Blessing of Magus

III - Andra & Blessing of Magus

His name is Andra. He is still 15 years old, just like me. However, unlike me who is tall and muscular, Andra has a very ordinary appearance. The only unusual thing about him is his round glasses and messy hair. If you didn’t know anything about him, you will assume that he is just an ordinary boy without anything special.

The truth is, he chooses to have a very ordinary appearance to hide the fact that he is a trained spy and assassin from the South Region called Malaya. He is also the one who teaches me how to handle a lot of daily life things that can be used as weapons, from a simple kitchen knife to a handgun.

He was at the orphanage one year earlier than me. He was found by Lieutenant Maxim, Mama’s late husband and our father, in the street near the military base in Moskva. At first, he acted as a street child to get the attention and sympathy of the higher-ups in the military.

A few years ago, when the Northern Alliance was still not formed, a street child trying to get the attention of higher-ups was very common in Moskva. That is because Russia, the Northern Alliance’s predecessor, was the most affected country during the first year of world war 3. A lot of street children who get the attention will get training from the military and have a chance to go to the war. That was the best way for an orphan to get a high status in society.

Andra’s mission from Malaya was to pretend as a street child in Moskva and infiltrate the military. While at that time he was still just 7 years old, he was already trained in a lot of things like information gathering, hacking, programming, and assassinating.

Unfortunately for Andra, he was found by our father who was the leader of the torture and interrogation division in the military. Father was trained to see body language from a trained soldier, so he immediately found out that Andra is not just an ordinary kid.

With a small interrogation, father quickly found out Andra’s mission. He also found out that Andra was trained as a tool from the South Region for as long as he remembers. That fact made the lieutenant boil with rage.

Father was not a saint. He killed a lot of the enemy’s soldiers on the battlefield. Yet, he cannot think of a good reason for anyone to send a kid to the battlefield, or worse for Andra, to infiltrate the enemy’s base. If the military found out, his fate would be worse than death.

Since then, he took Andra to his home before the others found out about Andra’s identity and re-educated him to be a child once again. That was a very long process, but now, while he may still think and act like an assassin sometimes, but now he knows that he is worth more than just a mindless killer.

-- Back to the story --

“Welcome home, Brother.” After hearing what he said, I cannot help but smile. I didn’t even wait for him to stand up before I hug him and muttered,

“I am home.”

After that, we just spend our night sitting in our room and talking about a lot of things that happened around us.

“So, the youngest captain in Northern history has killed a mythical beast, huh?” Andra asks with a smirk on his face.

“Tch, you have already hacked the military server, huh? What do you want to know?” I clicked my tongue, annoyed with his information.

“Well, while I have hacked the military, your simulation against the beast itself just happened this morning, so the report on the military system is still not clear. I only get the video of your simulation itself. Good battle, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

“So, what is the deal with the beast?” He asks me curiously.

“Well, you know several of our losses from an unknown attack right?” He nodded.

“We have a survivor from the last attack in Luxemburg a few days ago. He managed to live long enough for the technology division to extract and simulate his last memory. You know the method from the police right?” He nodded once again.

“Well, the military think that it is wise to let me face whatever the unknown attack is in front of the other trained soldier. They probably wanted to raise the morale of the soldier after the losses we suffered.” Andra just snorted at what I said.

“Of course, it would be wise to send the military’s perfect soldier to face only god knows what the danger he faces just to raise the soldier’s morale, right.” He muttered sarcastically. I just ignore it because I know what he said is true.

“What do you think about the beast itself?” He asks me once again.

“If you have already hacked the military server, you should already know what I thought right?” I smirked. He just snorted at me.

“As if you reported all of your thought. You forgot that Father thought us together all about manipulating information, and we know he was the best at the field.”

“Haha.. I would never forget that lesson. As for the beast itself, from the battle perspective, you have already watched it. Its instinct is very fast and strong, and the dragon part is always protecting the goat part. I don’t know about its intelligence because I attacked the goat part from the start before it can adapt to the environment, but I doubt that it would be an ordinary mindless beast. As for the unknown attack, I have a feeling that the beast was not from Britain.”

“Oh? How so?” He asks with an intrigued face.

“From what you can see in the video, the simulation was a one-side battle for me. The beast just moves from its instinct and didn’t attack me at all. While it may seem like I didn’t give the beast a chance to attack, that is not true.

We have eye contact for a few seconds before I attacked the beast, and during that moment, I could see the lion part drop his head a little, showing its submission side to humans. It didn’t have any aggressive or fearful side in its eyes, just a submissive. That means the beast was tamed and raised for a long time, just like a circus animal.

If it was from Britain, they would launch the attack the moment they lost their third battle, or when they are in a desperate situation. The third battle is because they probably wanted to see if our first win is just a fluke or not, and if they can confirm that our first win is not just a fluke, they will probably launch the attack quickly to gain their dominance before we have momentum.

