“What’s the status of the children?” The Principal asked sternly.

  “Status: With Valora, heading southbound with the students and the fugitive known as Nomad,” a soldier responded, his voice soulless and bleak.

  “Good, keep surveillance on them.”

  The Principal walked out of the building. He made his way down the stone sidewalk and into the Three Angels Inn. A woman in clothes that left little to the imagination, walked over to him and draped herself over him.

  “Well, aren’t you a mysterious one…” she rubbed a finger down his chest.

  “I need to speak with your boss,” he grabbed her finger and shoved it off of him.

  She scoffed and held her finger, walking away embarrassed. Another woman walked out as she left. Her posture, the way she walked, the way her chin was held high, the fact that her outfit was actually covering her body told the Principal all he needed to know. That she was the one in charge.

  “I’m the manager of this establishment. How may I assist you?” Her voice was as smooth as silk, like her words gently cradled his ears as she spoke. Her beautiful long ebony hair was as dark as the starless night sky, her obsidian curls fitting perfectly with her long slender frame. Her pearly cardigan cascaded over her shoulders, blending seamlessly into her black top and navy blue jeans that caused her legs to pop.

  “I’m here to speak to Valora Dagon,” the Principal walked over to her and shook her hand. Her hands were smooth, soft even yet her grip was powerful—radiating an aura of dominance.

  “Valora is out on business, we do not know how long she will be away but I can take a message and deliver it to her when she does.”

  “Do you happen to know where she is?” He asked her—his eyes like cold steel locked onto hers, unblinking and merciless.

  “I do but I do not have permission to give you that information,” the woman stared back, her eyes unyielding in the face of intimidation.

  He sighed and rubbed his eyes, “Are you aware of what she’s doing?”

  She remained silent.

  The Principal loomed forward and leaned, “Do you know what she is doing?” His and her faces were mere inches apart as he scoped her intentions.

  “I’m going to have to ask you to leave the premises,” she politely motioned to the door.

  The Principal stayed for a long moment, his tall and powerful frame overshadowing her completely before turning around, “We’re out of here, search within a 50 mile radius. There’s no way they could’ve gotten far,” he looked back at the woman who stood there, deadpan.

  They left the Three Angels’ Inn with more questions than answers.

  “Ugh, my head,” Kasen groaned, holding his head and standing inside of the bleak stone cell that they were being detained in.

  “Where are we?” Rose woke up shortly after, rising to her feet and quickly trying to pry open the cell.

  “GRIFFIN!”

  Nothing happened.

  “What’s going on?!” Rose’s breath quickened, her fingers trembling as she kept attempting spells—over and over—only for nothing to happen.

  Her frustration erupted in a choked sob. The reality of their situation crashed down on her, crushing the air from her lungs. Tears spilled freely as she collapsed against the wall, fists clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white. She tilted her head back, staring at the ceiling, her vision blurred by the flood of emotions—anger, helplessness, fear. Her chest heaved with uneven breaths, and she sniffled, trying and failing to hold herself together.

  Nomad sat in the corner, a dark shadow looming over his face, “It’s the bars—”

  “Oh, shit, where’s Dominick?” Kasen mentioned, cutting off Nomad.

  “Dominick is being detained in a separate cell for reasons I cannot disclose to you,” Valora stood on the other side of the bars.

  “LET US OUT OF HERE!” Rose was seething, her usual bubbly smile and attitude vanished—her eyes burned with fury, her jaw twitching, as if she were about to burst. Her hands were shaking, her legs gave out on her as she dropped to the ground—defeated.

  “Valora,” she whispered, tears falling down her face, “why would you do this?”

  “The Shadows’ are an evil organization. A powerful one, at that. They figured out I was the one in charge of the Suppression Squadron and threatened my daughter,” she hesitated, biting her lip. She reached for the bars, “I love you, Nomad, you’ve done so much for me but,” tears welled up in her eyes, her voice was wavering as she reeled her hand in. Her voice wasn’t coming out, her eyes teary as she stared up, trying to figure out the words to say until she finally did, “but my daughter comes first,” she wiped them away. Her heels clicked against the ground as she walked away.

  “DAMN IT!” Kasen punched the wall, the strike echoing off the stone walls. Blood dripped down his knuckles as he slumped down next to Nomad.

  “As I was going to say before, these bars were developed by the Magic Defense Force to detain criminals. By using crystals found in a specific cave in Dorton, you can harness the essence in them and turn them into, a sort of, nullifying metal. Which I suspect these bars are made from,” he explained.

  “How hasn’t word of this got out to the public?” Rose asked, her eyes bloodshot.

