeleton released them. Soren then ordered the Weak Wraith to attack them nonstop. He was not sure they had really fainted or not and such wanted to make sure. This situation was different than his and so; they wouldn’t wake up from the Soul Shock if they had really fainted from the trauma against their head.

The Weak Wraiths followed Soren’s orders to the point and attacked the already fainted girls. And after a few runs, Soren also confirmed this.

He then slowly got up from the ground with the support of the cliff wall and started walking forward with the help of his Skeleton Soldier, as his condition was still not at its best.

Reaching in front of them, he looked down at the fainted girls with cold eyes and gave his Wraith the order to do another run. The Wraiths attacked the fainted girls again and kept doing it.

The girls were attacked again and again, without any stop. Even if they hadn’t fainted before, they were definitely unconscious now after all the Soul attacks. Suffering from so many Soul Shocks at once would also damage their Soul but Soren didn’t care about that. He just stared coldly at the scene without a hint of emotion in his eyes.

Actually, it would be wrong to say that there was no emotion. There was one emotion in his eyes; it was Rage. And the more rage he felt, the colder his eyes became. His pure desire to live from before had changed now.

He was screaming inside, asking the reason for all this. He understood the logic behind their actions but was still reluctant to just accept it on the basis of something like ‘it was the law of the jungle’. The more he asked that question, the more rage he felt. The question then slowly changed as did his aura.

WHY?? WHY SHOULD I BE THE ONLY ONE SUFFERING? WHY SHOULD I BE THE ONLY ONE PAYING ALL THE PRICES??

First, it was the Blood Contract. They forced him to sign the fucking contract and bound his Soul under their control. They took his freedom away from him. They took control of his life. They treated him like a slave. He could not revolt against them even if he wanted to because of the shackles on his Soul. He was beaten down like a dog with no one coming forward to help him.

THEN WHY?? WHY SHOULD I BE THE ONLY ONE FEELING GUILTY ABOUT ANYTHING??

He had nightmares because his sub-consciousness wasn’t ready to see blood. Yes, he would get used to it in due time, but he had no time; or more like he didn’t care anymore.

Soren wanted to let go. He just wanted to release all the frustration that was building up inside of him.

FUCK MORALITY!! FUCK GETTING USED TO THE BLOOD!! FUCK THIS WHOLE DAMN WORLD!!!

The cold rage inside him turned into something much darker. A psychotic nature came forth from inside of him as his desire to destroy everything slowly grew. The cold and dark feeling got stronger and stronger as he accepted his own rage. He wasn’t losing his sanity; he wasn’t becoming like a raging beast which would thrash around for a while and then die off. No, he was completely in control. He was just destroying that mentality from before which was still reluctant to do many things.

He didn’t care even if he became a bloodthirsty Demon at this point. He just wanted to destroy and destroy and destroy. He had enough of the ‘restraining himself’. He didn’t want to stay shackled anymore.

The cold and dark rage kept increasing more and more as he decided to just let loose.

Very soon, he forgot everything; he forgot where he was, he forgot why he was there, he even forgot what he was doing before. The only thing on his mind right now was his rage; cold and dark rage.

He wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to tear them apart slowly while they were still alive. He felt his mind coming up with some very cruel ideas. If this was the Soren from the past, he would have quickly killed these thoughts and even would have cursed at himself for thinking like that…

But the Soren from the present was already different. He had been through many things and that had changed him—slowly. Or should it be said, it brought him much closer to the real him. This was the final result of everything.

The present Soren didn’t kill these thoughts, he let them all out. He faced his cruel and dark side and accepted it with open arms. He didn’t suppress his emotions now; he didn’t need to. He was what he was; accepting it only brought him a feeling of freedom.

And accepting his darkness was not only for show as it also brought results……

“Affinity with the Elements of ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’ increased by a substantial amount: The efficiency will increase substantially when dealing with the Spells related to these two Elements.”

“Cultivation speed will increase when surrounded by the Mana with a higher concentration of ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’ Elements.”

“Due to the increase in the affinity with the Elements of ‘Darkness’ and ‘Ice’, the affinity with the Elements that are in conflict with these two will decrease.”

Soren suddenly saw the messages and was surprised. He was astonished upon seeing the result of just accepting his darker side and quickly opened his status to check.

Soren was once again astonished by the effects that his simple act of acceptance had brought. Although the Mana Cost of other element’s spell had increased, his main spells, in turn, had become much more efficient.

He then closed the screen and looked towards the source of all this. What happened before was not a temporary outrage which would cool off as time passed. It was something permanent, and Soren knew that.

The two girls were still unconscious and had no idea what was going on. Their heads were still bleeding but were already showing signs of healing; this was due to their high recovery rate. It actually surprised Soren because it was many times faster than his own. Even if his ‘Vitality’ was lower than theirs, the difference wouldn’t be this big. But he removed that thought from his mind for now.

He walked up to them and did a complete search of their bodies. He didn’t show any gentlemen behavior and checked every part of their body, thoroughly. He then removed their main weapons and any hidden weapons they had.

They were at a somewhat secluded place, at least as secluded as anyone could be in a jungle, so Soren didn’t have to worry about anyone barging in. But even so, he was careful and kept an eye out while tying up the girls with the ropes that came with his survival kit. He checked the ropes once again to see if they were tightened properly and then began to wait for his Mana to recover. During this period of wait, he repaired the only spell which was left in his Grimoire in the Spell Vessel form.

….

It took some time but the girls started to wake up after a while. They groaned in pain as they tried to open their eyes.

“W-Where are….W-what happened?”

Alexa was the first one to open her mouth as she looked around to see where she was. Alana also woke up soon after and did the same thing as her sister.

Soren looked at them silently without saying or doing anything.

“Y-you…what happened? Why are you…what did you do to us? Untie us! Right now! ”

“Untie us quickly or otherwise you won’t like what will happen to you!”

Both the girls spouted the usual stuff even though they knew it would have no effect. If someone was going to back off after hearing those things, they would not have started all of it in the first place.

Soren shook his head after hearing both the girl’s threats. He didn’t say anything to them and simply cast his spell, twice. Two ‘Rotten Zombies’ formed amidst the black mist as Soren finished casting his spell.

There were four Undeads in total that were active right now: One ‘Weak Wraith’ and two ‘Rotten Zombies’ and one ‘Skeleton Soldier’.

The girls finally showed a look of fear upon realizing that Soren had no intention of untying them.

“S-Stop whatever you’re thinking of doing, this moment. You don’t know who we are!”

“You’ll seriously pay with your life if you dare to lay a single finger on us!”

Their threats resounded in the silent jungle but it had no effect on Soren. He instead smirked upon hearing their words. Then, he slowly started walking forwards towards them and with a cold smile on his face, said, “A pair of pathetic insects; that’s who you are.”

He stood in front of them as he looked down at them with his cold eyes filled with rage. He wanted to torture them slowly but was also aware that he couldn’t do that in the jungle. And so, he simply thought of one thing that would give them a large amount of pain.

He simply gave out a command to his undeads; a command that shook the girls to their core. A cold voice rung into their ears which made them feel like they had dropped to the lowest part of the abyss.

“Eat them…..slowly.”