Stygian Mage

Soren stood there with the Memory Sphere in his hands, staring at the scattering particles of Drai’s projection. The revelation about his damaged ‘Vitality’ had truly shaken him to the core. There was a part of him that didn’t believe a word that Drai said, and yet, the other part screamed at him, shouting that it was the truth. Both were the parts of his own consciousness; one was trying to prevent him from falling into despair by ignoring the truth, and the other was making him face the hard cold truth by using nothing but logic.

“Master, we should leave.”

Isaac reminded Soren as they had been there for quite a while now; the Initiators outside could get in anytime.

Soren regained clarity after hearing Isaac’s voice and then focused on the present. This issue of his damaged ‘Vitality’ could be dealt with in the future; he had enough time to do that. For now, he had to get out of there safely. Of course, the only way that could happen was that if he didn’t meet any of the Initiators that were trying to get in.

Soren put back his mask on his face and started to retrace his footsteps back. He didn’t know if there was any hidden path in that room or not but he had no time to find it now. He needed to get out of there as fast as he could.

……..

Soren walked back while trying his best to mask the sound of his footsteps. He really wanted to run right now as his heart kept beating fast from the adrenaline rush. What he was feeling right now was something very thrilling for him, and yet, it could very well cost him his life.

It took him a while but he did reach the end of the path. He didn’t go inside the cave hall immediately though; he wanted to first know the situation ahead before moving in. So, he slowed down his footsteps and moved ahead while trying to hear anything. He stuck close to the wall as he walked, in case someone walked in towards him.

“It’s fine. You can come out.” Tera’s voice suddenly sounded out in the cave hall.

Soren was first surprised but then got relieved to hear a familiar voice. The thing he was afraid of didn’t happen; he had no idea why but he also didn’t care about it. All was well as long as he lived.

Soren walked inside the cave hall while glancing towards the other members. Wood was currently coming out of another corridor while Smiley, Tera, and Hound were standing inside the hall.

“Let’s move out. Although I don’t know the reason behind it, the Initiators outside still haven’t entered the Vestige. This is our chance to make a clean getaway.” Smiley said as he saw Soren and Wood walked inside.

They all nodded towards each other and quickly walked back towards the path they came in from.

…

“Congratulation on getting the Inheritance, Wood” Tera said while walking.

The others also congratulated her one by one. By everyone’s tone, it was somewhat evident that they all had gotten something out of this trip to the Vestige. They might not have gotten the full Inheritance but they were already prepared for it. Soren, at one point, even thought that there might be some in-fighting between the members for the Inheritance. But seeing everyone accept the fact made Soren see the group in a new light. He was sure that there might be some members of the group that would betray other members for some benefit, but this group of people didn’t seem to be that kind. Soren believed that he himself might have had some thought about making a move if some facts were not binding him.

One of them was that he was still quite weak; one of the weaker ones in the group. And the other was that his mind was currently occupied with accepting the data from the Memory Sphere. He had hidden it inside his jacket pocket so it was safe for him to do it. And most of all, it was Isaac who was storing and sorting the data; Soren was just taking a look at some of the important ones.

He hadn’t checked out everything inside the sphere but he at least found out the name of the cultivation technique. It was a very basic name which was based on the effect that it had on Initiators. Drai had said that although the cultivation technique was not that good, it complemented the talent that many people had but didn’t know about. Based on that, the name of the cultivation technique was termed as: ‘Vornea’; it was also the name of the skill based on that talent.

Soren didn’t know what the word meant at first but after getting some more data, he found out that it was something that he knew very well, the name was just different. It was something that was very similar to Telekinesis that he had some knowledge about. It worked on the same basis and didn’t have any difference. But to respect the one who created the technique and did so much research on the topic, Soren decided to just call it by its original name: ‘Vornea’.

…….

“Did you guys also see him like that?” Hound asked in a whispering voice while they were making their way towards the path where they had to crawl before.

Soren’s mind had drifted off a little because of the technique but Hound’s voice brought him back. Smiley laughed without making any sound as he heard the tone in Hound’s question. He knew what it was about.

“Yeah, he was naked. That was the first time I saw something like that.” Soren also joined in the conversation.

“I was actually having a hard time trying not to laugh at that time. Especially when he…” Hound said while laughing. This time, he laughed without any concern; seemingly forgetting where he was.

“Can we not talk about it?” Wood chimed in with a slightly irritated tone.

Soren didn’t know if it was because Drai had become her Master or that she just didn’t like this kind of talk, regardless of the reason, he didn’t care about it as he finished Hound’s sentence while smiling in an unrestrained manner, “Especially when he put his hands behind him.”

He wanted to forget about the depressing stuff right now. He figured talking like this might help him forget such things; he was right.

“Don’t laugh, you guys,” Smiley said while trying hard not to laugh out loud himself, destroying any effect of his words.

“Simulating the clothes takes extra energy. Many high-ranking Initiators also do this when leaving behind some kind of Will,” Tera explained when she saw that even Smiley had joined in with the guys in making fun of Drai.

While they were talking, their speed hadn’t dropped even a little. They knew they had to get out of that place as soon as possible, so they were moving as fast as they could in that corridor while having some fun talk.

…………

While Soren and the others were trying to make an escape in a hurry, there was a weird situation being developed outside. The outcome of the fight between the three factions outside was very easy to predict and had already been determined before it even started.