  “It’s kept under strict surveillance by only the highest ranking officers but it doesn’t matter now. My theory is they’re going to use the boy’s blood to make a nullifier without the crystals since there’s a finite,” he stopped and thought to himself, “a scarce amount of Bixilite in those Dorton caves.”

  “Ah, not quite,” A voice echoed throughout the hall, “That’s a good theory and not wrong. Although that isn’t the main reason,” the hooded figure appeared like a bad dream, “The Shadows’ worship a deity, one known as Void. The God of Darkness. However, in all of the stories of Void, the main person who stood in his way was a grotesque, powerless, god. The name of that God was—”

  Nomad’s fingers twitched at his sides. His breathing was slow but uneven. He looked at Kasen, then at Rose, as if weighing the consequences of his next words.

  “Contra,” Nomad’s words felt like a curse, like he said something he shouldn’t have. Nomad’s eyes were cold, sharp as daggers, as his gaze locked onto the hooded figure.

  “Oh, someone hears knows their stuff,” He chuckled to himself, “but do you know the

  truth of Contra?”

  “I know that he was a god incapable of using magic so the other gods plotted against him and banished him from the heavens,” Nomad said.

  “Why have we never heard of this?” Kasen said, his face as neutral as ever. He was shocked but it didn’t affect him as much as the other extenuating circumstances they currently found themselves in.

  “Not many people know the story of Contra,” Nomad tried to reassure him.

  Nomad looked over at Rose who was tapping her finger on the ground, looking absentmindedly.

  “Does this not affect you either?” Nomad asked.

  “Not really,” she whispered, “I’m only worried about Dominick and Aura right now,” she said, her voice frail.

  “I guess you two aren’t religious enough to really care,” Nomad smirked before Rose cut him short.

  “Do you think this has something to do with Dominick?” She looked at Nomad, expectantly.

  Nomad sighed heavily. She understood and stared up at the ceiling.

  “But did you know he walked amongst us? As a human? How…” The hooded figure chuckled to himself, “peculiar. How strange for a god to be a god of humanity yet he, himself, did not have divine power. AND YET HE DARE TO DEFY THE BEAUTIFUL AND ALL POWERFUL GOD KNOWN AS VOID?! HOW DARE HE?!” He said, passionately, his voice booming through the halls.

  He cleared his throat, “I’m very passionate about our religion,” he looked at something down the hall. He mouthed a few words before turning back to us.

  “You are not in any danger so long as you stay out of the way,” he made his way down the hallway.

  Aura stayed strapped to the chair she was in. She was an innocent bystander who happened to be in the same friend circle of the one that they wanted. But Aura found herself caring for Dominick despite her better judgement, despite the way she talked to him. She’ll catch herself every now and then talking to Rose about him without even realizing it.

  Regardless, Aura or Rose was bound to be used as bait by the Shadows.

  The door swung open as a hooded figure waltzed in.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “So this is the one who wielded the spirit magic, correct?” The voice was cold, monotone, whoever it was sounded dead inside.

  “Correct, sir,” the one who was tasked with overseeing Aura affirmed.

  Suddenly, the man grabbed the overseer’s head and bashed it onto the desk—knocking down the tools as he slumped to the ground. The figure threw its hood off of its head.

  “WHAT?!” Aura shouted, her mouth agape.

  The person dashed over—covering her mouth.

  “Yes, yes, I know. It’s not what you think,” The man said.

  “But what are YOU doing here?” Aura said.

  “I’m here on an undercover mission, I was searching for information since the Shadows, Dugal, and Vance attacked at the same time,” Aaron Newsmith’s face came into view underneath the glowing light.

  “Dugal’s here?” She asked, concerned.

  “No, my hunch was wrong,” he scratched his head, “I did, however, hear of your kidnapping but they keep the documents on prisoners locked tighter than the King’s castle,” he motioned for Aura to follow him.

  “There’s bad news as well,” Aaron looked at Aura with a deadpan expression.

  “What’s the bad news?” She asked.

  “They captured your friend. I overheard them talking about the subject in the halls, most likely Dominick Blackburn. We need to rescue him and then get out of here,” he stopped her by raising his fist, “if there’s danger here, you run.”

  ”I can’t just abandon him,” she protested.

  “I won’t let anything happen to him. You have my word,” Aaron stared at her.

  Aura solemnly nodded as they moved stealthily down the hall.

  The heaviness of dread hung over the hallway, countless pools of blood clotted to the ground. Aura gagged as she lifted her shoe off the ground, the blood leaking off.

