An ear for magic

The wall burst apart with a deafening blast, a siren blaring across the entire place. Unfortunately, the warning was of no use. He emerged from the hole wearing a wicked smile, on his hand a long pole with the head of Takemura on the sharp end. Gone was the collected and rational teacher of magic, this one was a mage who could walk into the seal altars eyes open and leave with his mind intact, not because he resisted madness, but because he already crossed that line long ago.

“Hey, dear Guards, anyone wants to see my Takemura-on-a-stick?” he said stepping out of the wreckage. First thing to meet his eye was a woman holding a child, it was her room’s wall he destroyed. He walked past her paying her no attention, as soon as he gave her his back, she attacked him.

“Not the kind to value your life, are you?”

Leaving the room he met a man—her husband, it seems. “What did you do to her?” he said, his entire body shaking.

Akihiko smiled, “She was a good woman, two spells ago—now she’s ashes. Don’t be stupid, take your child and leave.”

“Die, you bastard!”

“I warned you… I hate to make orphans, now I have to kill the kid as well.”

Seventy-five children killed.

A squad of four tried to block Akihiko’s path. “You’ve gone too far.” Said their leader.

“Let me tell you about magic. Forgive me, I’m a teacher and I can’t help giving lectures.”

The other three dropped dead.

“You see, spells have no limit—if you can imagine it, Awako can cast it. The rest is just whether you can listen or not.” Akihiko drew closer, “Lead me to my students and I won’t make it painful.”

“G-go to hell you beas-” he could not finish his sentence, his teeth grew quickly, piercing the man’s skull and dropping him dead.

He continued to walk in the maze-like hideout, bringing death to anything on his path. It was not long before the Guards started running away from him instead of rushing to stop him. The further he walked the less Guards he encountered; it was not out of the expected that the ones who would still dare to face him at that point were the most talented mages.

Slow footsteps narrowed from a corner, “Hayato, I see you ended the old man’s life.”

The Guard stood at least six feet tall, his body nothing short of perfect. Seeing Kuba, one could not help but think just how deadly it would be to stand on the receiving end of a punch from him. His eyes dark and dangerous like those of a wild predator, and yet they held more composure and wit than to be expected.

“Kuba, where are my students?”

“You know the drawback of using so many complex spells, do you not wonder which part of your future each spell erased?”

The teacher took a deep breath and readied himself to attack, “Beyond this, Akihiko Hayato has no future.” His lips started moving, having stopped casting back-to-back spells only to fill his lungs with air.

Kuba moved past every boulder, spine or explosion seamlessly. He negated every spell targeting him with a spell of his own. He expected every move, his ears knew even the most complex of Akihiko’s spells.

“You learned so much from your fight with Koharu, I can only imagine how talented you would have been had you stayed.” He kept approaching Akihiko, carving his way through the hail of deadly spells. Akihiko’s spells kept growing more complicated in attempt to catch Kuba off guard, but he just seemed to know and understand them all. “You truly are impressive; anyone would have had their vocal cords broken at this point. I really hate to kill you.”

The Guard’s hands wrapped around Akihiko’s throat. Kuba knew a mage’s greatest weapon was their voice, especially for one of Akihiko’s level. No matter how hard he resisted, Kuba’s grip just wouldn’t loosen.

The first minute is quick struggle—it flashes before one’s eyes like lightning. The second is long suffering, the brain’s yearning for air translates to regret, sorrow, weakness.

Kuba recognised a spell coming from his side, he was too focused on Akihiko to counter it in time. He barely saw the caster’s face to be that of a child.

Unless your salvation comes in the third minute, it might as well never come.

A light blinded Kuba—next thing, his prey was gone.

“S-Seishiro? Inori and Shouta…”

“They’re waiting, let’s find our way out of here first.” He answered, his teacher’s arm wrapped around his shoulders, they both ran as far as they could. Thankfully, Kuba was not the kind to chase a prey down, they usually come right back.

“Seishiro, I-I’m sorry…”

He did not look at Akihiko’s face; he knew in his bones that nothing in the world could ready him to see his teacher crying.