Chapter 12: Lost and Found
Milim
Sen burst out of the stone and landed directly in front of ten well-armed men in hoods. Her heart sank; he’d saved her, and now she was going to watch him die in front of her.
A man with a long sword attacked first, plunging it straight toward Sen.
“Watch out!” she screamed. But it was too late. The sword stabbed directly into Sen and…shattered.
The others attacked. But one moment Sen had been lying in their center, and the next he was gone. No, not gone. He was behind them.
“Shatter Vine Maxima,” he said, bringing a fist down on the heads of two men. Their skulls caved in under the strength of his attack, and they dropped like rocks. Large vines erupted from the ground. They wrapped themselves around the remaining men. Two men with magic artifacts survived because of the protective effects. The other two used spells they’d intended for Sen a moment before to remove the tendrils. The vines continued wrapping around the four that had got caught, slowly tightening. One man with a magic artifact held out a hand and focused on the vines, hoping to free his companions. Sen was on him quickly. “Flesh Sculpt Maxima.” Sen pulled the arm holding the artifact off the man’s body as if it was made of clay. It left no open wound, only a stump that looked like it’d been there since birth. Milim shook her head. That had to be a powerful spell. He’d just used it to pull someone’s arm off.
The man fell in shock. Sen shot a ball of fire into his face.
The last three men focused their energy on Sen; one magic artifact and two spells shot out. The artifact produced a beam of light. Each of the two spells produced powerful icy shards and a blast of electricity, respectively.
Sen grinned and opened his mouth. It didn’t move, but the words came. “Mana Devourer Maxima.”
The attacks converged on him, coalescing into a simple ball of purified mana. He reached out and bit it in half. The hooded men watched in horror as he chewed on their combined attack contemplatively. “Hm, not as good as I had hoped. What are you? Squires? Knights? Weak. Far too weak. I’ll never level up like this.” He flicked a hand toward them. “Butterfly Tri Maxima.” Three ethereal butterflies shot forward and through two of the cultists. They disappeared as it did so, as if they were the illusions. The final butterfly stopped a mere inch in front of the cultist in the middle, hovering in front of his forehead.
Milim sank to her knees. This kind of power shouldn’t even be possible from a first-year. If he could do something like this…he was qualified to teach at the academy. So why was he enrolled as a student?
Sen
His last opponent clenched his eyes shut as if that would save him. The only man left was the shrill-voiced man from earlier. Partly because Sen thought his voice was amusing, and partly because he knew this man could show him where the prisoners were. “You kidnapped two students from Bright Sail Academy, and from the sounds of it four others as well. Where are they?” he asked.
The man pointed to the door on his right. “Through the…through the door,” he stammered. His eyes transfixed on the butterfly hovering in front of him. It flapped its wings as if it would dart forward at any second. He was too in shock to even move out of the way.
“Great, wait here for me.” Sen turned to Milim. “Keep an eye on him, but don’t worry, our friend here will make sure he doesn’t move for you,” he said, nodding toward the butterfly. The butterfly’s wings flapped quickly in response as if to agree. The shrill-voiced man groaned.
Sen opened the door and found six people in Bright Sail Academy uniforms chained to the wall. Among them was Ilm. Next to her, purple-haired Samara. He allowed himself to relax. Samara and the others were asleep. He ran his senses over them and detected some kind of drug in their system. It would certainly be in Ilm’s as well, but she’d resisted it. “Ilm, why did you let them capture you?” he asked. He grabbed the chain tethering her to the wall and shattered it with Aggression.
Ilm pulled her hands free when he finished releasing her and rubbed at her wrist. “Well, I saw a cat. I thought maybe it was the same cat from the other quest, so I chased after it. But when I saw one of those men taking someone, I figured if I let them capture me too, they’d lead me right to the kidnapped victims. But whatever drug they used on us dampened my power to use magic, so I waited for a good time to strike so I could make it count. It…hadn’t come yet.”
Sen nodded. He didn’t like Ilm putting herself in danger, but it wasn’t like this strategy wasn’t one he’d employed before. He placed two fingers on her forehead. “Purge Poison Six Maxim.”
Samara coughed, and a green liquid splattered the floor. The other hostages did the same. Ilm’s body was more resilient; she’d already fought most of the effects, but she did sneeze and felt better afterwards. “Achoo! Oh, that’s much better!” She beamed.
