Alex made sure to exhaust the hell out of Liora by walking around the inner city aimlessly. She wanted to act strong at first, but after walking for an extra two hours, fatigue and thirst began to kick in. She spotted a nearby tavern and suggested that they had some rest there. Alex was in no way tired. He could keep going for days without food or water without faltering, but he agreed anyway. At least… She thought he did. In the brief moment that she turned to look at the tavern, he cast an illusion spell, creating an exact replica of himself close to her, while his real self blended with the darkness of the nearby alley. He was gone. His replica would only last for an hour or so, since he didn't put much magic essence into the spell. He had to reserve his power for his battle against Varek. Liora noticed a slight distortion in Alex's replica’s countenance, but she was too tired to give it any thought. It wasn't as though she could read him in the first place anyway. After havin
Aelia moved to and fro nervously before the sleeping Alex. It was almost time and he was still fast asleep. She was scared that he might lash out at her if she woke him up abruptly—a negative side effect of being a slave to Lord Varek. She had been manhandled and violated over very little mistakes. She gathered some courage after two minutes and crouched down before him. She exhaled softly and tapped him on his shoulder, “Uh... Alex. It's time.” At that very moment, Alex opened his eyes. Crimson met blue as they locked eyes. Aelia almost jumped back in fright. She didn't expect him to wake up so suddenly. Alex could read the fear in her eyes. He sighed and stood up, stretching his left hand down toward her, “Sorry for startling you.” “I-It’s fine,” she took his hand and he pulled her up without any effort. She cleared her throat afterward and began to turn off each lantern, “It's almost time for the guards to switch. We still have about fifteen minutes, but it would take us over
The two of them waited patiently for the switch to happen. Eventually, Alex had to dispel the ball of flames as the guards did a last patrol around the premises. Their infiltration had been going on pretty well now. He couldn't risk them getting caught when they were so close to the central chamber. It wasn't as though they would cause him any trouble. He knew he could take all of them, even without Emberbane, but he needed to be covert for now. If a fight were to break out and it reached Lord Varek’s ears, the warlord could change the location of the witch’s cell, since that was obviously what the intruder—Alex—was here for. No one was foolish enough to try and kill Varek without a very substantial reason. “They're coming,” Aelia whispered, her ears twitching to the vibration of the maintenance room and the trudging of incoming horses. Alex stepped away from the window, his hand finding its way around Aelia’s wrist once more, “Let's move.” The gate to the central chamber opened
There was no time to discuss it with Aelia. Alex took action immediately. He began to mumble some inaudible words under his breath whilst taking one step after the other out of the storage room. He placed his palms some distance away from each other, waving them in back and forth arcs, as though an invisible ball lay between them. The air got thick, red threads of mana sparking around him like electricity. The threads soon flourished into a dull red aura of magical energy around him. He had to keep the releases of his power to the minimum, or all eyes would instantly be on him—including the normal guards, who were weaker and less sensitive to mana auras. He could tell, his ears twitching to the constant shaking from Aelia behind him. She was already overwhelmed by such a small fragment of his full power. He continued reciting the spell in a whisper and the aura of mana around him flowed down his upper body, and up his lower body. It was as though the space between his open palms w
Alex carried Aelia again and hopped from rooftop to rooftop in a blur. It was the best way to avoid any confrontation with the guards below. He knew a fight with the guards at the dungeon’s entrance was inevitable, but there would be little to no repercussions from that. Not only would he take care of them quickly, no one would notice that the guards had been killed, since no other guard would patrol into the area. The recent guard shift made this a concrete fact. Besides, for those guards to be placed at such a volatile spot, they must be among the strongest, if not second to the Elite Guards. They got past the guards loitering the streets in over a minute and landed before the dungeon’s entrance. Alex dropped Aelia and immediately curled his hands to fists, a small smirk creeping at the side of his lips. Aside from his very short bout with Borg—the mercenary at the tavern—he hadn't gotten the chance to flex his body. And Borg was a disappointing opponent anyway. Feeling the sud
“Hm?” Alex knocked one of the standing guards down and half-turned towards Aelia. His eyes gradually dilated and he turned completely, appearing before the cell in a blur. Thick iron bars reinforced with runes of containment loomed like an unbreakable wall. The magic was palpable in the air, an invisible force that resisted their presence. Through the dim light, Alexander caught sight of her—Gaia, the witch of space magic, and one of his closest companions. She lay still on the cold floor, her vibrant energy suppressed, her body weakened from days of magical containment. "Gaia..." Alexander’s voice was soft but resolute as he knelt by the bars, his piercing red eyes scanning for any signs of life. Her breathing was shallow, her once brilliant aura now dull and muted. Without wasting time, he summoned Emberbane and created a scabbard with it, sheathing it by his side. “The prison is enchanted,” Aelia whispered, her eyes darting over the runes etched into the walls. “No wonder her m
The instant Gaia’s eyes flared open with an unnatural light, the prison cell dissolved into chaos. Alexander barely had a moment to brace himself before the ground shifted beneath his feet. The stone walls of the dungeon bent and twisted, as if reality itself was no longer bound by the laws of nature. Gravity became fickle—pulling in one direction one moment and then reversing violently the next. Gaia, now hovering above him, was a storm of pure, unrestrained magic. The air around her crackled with raw energy as she extended her hand, and the very fabric of space folded around them. Her voice, though once familiar, now echoed with cold malice. “You are nothing but an obstacle,” she hissed, her tone devoid of the warmth he remembered. With a flick of her fingers, the ground beneath Alexander’s feet warped into an abyss. The solid stone floor seemed to collapse into itself, pulling him toward the void. Reflexively, Alexander leapt to the side, Emberbane flashing as he slashed at the sp
“We won!”“We got to the last floor!”“Don’t be too excited about it tho…”“Come on bro! But we're literally here!”“Can you guys keep it down?”, a youth with curly hair and brown eyes took off his headphones as he gestured to the other bodies in the room to quiet down a bit, “If my mom wakes up, then it's game over.” “Right.” A girl in a yellow tank top and black shorts seconded. The two other males in the room nodded in response while the last girl could only remain silent while internally agreeing to the matter. “So, we are at the 100th floor, what's next?”, queried the girl in a yellow tank top as she laid her headphones on the ground. “We go through the gates and conquer whatever that's beyond it.”, The boy with curly hair retorted with a shard of determination. “I don't know about you guys but it would be kinda nice if we continued some other time.” Liam, the other boy in a blue hoodie voiced out a bit as his eyes read through the sms he received. “If I don't get going