Chapter 122 - [Something Truly Horrifying]

Name: Thale Feldrast

Class: Sorcerer

Level: 22

HP: 67

MP: 495

Fortitude: 6

Strength: 6

Agility: 7

Intelligence: 22

Willpower: 16

Charisma: 13

Tier: C

Class Abilities: [Mana Perception], [Sorcery Boost]

Skills: [Triage], [Miracle], [Appraisal]

Talents: [Hellfire], [Observe]

Traits: [Intelligent], [Sickly]

Alignment: Scrupulous (Good)

Spells

Sorcery

* 1-Point: [Water Ball], [Mold Earth], [Gust]

* 2-Point: [Wind Knife], [Ice Spear], [Water Cannon], [Electric Arc]

* 3-Point: [Volcano Cannon], [Ice Breath], [Stone Tower]

* 4-Point: [Lightning Bolt], [Fireball], [Mana Bolt]

Transmutation

* Can use up to 3-Point circles with multiple tiers

Distortion

* 1-Point: [Shield], [Lift Object], [Catapult]

* 2-Point: [Fly]

Necromancy

* 1-Point: [Speak With Dead]

* 2-Point: [Raise Dead]

Blood Magic

* 1-Point: [Blood Control]

* 2-Point: [Blood Enhancement], [Blood Lance]

Items: Staff of Imogene Drac, Wand (War Mage), Pocket Watch (Soul Cage), Fire-Resistant Coat, Ring of Etron, Ring of Mind-Shielding

Summer, 615 CA

The City of Etron

The crowd of commoners broke out into terrified rambling, and a small portion of the crowd fell to their knees in supplication. To the knowledgeable, the Blue Mage seemed like a minor god. Most commoners and low-level mages did not know of any spell that could be used to appear and disappear at will.

My brow furrowed in thought as I considered the significance of what had just happened. Due to the large size of the crowd, the [Spell] utilized by the Blue Mage could not have been [Invisibility]. No, the only [Spell] that would create such an effect was [Teleport], a 6-Point distortion [Spell]. The Blue Mage did not cast the [Spell] as a ritual, so he was at least level 50. At a minimum, the Blue Mage would have to be a B-Tier. I bit my thumb as I considered the extent to which I was outmatched.

“Thale!” Beltane shouted, catching my attention. “You spoke to the mage. Do you understand what he said?”

“Yes,” I responded. “Ask Haydith if you want to know what was said.”

Chaos? What did the Blue Mage mean by that? His goal was to create chaos?

Eadric spoke a moment after Beltane, breaking my concentration. “Who was that?”

“I don’t know, Eadric,” I said, an annoyed tone suffusing my voice. Then, a thought occurred to me. “How old did he sound to you?”

Eadric thought for a moment before saying, “Thirty, I guess? Not old but not young either.”

I grunted in lieu of an answer. I was thinking the same thing. The Blue Mage was clearly from Earth, but he was too old to be a Reincarnate like Haydith or me. Rather, he must have been “sent” to Ferrum rather than “reborn” like us. I vaguely recalled that such people were sometimes called Transmigrators in stories I had read.

What would it take to reach level 50 in just fifteen years? After spending six years training, I knew that leveling up was tough, especially in the relatively-safe land of pre-war Etronia. In order to reach such a level so quickly, one would need an in-depth knowledge of [Ferrum Online].

Fear registered on my face, causing Beltane to turn toward me with a worried expression. The pieces fell into place as I realized that the Blue Mage must have had as much knowledge of the world and the System as me. Chaos. If I wanted to cause as much chaos as possible, I would only have to do one thing.

“He’s going after the King,” I said.

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“What?” Beltane asked.

“I was wrong. This isn’t limited to Haydith and the Lich Cult. That mage is behind everything that’s happening in the city. If I’m right, he did all of this to isolate the King and assassinate him.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Chaos. He wants to destabilize the whole world, and the King’s death would start a domino effect that ends in the collapse of Mitrikova and Etronia.”

A loud crash echoed from a few blocks away. Turning toward the source of the sound, I saw a large plume of smoke and dust rise into the sky. Before I could turn toward Beltane and say another word, my body was gripped in a coughing fit, and I was almost driven down to my knees. When I pulled my palm away from my mouth, it was covered in blood. A deep ache filled my body once the coughing subsided, and I knew that any physical exertion would be much more difficult for the next few hours.