Given the facts—it would have gone something like this

: The Rogue Initiators would fight the faction that was trying to stop them and would lose; while they had the advantage of numbers on their side, their overall combat strength was much weaker than the faction created by the Initiators affiliated with the Families.

: The other faction, which was waiting for a chance, would then sweep in and get inside the Vestige while preserving all their strength; it would also give them an advantage in the battles ahead.

But the situation that had developed right now was entirely different from the obvious scenario. The whole thing had changed due to the presence of one man. That man was a Rogue Initiator who seemed to be the strongest amongst them. He also possessed high leadership skill, and somehow, in that messy situation, he had succeeded in gathering all the Rogue Initiators under his control and had created a much stronger faction that could go head to head with any of the other two factions.

This had changed the tide of the battle and created a delicate balance among the three factions.

The Rogue Initiators that were going to charge at the Vestige without thinking before were now waiting like a docile Beast under the leadership of that one man. The Rogue Initiators, who would have fought even amongst themselves for a chance to go in, were now united together to create a much stronger faction.

The faction that had wanted to stop them also realized that they couldn’t win against them without suffering from heavy losses and so, they also decided to take a step back and wait; obviously, they were not so stupid as to sustain heavy losses just for the sake of their pride.

The third faction, which was waiting to take advantage of the fight and go inside the Vestige, had now become aimless and could also do nothing but wait for the situation to somehow change.

The Initiators affiliated with the Families already had an agreement to not fight against themselves before dealing with the outsiders, but at the same time, no one amongst them wanted to be the first one to fight against the huge number of Rogue Initiators; especially when they had a leader now.

The Rogue Initiators, or the man leading them, didn’t want to start a fight with any one of the factions either, as he knew that the moment he started a battle, the other one would either join forces against them or use this chance to get in the Vestige.

The whole situation had become like a flat triangular board balancing on a pin. It only needed one push to destroy this delicate balance but that one push was something that no one was willing to give.

Time passed by…

………

There were some people during this time that didn’t understand anything about this balance and had decided to just make a run towards the Vestige entrance, which had been opened for a while now. But the fate of such people was just getting exterminated by the attacks of all the three factions combined. All the people that did such a thing had come from the Rogue Initiators faction, a fact that made their leader quite nervous. He knew how hard it was to lead a bunch of people who had just come together for the profits they could gain from the Vestige. He also knew that as more time would pass, it would become more and more difficult for him to control all these people. He had brought them together and became their leader not only because he was stronger than them, but also because he had promised them a large part of the gains from the Vestige.

But not all of them had the patience to wait for the situation to develop to their advantage. And so, this delicate balance was now on the verge of being destroyed.

The other two factions had also realized this fact and had unanimously made a decision to wait. They were much more organized in comparison and were more united than the Rogue faction. Moreover, this was their territory. They had the home advantage on their side and could wait as long as they wanted. The Vestige was not going anywhere; at most, they would have to wait for it to open again if they lost this opportunity.

This whole situation had developed in this manner and coincidentally, became the factor that allowed Soren and the others to go in and out of Vestige without any trouble.

………..

The balance sustained itself for some time. But as the Initiators started to think that they had lost this chance to go in the Vestige this time, the push that had the potential to destroy the balance came.

The push didn’t come from the Rogue faction as everyone had predicted, it also didn’t come from the other two factions. No, it came from something that they all had somehow forgotten about.

It came from the Rank 1 Beast living inside the Vestige.

Maybe because it was hungry or maybe because it felt that its life would be in danger if it stayed inside the Vestige. In the end, the reason didn’t matter as its actions became the final push that destroyed the balance.

The look on everyone’s face changed when they saw the Beast suddenly coming out. It was not because they were scared, but that they were excited; also a little anxious. The balance had been destroyed but it was yet to see who would get the advantage in the end.

They all knew it depended on the Beast; the three factions were positioned in two directions, and the direction that the Beast would choose to attack would get the short end of the stick in this situation. The Beast was quite strong itself but was still not a threat to all the Rank 1 Initiators present there. Yet, it didn’t change the fact that it could give the other faction the chance they needed to get in the Vestige; the fact that they would need more than one Rank 1 Initiator to kill the Beast quickly cemented this truth.

ROAR!!

ROAR!!!

The Beast which looked like a tiger with black skin and bat-like wings on his back growled and snarled towards all the people present there. Finally, it moved as it decided on a target.

Its target was the Rogue Initiator’s faction.

The luck didn’t seem to be on their side, after all. Maybe the Beast felt more threatened by Family affiliated Initiators; it decided to attack the Rogue Initiators in the end.

This one decision of the Beast created the chance that the other factions needed. And they didn’t miss it as they quickly moved towards the Vestige entrance; though still staying on guard against any reckless attacks from the Rogue Initiators.

……….

It didn’t take long for the Beast to die under the combined attacks of all the Rogue Initiators. But by the time it died, the other Initiators from Families already went inside the Vestige; leaving the Rogue faction in the dust.

As the leader of the Rogue Initiators was deciding to unite everyone together again and loot whatever they could from the Family-affiliated Initiators, a loud and angry roar resounded inside the Vestige; it was the combined roar of all the Initiators that had gone inside.

Those people had finally realized that someone had already swiped the whole Vestige clean and had taken everything. Everything they did, every trick they played, every battle they fought to arrive there, became meaningless at that point. They all started searching for the culprit in a crazed manner; they traced their trails, checked all the rooms; they did everything to find them.

But alas…the ones they were looking for were already miles away from the Vestige and were now bidding each other goodbye.