VLADIMIR: The Last Blood Mage

The Gauntlet of the Gods

"You are him; I have hope..." Lord Marshall was on his knees, with reverence overflowing from his heart and plastered on his face.

[This is so unexpected, let's see how this turns out] Vladimir thought but said, " lord marshall, you are making me nervous"

Vladimir's voice and face expressed different emotions, Vladimir had a vicious smile plastered on his face, and the scene looked sinister. Lord Marshall could not see Vladimir's face as his head facing the ground.

" Young lord please do not patronize me...shall I rise?"

"Yes, please do. " Lord Marshall stood up he had tears in his eyes, happy tears.

" Please come with me" Lord Marshall led Vladimir to a balcony where two chairs were placed with a small table in between. "Join me for tea, young lord"

"The view is beautiful, do you not think so?" Vladimir held the handrail and looked over into the horizon.

"Well yes, the view is amazing" Lord Marshall came forward and held the handrail.

"Let us talk over some tea" Vladimir turned around and sat down and Lord Marshall followed behind and sat down beside him. " You called me up here, why?...thank you"

Lord Marshall handed a cup of warm tea to Vladimir. "The reason I sent for you...well that's because of the thing that happened last night"

Lord Marshall paused to drink some tea, his face was not as expressionless as usual, with traces of happiness and fear.

"My father's grave got exposed "

"And?"

[so much like my lord] Lord Marshall thought. "Well the thing is... this could only mean two things, that King Kozak has come back to life or his descendant went down there"

"Where are you going with this?" Vladimir asked.[Let us see where this would go]

"I did not know this would turn out this way, but if you would not mind I want to show you something" Lord Marshall was already standing.

"Could you sit for a while, I need to finish this cup of tea...by the way, what flavour is this?" Vladimir had his eyes looking forward into the dark skies.

"It's cinnamon-flavoured, Do you like it?"

"It is good but too strong, I would like something mild next time" but Vladimir still drank it.

[Can't let good tea, go to waste can I?]

After some time Vladimir finished the tea and was ready to leave." lord marshall let us go" Vladimir was already standing.

"Yes, please call me Marshall when we are alone"

"It alright, Marshall lead the way"

"Of course, please follow me" Lord Marshall led the way out of the observatory and walked to his study.

"Have a seat" Lord Marshall gestured for Vladimir to sit down.

Lord Marshall walked to a framed portrait hanging on the wall, The person in the portrait looked a lot like lord marshall but had a lot of scars and he looked menacing compared to lord marshall. it had to be Baron Mason, Lord Marshall's father.

Lord Marshall moved the portrait out of the way to expose a wall with something like an engraved hand print, which he placed his hands on. The wall around the engravens glowed red before turning blue, and a weird sound was heard.

--whizz, whuuui--

The wall caved in to expose a black wooden box. Lord, Marshall carried the box over and placed it in front of me.

"Marshall..."

"Yes, young lord" lord marshall responded.

"What happened? Your father was a Baron and you are a city lord, How?" Vladimir asked.

"Well, young lord, the thing is during the war my father was killed and I was held captive by that bastard Tofel. he gave my father's territory to one of his generals. That bastard had plans to kill me ten years after the war, but his sister-in-law fell in love with me, and she saved me"

lord Marshall's eyes glistened a bit before he continued. " She saved me but I could not avenge my father because that bastard used dark art magic to seal my rings bringing me down from a 6th-rank mage to a 4th-rank mage, I could only fight for a slightly bigger land by waging wars on cities, but Chelsea's mother, the sister-in-law of that bastard made me stop, she had a baby for me so I had to stop for the sake of my daughter."

lord, Marshall paused before he continued." For her sake, I stopped the mindless wars. ten years after Chelsea was born she got kidnapped by Tofel for petty revenge, turns out that his son got obsessed with her. My wife, Luna went to confront him and ticked him off but she saved her on the condition that twelve years later she would be his son's wife. we thought all was done until she got ambushed by the night crawlers on her way home and only Chelsea and a few guards survived."