As for their situation before the unknown attack started, while they lost a lot of their territories, Britain is still not in a desperate situation that needed a drastic move like this. They still can ask the help from Amerika to handle the situation. Heck, even if they didn’t ask for help, I didn’t believe that they don’t have any solution for our soldiers.

So I can make a conclusion that this beast is not coming from Britain, or Britain itself just stumbles around a guy who can tame a mythical beast and recruit him.”

“Interesting theory. Unfortunately, you didn’t have any data to prove your point, so you can only leave it for now.” After a few moments of silence with both of us losing in our thought,

“Well, let’s forget about the military. How about you? What have you been up to? And what have you found this morning that makes you forget about your promise to teach the twins?” I decide to change the topic.

“I am not forgetting my promise. They just have a little patience to wait for me. I plan to teach them, but when I heard your voice, I know that they will ask you, so I decided to leave them with you.” He defends himself. I just waved my hand at his reaction.

“Yeah, like I believe in you. Honestly, I know your obsession with historical stuff. So, tell me what have you found this time?” I ask curiously. While not a historical geek like Andra, I still have a little interest in that topic.

“I have already scanned the book. However, my program cannot translate this language. It always shows an error message. That means I have to do it manually.” He huffed, showing his frustration.

I could see his laptop is still running a translation program that Andra made when he was just 9 years old. It contains all of the languages that are registered on any government website around the world. If that program cannot translate his book, that means it was written in an old language, and by what he said manually, that means he has to update his program to decipher this language.

“What about the page that you have translated so far?”

“Well, it contains information about the existence of something called ‘Blessing of Magus’. Basically, what the book said is there are seven books that similar to this, and it would grant the owner a superpower thing called magic to do a lot of things. This book apparently can give me the power to heal and enchant, so it seems like a support ability.”

“Huh, does that mean the book is a scam?” I looked at him ridiculously. Honestly, who would believe something like that?

“Yeah, but the text itself is interesting. Look here.” He shows me the first page that he has already deciphered in his program.

“Is that Thai? Or Hindi?” I frowned at the text.

“Not really, it is most likely a Sanskrit, the root of both languages. It is an old language that people hardly remember again this day, and I have to hack South Region’s server to get the knowledge about it. So far, this is the only page that I managed to translate. Look here, the program itself is almost complete for this page. I think it is the end of the first chapter.” We looked at Andra’s laptop curiously and read it aloud.

[When the book found a worthy holder, the one who can understand, he will be granted unlimited potential power. For you who are worthy enough to hold the book, you will have an opportunity to open a portal to Pangea, a magical continent. Just place your hand at the back of the book and say, ‘Open Portal’ and the book will do the rest. You will find true glory at ----- ----- ------]

*DING!

[ERROR! PLEASE RESTART YOUR PROGRAM IN 3 SECONDS!]

*Brak!!

“Oh, come on! Why does the error happen in the best part?” Andra slammed the table, frustrated with the result. On the other hand, while I feel the same disappointment, I cannot help but be curious,

“Do you want to try the portal opening thing?” Andra just shrugged,

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to try, isn’t it?” He places his hand on the back of the book and said,

“Open portal”

After waiting for a minute, nothing peculiar happened to us. While it is good, we could not help but feel a little disappointed with the result. Mock us as you want, but we are still a teenager. While the book seems illogical, our adventure senses cannot help but be curious about the result.

However, a moment later, we feel a sudden strong gravitational force pull us to the book. Before I can realize what is really happening here, Andra shouts at me,

“DEVIN! HOLD MY HAND! FAST!” I suddenly look at Andra who is holding his laptop and a table, trying to resist the gravitational pull. I reacted quickly and grab his hand before he flies toward to book.

“WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE, ANDRA!”

“LIKE HELL I KNOW! LOOK, THE BOOK IS GLOWING!”

“I DON’T CARE WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT BOOK!”

The gravitational force keeps getting stronger, trying to pull us to the book. Honestly, we know that it is somewhat related to the so-called portal that is mentioned in the book. But we didn’t expect that it would be this violent. And after a while,

“AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!”

We finally cannot hold ourselves and get absorbed to the book. After both of us get absorbed by the book,

*plop*

*THUD!*

“OUCH!!” I groaned as I fall to the ground. The last five minutes were like getting sucked by a huge vacuum cleaner. It definitely not an experience that I would do again voluntarily.

“Can you stand now? Your body is very heavy, you know?” Andra says with an annoyed tone. That is when I realize that I didn’t fall into the ground, but into Andra’s body.

“Sorry.” I smiled sheepishly. After we stand, we fall into silence for a while before I ask Andra,

“So, what happened? And where the hell are we?”