From the World of Shadows

Chapter XXIX

From the World of Shadows

“They are chanting!” Skia warned the party.

Silma and Tona released fireballs toward the two priest mages, but a barrier stopped the spells before they reached them. They cast again, before the priests had finished their incantations, with the same results.

Silma and Tona quickly erected a barrier to stop the priests’ fireballs.

“This way of chanting is way quicker and doesn’t put a strain on you!” Tona remarked.

“Of course, Enji is incredible!” Silma proudly stated.

Tona lowered her voice, “Are the two of you in—”

“Stop dilly-dallying with stupid talk and cast the next spell!” Skia reprimanded the two vanguard mages.

“Yes,” the two girls replied in unison. The two high mage candidates alternated their attacks; when one fired a fireball, the other would protect with a barrier.

Don’t treat this battle as a game. Standing behind Silma and Tona, Skia kept an eye on the monster, who had retreated behind the priests. What is that creature? To Skia, the humanoid monster felt different, and not because he wore clothes; his eyes, the way he looked at them when they arrived, seemed to emanate intelligence tinged with infinite hate and malice. That monster was pure evil.

“You two save your arrows, as long as those priests have that barrier, we can’t reach them.”

Sol had an arrow on the string but didn’t release it. “Yes, I was trying to time it at the moment when they had just cast, but their barrier is way too strong.”

“Maybe Master Enji can do something about it,” Pol followed up.

Skia turned to Enji, who was reading something from the white parchment papers he always carried with him. What is he doing? She knew he kept in those parchments, notes he copied from his grimoire for devising new spells. What caught her attention was the strange smile on his face. Is he enjoying this?

“Heh! What is that thing doing?!” Silma shouted

Skia’s attention reverted to the priests, but it wasn’t the priests who had caused Silma's bafflement. The monster behind them was chanting with its arms extended horizontally like a tee, and two black voids appeared on either side of the beast...

...And monsters began to spill from the black voids.

“[Graks!!]” Skia shouted.

***

I don’t want to kill them. What would be the best way to incapacitate the priests? He leafed through his notes, his teeth clenched in a grimace, denoting his deep concentration, but to others, that grimace seemed like a sadistic smile.

Skia’s shout brought Enji out of his thoughts. “Huh? What?!” It can use magic! Enji observed the red-skinned monster, which was as red as blood, moving its lips in a soundless way, like whispering. From the black voids he had manifested with his incantation, ‘graks’ emerged one after the other. Meanwhile, the priests hurled fireballs continually at the party.

“Pol, do you think you can manage those ‘graks’?” Enji inquired. If Pol could take care of the shadow monsters, then Enji could concentrate on the red-skinned creature.

“I’ll give it a try.”

Pol took a crystal spellstone out of his pocket and chanted a spell. Six out of every shadow monster that came out of the void met their demise with a glob of water around their head. Pol was drowning them, but still a lot kept emerging from the black holes.

Sol, too, had been casting his spells. As an earth mage, he had plenty of material all around him.

Rising from the ground, stakes made of highly compacted soil impaled the monsters; the stakes entered their nether regions and exited through their chests.

Silma and Tona kept busy casting intermittent fireballs while protecting the party with their barriers.

“Worm, can you do something?” Skia, impatient, pleaded. Watching Enji just standing there and doing nothing.

“Wait, Skia, I’m trying to figure out something.” He couldn’t hear the monster mage’s chants from how far he was. He’s moving his lips, so it’s not silent casting.

“Argh! Those priests are a nuisance!” Tona complained.

I’d better get those out of the way first. Enji decided to use a new spell that he wasn’t sure would work, because it depended on the amount of a particular element in the cave’s ground.

“Run Quicksilver!”

[enter location in meters]

He recited the coordinates of the priests’ location that he had already extracted from the ‘peek’ command, except that he used zero elevation.

Beneath the two priests’ feet, a thin silvery puddle formed. The men, surprised at what was at their feet, jumped around, splashing the liquid metal up their shoes where it clung.

Enji chanted another command, “Run Zeus0.5!”

[enter location in meters]

Enji gave the exact location as before. Lightning formed at the two priests’ feet, and the pool of liquid mercury conducted the electrical shock up the men’s legs. They fell to the ground in convulsing spasms.

“Concentrate your attack on the red creature!” Skia commanded.