" When Chelsea came back, it was said that she had lost her ability to become a mage"

At this point, Vladimir was already boiling in anger imagining what Chelsea went through in the hands of King Tofel.

It seemed lord marshall had noticed the change in Vladimir's countenance so he brought Vladimir's attention to the box in front of him.

"This box was passed down to me by my father he put it in my custody, in case king kozak ever came back, but you are close enough, I do not know what the box holds. You have to pour some blood on the box for it to open" Lord Marshall was already seated by the time he was done with his explanation. [Well let us see if you are an imposter]

" You have not told me why I should trust you?" Vladimir did not even take a glance at the black box.

"Young lord, you know I would never deceive you, You may not remember but I am the little marshall, supposing you read that book in my father's tomb."

"All alright then I will do as you say " Vladimir brought his thumb to his mouth and bit off some skin and blood started flowing out of it.

[Let us find out what this thing holds] Vladimir raised the blooded thumb over the box and let his blood fall on the box.

--plink, plink, plink--

Sounds of Vladimir's blood falling on the box filled the room as both Vladimir and lord marshall were in suspense about what the box held.

--shiiiii--

The box gave off a soul-wrenching sound, not loud but very audible. White smoke escaped the box as its lid popped open to expose a very exquisite pair of black gloves with purple claw-like marks.

[Hey, deity what am I looking at?] Vladimir communicated to the deity.

[That's the gauntlet of the gods, It may not look like much but, you'll get its use soon, it's a surprise. I am shocked you found it so early]

[I'll talk to you later] Vladimir informed the deity.

[Take your time, I need my beauty sleep] With that the deity's voice died out.

"Marshall, what is this meant for?" Vladimir asked'[If the deity wont tell me i guess ill have to get limited knowledge from Marshall]

"I don't know, my father just said I should help it for king kozak, you can wear it let's see" lord marshall urged Vladimir on.

"All alright then" Vladimir picked up the gloves, it was surprisingly very heavy for gloves, They were made of a strange kind of leather, and the only special design they had was the purple claw marks.

After Vladimir wore the gloves, the sinister aura seemed to diminish, and lord marshall's face visibly gained colour.

Being a bit free, lord marshall looked into the box to see a white piece of paper and read it out loud. "Bring hands together to activate."

Vladimir heard this and decided to try it out.

--dum, dum--

As soon as Vladimir's hands hit each other twice, the purple claw marks glowed before moving forward and protruding through the knuckles as red blades, flexible and covering his fingers, the leather became harder and less flexible, it looked so menacing and baleful. One more thing occurred when Vladimir activated the gauntlet of the gods, his locked aura exploded, almost suffocating lord marshall.

Its effect was visible as lord mashall's nails dug into his hardwood table to prevent himself from falling and disgracing himself.

Seeing that lord marshall was having a hard time, Vladimir deactivated the gauntlets.

--dum, dum--

"I will be taking my leave now, Have a good night marshall" Vladimir was already at the door.

" One more thing young lord..." Vladimir stopped at the door and turned around slowly.

" yes"

"You are to report to the academy tomorrow"

"I will be there, now... good night!" before lord marshall could reply Vladimir was already out of the room.

" He has changed soo much within one night, he is now more like a master... I have hope" lord marshall was already smiling ear to ear. " Father, where ever you are I hope you are proud of me"

****

After some time of walking, vladimir got to his room. and tried taking off the gunlets.

[ Forget it, you can not take it off, it has bonded with you] the deity informed him.

[What? i cant take this off?] vladimir was shocked.

[No you can't, what you are wearing is a low level god weapon, you can't see it anywhere else, it was coustom made for kozak, but he died before he could use it.]

[I do not understand what you mean by a low level god weapon, i have never heard about it]

[Soon you will understand, sleep you have a big day tommorow] and the deity's voice died out.

" arrgh...i just cant get you to talk can i?" vladimir was frustrated.

As frustrated as he was he could only sleep, he knew that he could not go against the deity, he did not even know how.