“Are you okay?” Beltane asked.

“Yes, but I need to see a priest. Kinro and I will head to the nearest Church of Nyx. The rest of you…” I said, but I was interrupted by Haydith.

“Thale. You said they’re not just after me. Does that mean my family is in danger?” Haydith asked, fear obvious in her voice.

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully.

“Then I need to check on my family.”

“Okay,” I sighed. “Beltane, Eadric, you two protect Haydith while Kinro and I find a church.”

The group split up, leaving me alone with Kinro. We started running toward the sound of violence and screaming, but that was short lived. The group of screaming people heading in the opposite direction quickly became a pain to deal with, and I was out of breath before a minute had passed. Kinro, on the other hand, had absolutely no trouble navigating the tide of screaming commoners as they ran by.

Turning back toward me, Kinro asked, “Hey, Boss. Where is the nearest church, anyway?”

I had been to Etron in [Ferrum Online] so many times that I’d never forget the location of the town’s churches. “Yeah,” I wheezed. “It’s a few hundred meters that way.”

My wand flashed silver, and my body became weightless. “Can you follow me if I fly?”

“Of course. Who do you take me for?” Kinro said with a laugh. A moment later, a group of three cultists wearing deer masks appeared out of a nearby alleyway.

“Wait!” I shouted, but it was too late.

In one smooth motion, Kinro unsheathed his blade and struck the cultist in the front of the group. A scarlet crescent of blood splashed against the nearby houses as the cultist stumbled one step backwards and then fell to the ground.

Another cultist swung at Kinro with a heavy battleaxe, but Kinro easily sidestepped the attack. Before the blow had time to strike uselessly against the ground, Kinro’s counterstroke had entered the cultist’s body at the collarbone and exited somewhere around the stomach. In a blink of an eye, two cultists were dead.

“Fulgur!” I shouted, blasting the third cultist with an arc of bright blue electricity. The cultist’s body buckled and spasmed as his muscles were violently motivated by the arcane electric current. Slowly, mercifully, the cultist’s body struck the ground.

“We don’t have to kill them!” I shouted at Kinro.

“Maybe you don’t, but I do. If I hit somebody with the blunt edge, they’ll still die.” He pointed to the blunt edge of his katana as he spoke.

“But…”

“Look, Boss. The sooner you get it through your head that some people need to be killed, the better.”

I tried to think of a retort, but none came to mind. “Just follow me.”

My wand flashed silver once more, and [Gust] carried me up into the sky. For a moment, I was alone up there. I looked down at the large gray buildings lit by purple twilight and saw a dozen small battles flash underneath me. Mages threw [Spells] at charging lizards, and fighters crossed swords with rampaging orcs.

Why were you so afraid, Thale? These monsters are weak.

I framed the thought in my head with a tone of mild mockery. Through the tone of my thoughts, I intended to imply that Thale was being unnecessarily cautious.

What?

There was a groggy quality to Thale’s voice, as if he had just woken from a deep slumber. Even after strengthening over those past few years, Thale still spent the vast majority of the time asleep.

We’re still in Etron? We need to leave, now.

Why?

The mockery was gone from my mental voice.

The ritual. I recognize it. It will only become more powerful over time. The creatures it’s been summoning have been weak, but it’s only a matter of time before the dread creatures that haunt the underworld are drawn to the light of the ritual.

Which creatures?

The kind we are not ready for.

How do you know the ritual hasn’t run out of energy?

As I said, I recognize this ritual. I used it. This ritual is powered by souls. It won’t end until something truly horrifying is summoned.

A great crack filled the air as another pulse of arcane energy passed through my body. The pulse was so powerful that my muscles twitched slightly as it reached me.

At the source of the sound, several massive chunks of stone exploded upward into the air. The chunks must have been the size of buildings, and they flew in an arc that sent them several miles outside of the city limits. A large cloud of smoke filled the air where several buildings had been a moment before.

From within the rising cloud of ash came a roar. It was a deep, guttural roar that shook me to my very core. For an instant, two gargantuan wings emerged from the smoke before flapping downward. The smoke was immediately dispelled by the wind produced by the leathery wings, and a creature rose into the air.

With a grace that should have been impossible for something of its size, an ancient black dragon took flight over the city of Etron.