Silma and Tona redoubled their attacks, while Pol and Sol continued to thin the number of ‘graks’ down with their magic.

But they had reached a stalemate. As long as the red-skinned mage opened the black voids, they couldn’t advance. The same was true for the monster; it seemed that its spell could only maintain the voids open for a few seconds, and the red-skinned mage had to repeat the incantation to reopen them.

“Popa, come here!” Enji called the wolf-eared girl to his side.

“Yes, Enji Lo?” She wagged her tail.

“Can you hear what that thing is whispering?”

“I’ll try.” She swiveled her wolf ears and aimed them at the monster.

Enji grabbed Popa’s arm. Before they all had ventured into the labyrinth, Enji had discovered something by accident. Skia playfully had jumped on his back when he was talking with Oma, and he heard from his translator a feedback of superimposing translated words. In other words, Skia and Enji’s translator had linked when they touched. He was going to use the same effect to ‘listen’ to what Popa was hearing.

As Popa listened to the monster mage’s incantation, Enji recorded the spell from Popa’s translator to an empty crystal using a ‘save’ command.

“More [graks] are coming!” Skia warned when two new black voids formed next to the monster.

Enji ran the ‘list’ command to see what spell the monster mage had cast. It’s piggybacked! Enji discovered that the red creature, besides casting what appeared to be a portal spell to summon the shadow monsters, was also running a triple repelling barrier from within. It’s not taking any chances with his protection.

“Skia, when he starts chanting for a new set of black portals, we all rush in. I’ll disable his barrier spell!”

“Acknowledge! You heard him. Nilsei, Popa, at my sides, everyone, prepare to attack!”

Enji moved to the forefront next to Silma and Tona. When Pol and Sol finished with the summoned ‘graks,’ the red mage began to chant again. Enji didn’t need to hear what he was chanting, having the words already recorded in a spellstone. By knowing the chant’s wording, he would hijack the incantation by inserting a ‘stop’ command inside of it.

“Run Cancel!”

They all sprinted forward when they heard Enji’s spell command. The monster’s face reflected its confusion; its spell was broken, and it couldn’t find a reason why. The red mage chanted once more, and Enji canceled the spell again.

Seeing that he was going to be cut down by the three girls heading toward him, the red mage nimbly retreated to where the altar was. He grabbed something from its top and chanted again.

This time, Enji’s counterspell didn’t work. It meant that he was chanting something different.

A large, purple circle appeared in front of the red mage, and within it, a black void manifested. The monster was escaping through it.

“Stop it!” Skia shouted, but no one could reach the monster in time.

A spear flew and hit the creature in the shoulder, eliciting an inhuman shriek from its throat. Dropping what it carried, the monster jumped headfirst into the portal and vanished. The portal closed, and the circle dissolved.

Enji glanced back at the little green woman. The goblin Oma was the one who had hurled the spear.

“My lord, it’s a grimoire.” Nilsei handed Enji what the monster had dropped.

[connected device2] The translator uttered when Enji touched the leather-bound book.

***

“They are securely tied, Master Enji.” Pol pointed back with his thumb at the two priests sitting on the ground, who gave Enji a hateful look.

Enji had specified a low setting in the lightning spell he used against the priests; he wanted them alive so they could talk. Besides, he was no murderer.

“There’s nothing out of the ordinary in this place. Most likely, the orcs found this cavern and chose to live here,” Skia commented. “I’m surprised by how clean they kept the place.”

“I’m looking at them under a new light; what we thought were mindless monsters seem almost civilized,” Nilsei added.

“Enji, is that grimoire the same as the other one? The one from the temple-like place?” Silma asked.

Enji closed the book. “The writings seem different. I have to examine them closely when we get back.”

“Why would that monster want to take the grimoire with him?” Tona asked.

“That monster was capable of using advanced spells, so perhaps he wanted to gain more power with the ones in this book,” Enji replied.

“Can you read them?” Popa gazed at the book resting on Enji’s lap.

“No. At least not yet. Galakei is going to teach me the ancient language.” Enji shoved the book into his backpack, where he kept the other.

“There are no more exits from this place except the way we came in,” Sol informed after investigating the tunnels carved into the solid rock by who knows what people and when.

“Are we set to go?” Skia asked.

After everyone acknowledged that they were ready, the party set out of the cavern, escorting the two captured priests.