  “This is disgusting…” Aura muttered.

  Suddenly, red sirens cried out above, a warning carved into the sky. Aaron and Aura looked up to the lights that flooded the hallway.

  “That was quicker than I anticipated,” Aaron said, grabbing Aura’s hand, “We need to get out of this hallway.”

  He picked her up over his shoulder and bolted, Aura’s eyes widening at the sudden burst of speed.

  “HOLLLYYY SHIIIIIIT!” She shrieked, her eyes focused on the enemy behind them, chasing them, “HEY, AARON, NO RUSH OR ANYTHING BUT THEY’RE RIGHT ON YOU!” Aura shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth.

  He reached another gear, sonic waves erupting outbound—as he casually broke through the sound barrier.

  “COMPASS MAGIC: CHANGE DIRECTION!” Out of thin air, a large compass appeared behind the two. A magnetic force dragged Aaron backwards as he tried to push his legs through the attraction that was pulling him back.

  He scoffed, “FATE’S MANIPULATION!” He held his hand back at the compass in the air. In the blink of an eye, the compass turned around—pushing the enemies down the hall.

  “THAT’S ALL OF THEM, LET’S GO!” Aura shouted. Aaron sped off to the right, where he had recalled seeing someone bring something of importance there.

  “How do we get out of here?” Rose queried.

  “I don’t know,” Kasen replied.

  “We need some sort of magic amplifier. The bars are made of Annulite, as I mentioned before. The gem that was found in Dorton,” he stood up and stroked one of the bars with his index finger, “We might be able to build up enough magic to offset the Annulite and render it useless—granting our magic back.”

  “I don’t know where we’d even get something like that,” Rose offhandedly mentioned.

  “I had some on me, in case of emergency, but they took it when they frisked me,” Nomad said, slightly agitated, “That was expensive.”

  “I don’t have any amplifiers but I do have something that might work,” Kasen spread his hands out wide.

  “Kid, magic doesn’t work here—”

  Rose shushed him. Kasen started gathering mana in both of his hands.

  “How are you doing that?” Nomad watched, intrigued.

  “It’s a technique he developed while he was sparring with Dominick. It cancelled out his nullification so it might work on the bars,” Rose explained.

  The mana distorted the air around his hands as two small onyx and violet circles swirled in his hands. Kasen brought the spheres together and fused them. They rotated violently—the mana in between his hands was unstable and dangerous.

  “The only bad part about this spell is that it takes all of my mana,” he gritted through his teeth as he bit down.

  The bars deteriorated, being absorbed into the sphere like a tornado. Nomad and Rose looked at their hands—feeling the mana seep back inside of their bodies.

  Nomad ran over and clasped his hand, “You’re not so bad, kid.”

  He toppled over. He clutched his stomach as he screamed. The bars were a lot stronger than Dominick’s imperfect colosseum technique, causing the strain on Kasen’s body to amplify as a result of the difference in effectiveness.

  “KASEN, YOU NEED TO SCREAM QUIETER!” Rose yelled although her voice was only a whisper.

  “Mental Magic: Induce Sleep,” Nomad gently placed his hand on his head. Kasen’s eyes fluttered close as he draped him over his shoulder.

  Rose smiled, rubbing her hand through his hair, “You did good today, Kasen.”

  “Let’s go save Dominick,” Nomad said, confident. Rose nodded, the two of them taking off down the prison block.

  “AUUUUUUUGH!” I shouted as an icy cold steel needle pierced my arm, the veins in my wrist bulging and contorting in reaction to the poison he put in my bloodstream.

  “I see… So if you add Evopial into the Clisgipther and Omevar concoction, it produces a violent reaction in his blood. Almost as if trying to escape,” he looked down into my eyes and cackled.

  “I SWEAR ON EVERYTHING I LOVE! I WILL KILL YOU— AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” My shouts escaped my lips but to no avail.

  Help wasn’t coming.

  If I wanted to escape, it had to be on my own. This man here, the Alchemist as they’ve called him, tested his vile creations on my blood. He tested them on my body since I was the only test subject he had that had no mana and it’s been a long time since the origin of magic came into our world.

  “I’m not so bad,” he muttered, the sounds of bottles and flasking being shuffled around, “I never wanted to use my chemistry skills for this but,” he held up a needle, the fluid dripped off—the light reflecting off of it, “never did I think it’d end up being so fun.”

  I squirmed under my restraints, attempting to break free from the bounds that kept me confined to this spot.

  “The funny thing is. Your blood… it’s different. It’s pure, in its natural state. Untouched by mana. Mana has forsaken you, along with any hope of living life in peace,” he injected the needle into my arm.