A surprise waited for them outside the cavern’s entrance. Some of the nobles’ parties were there.

They have us surrounded. Enji knew better than to trust the nobles. There were twelve armed men and four of what he believed were mages, but some of the nobles would also be able to use magic.

At the forefront of the surrounding force stood the arrogant noble who had confronted Enji at the camp. What was his name again?

“I see you managed to capture the Tilek’s spies, but you let the [osmel] escape!” Shakos bellowed.

Osmel? How does he know the creature escaped? Enji glanced at Tona. Does she have a secret way of communicating with other people over distances? Telepathy? That seemed highly unlikely, based on what Eithea and Galakei had told Enji. Then the most logical reasoning would be that this noble was colluding with the Tileks.

“Don’t react to what I’m going to say,” Enji spoke in Japanese with a big smile on his face, facing the noble. The only people who could understand him were the members of his party who wore the translator. “I believe these nobles are connected with the priests we captured. Get ready to repel any attack.”

Skia coughed as an acknowledgment.

“What are you saying?” Shakos stared at Enji with a confused look on his face.

“Ah, apologies. Sometimes I forget and revert to my native tongue. I would like to thank all of you for your timely arrival. We are all spent after using our magic. If we encountered monsters on our way back, we would have been in trouble.” Enji lied. “...And by the way, we killed that red creature.”

“What?” Shakos uttered. He seemed upset.

“He lies, Dangoor escaped!” one of the priests shouted.

“Kill them!” Shakos ordered.

Silma and Tona erected a barrier, but soon felt overwhelmed by the amount of physical and magical attacks.

“Mages are hiding behind us! They had been chanting for a while!” Skia shouted.

“Argh!”

Enji glanced to the side. One of the priests had an arrow between the eyes.

“Keep attacking, they wouldn’t dare to attack us nobles,” Shakos stated with a triumphant smile on his face. “Kill the boy first, and those monsters! Leave the women, I have use for them.”

The hell you will! “I, Lord Enji [Kilai] Hasegawa, command my party to use deadly force without restraint!” Enji adopted a chuuni pose imitating Galakei’s flamboyant style... and hell broke loose.

His party counterattacked, and the nobles and their people were unable to comprehend how a group of kids was able to cast magic with such speed and power. Pol and Sol repeated the spells they had used on the ‘graks,’ and the swordman girls moved like flash, downing the nobles’ soldiers with their swords.

The result was that in less than five minutes, most of the soldiers and mages lay dead, together with several nobles. Shakos had survived.

From Enji’s party, Pol, Nilsei, and Popa had been slightly injured, and the other priest had an arrow to his chest and was fighting for his life.

“Silma, try to keep him alive.” Skia pointed to the priest. “Tona, maintain the barrier. Everyone, gather together!” Skia ordered.

Shakos and his remaining forces huddled together behind one of the remaining mages’ barriers.

At that moment, the knights, together with the other parties, arrived at the clearing.

“What’s going on here?!” Astakan inquired when he saw the two parties confronting each other.

Shakos quickly pointed to Enji’s party. “They attacked us! They are in cahoots with the Tilek’s spies—look, they have monsters with them!”

I might be hanged, but I’m not letting this guy live!

Astakan glanced at the young boy standing his ground, then at all the dead men, including the nobles. “Lord Enji, do you want to explain yourself?”

“There’s nothing to explain. They attacked us and we replied.”

“Nobles are dead.”

“It happens.” Enji shrugged his shoulders. He noticed Simier edging closer to the nobles who had attacked them. What are you doing? Don’t get involved!

“See! He is admitting his guilt. Kill them, together with that last priest and those two monsters.” Shakos urged the newcomers.

That’s it, I’ll burn him to cinders! Enji caressed one of the stones on his arm brace.

Astakan looked to where Silma was trying to keep the priest alive and then at the goblin woman protecting the young orc with just a knife. “Shakos, you’d better shut your mouth. I might be old, and my vision is not what it used to be, but not to the point of not seeing that the arrows that killed those priests came from your people. A very convenient way of silencing those who could speak of the truth.”

Shakos, feeling cornered, pulled a bottle with some green liquid and was about to throw it at Enji when a shadow appeared next to him in time to grab the bottle as Shakos slid to the ground with his throat slit open.

“I see you haven’t lost your touch, Swift Blade,” Astakan said

Kasus just smiled.