  All there was a prickle. A puncture wound, but nothing besides—

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GET THIS OUT OF ME! WHAT IS THIS?! AUGHHHH!” The pain spread throughout my body, a burning sensation quickly replaced by the frigid cold. The veins in my body bulge outward, attempting to burst through my skin. Like someone has gotten in and is trying to break out. My legs felt like they were being crushed under an immense weight, while my arms spasmed uncontrollably, flailing against the unseen force coursing through me. Every nerve in my body screamed, an unbearable clash of fire and ice warring inside me. My vision blurred, shifting between pitch darkness and blinding white. My breaths came in ragged gasps, each inhale like swallowing shards of glass.

  “Fascinating,” the alchemist wrote on his clipboard. He held up his hand to his head, trying to listen to something. His eyes grew frantic, he grabbed his tools and shoved them into his bag. He held a singular needle in his hand, driving it into my neck. My vision blurred, everything grew foggy as my eyes refused to stay open.

  “I told them they shouldn’t have brought those other ones,” he muttered to himself as he grabbed me by the legs and threw me over his shoulders. My vision had been darkened. The outside ceased to exist to me for now.

  “You’re back?” A voice echoed in my head.

  “What do you mean I’m back?!” I shouted.

  “Oh, right. You don’t remember that you’ve been here,” the voice cleared its throat, “You’ve borrowed the power of mine once before. A situation where your life was in danger. A situation that requires you to use the power of the divine. We allowed it once before because you are important to the world we plan on building. However, the second time around, there will be a price to pay.”

  “Power of the divine? What are you talking about?”

  Suddenly flashes of scenes filled my mind. Pummeling that adventurer guy, Glen… Trying to take on the principal but he easily defeated me… Waking up in the infirmary in the school… All of that had been erased from my memory.

  “What was that?” I asked the voice, spinning around.

  “That was the power of the divine I spoke of. Like I also said, future instances when you use my power, there will be consequences,” the voice spoke, it crowded my mind like an echo of my own thoughts.

  “What kind of consequences? You’re just springing this on me—”

  “Nothing of value ever comes without a price. Will you or will you not accept this power as a means to further your growth, even if it comes at the price of who you are now. Will you accept the power even if it costs you everything you’ve ever known? The consequences are based on your choices,” The voice faded out.

  “WHAT?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!” I was delirious, yelling to myself as the voice didn’t answer. The voice offers me something stronger, bigger than myself. It offered me power but the cost couldn't be more vague.

  I sighed and returned to my senses as the stench of metal filled my senses. The halls rolled past in a blur as I looked down. My hands and feet were bound and I was over someone’s shoulder.

  “LET ME DOWN!” I yelled.

  “HOW ARE YOU AWAKE?!” The Alchemist screamed, his voice cracking.

  I bit down on his shoulder, yanking a piece of it off. He threw me into the wall as he grabbed his shoulder.

  “YOU LITTLE SHIT!” He ran over and kicked me in the stomach. I coughed up blood, the blood being added onto the already scarlet ground. These bounds weren’t as strong as the other ones. Hell, I don’t think they’ve been magically reinforced. He must’ve been panicking and grabbed the wrong ones.

  “Thank you,” I don’t know who I thanked but I thanked someone.

  I ripped the restraints off and grabbed his foot during his onslaught. My stomach and ribs were aching, screaming in pain but I really had no choice right now but to fight this guy and get Aura out of here.

  “Come on, let’s do this,” I postured into my fighting stance.

  He glared at me through his plague doctor mask, the green burning a brilliant emerald. I couldn’t see his face but his intensity radiated off in waves.

  “You should’ve stayed down,” he chuckled, grabbing a bottle, “ALCHEMY MAGIC: VENOMOUS REVERBERATION!”

  He smashed the bottle against the ground, and a sickly green mist erupted from the shattered glass, spreading rapidly. The air became thick with the pungent scent of chemicals, and my throat burned as I inhaled. I coughed as the poison made its way to me. My vision blurred slightly but I couldn’t lose focus. Not now.

  This is poison magic. One wrong move could be my last.

  He lunged forward, his hands reaching for my neck, breaking through the poison cloud. I slipped underneath his outward hand and retaliated a sharp jab to his ribs. He staggered for a brief moment but used his moment to try to deliver an elbow to my temple.

  I raised my arms to block but they felt… sluggish. Damn it, the poison is already kicking in.

  I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. I cannot falter, no matter what. Aura is counting on me.

  I need to save her.