Sen paused. He suddenly felt a presence; it was as if someone were watching them. He turned his attention toward the corner of the room, sensing mana congregated there. Sen held a hand out and his own mana flooded the corner, pulling about the fabric of the spell. Someone had been watching the prisoners. That meant there were others.
Milim shouted something in the other room, and Sen cursed. “Ilm, free the others. I’ll go check it out.” He hurried back and found the last hooded man on the end of a fist. Someone had punched directly through the man’s body and now held him by that same arm in the air.
Snake.
“I tried to stop him! I’m sorry,” Milim said.
Snake growled. “As if you could stop me.” He swatted his hand and the corpse on his arm slid off it. “You were supposed to come to me if you ran into danger. What were you thinking?” he spat.
Milim swallowed. “He saved everyone!”
Snake turned on her. “Yeah, well, that was my job.”
In two steps Sen crossed the room and placed a powerful hand on Snake’s shoulder. “Milim’s been through a lot today, how about you watch your tone.” He held his grip for a moment, as Snake turned back to glare at him. He felt mana rising; Snake was going to attack.
“That…that’s enough!” Oliver called out.
Sen noticed Oliver hiding in the doorway; he was leaning in, peering at the aftermath of the fight. “We need to get the other students back,” he said.
It looked as if he wanted to go check the other room, but he was too terrified of the still wriggling vines on the ceiling. Even Snake kept turning to look at them, as if he expected them to jut out at any moment.
Sen had to admit, it was pretty tempting.
Snake sucked his teeth and brushed past him.
The moment passed. Sen looked toward Milim. “Samara’s alright. It’s safe now. You can go see her.”
He looked down at the corpses. For whatever reason, they weren’t eligible for resurrection. That meant they were under the protection of a power similar to his own, or their souls were restricted for one reason or another. He should’ve kept a better eye on his prisoner, or given the butterfly instructions to…no, he couldn’t turn a spell like that against another student, no matter how frustrated he was. Criminals were one thing, but Snake was just a jerk. Still, now they were left with more questions than answers. What did these men want with students from Bright Sail, and who were they?
“You followed missing students into the sewers underground, fought almost a dozen men single-handedly and then freed the hostages…on a patrol quest?” Dean Withershade was clearly struggling to believe the report he had received. He wiped his forehead. “I’m just glad Snake was there to help. Without him, things could’ve gotten bad.”
Milim shot up in protest. “Snake didn’t do anything! He showed up and killed the prisoner Sen left alive for questioning! He ruined everything; if he hadn’t—” She suddenly stopped speaking under the glare of Snake.
The dean had surely heard about the entry exam, even then, Sen couldn’t necessarily blame the man for thinking a single student taking on that many magicians was believable. That was fine with him, for now. He needed to establish a reputation while at the academy, but there would be more opportunities. For now, it was enough that people knew he had a hand in rescuing the other students. Snake taking part of the credit didn’t phase him. Especially since Sen’s own quest would certainly be deemed an exceptional success. The mayor would have to give him something good now. Not to mention the fact that he’d contacted Mori as soon as Ilm was safe.
Snake and the others returned to the warehouse to find most of the magic essences, monster parts, and everything of value stripped bare. Mori was quick and efficient and had made good use of their temporal world storage. They might not be able to stay there for the time being, but they had storage in abundance. They’d investigate everything they’d collected later. Not to mention Sen had taken two magic artifacts off the hooded men. They were lesser artifacts, but after Tutor inspected them, he’d have a better idea of their use.
The dean signed, scanning each of the students in his office. Sen, Mori, Ilm, Samara, Milim, Oliver, and Snake. He clearly was still piecing together all of their reports, but for the moment he was satisfied. “Alright, I’ll call you all again if I have further questions.”
“Wait, but who was this?” Mori asked. “Are other students in danger? Do we need to take precautions in the future?”
The dean held up a hand. “I understand your concern, Mr. Mori, but that is a matter for the faculty and the town guard. We cannot say if those involved have any wider ties to larger organizations. For now, we believe these were magic traffickers, hoping to steal promising young mages and sell them to faraway nations to fight in wars. Rest assured, we will bolster the school’s security and take additional precautions when allowing extra assignments in the future.”
With that, the door to his office opened on its own. They’d been dismissed.
Snake rolled his eyes and left without another word. Oliver quickly scooted out of his chair and hurried after him. The others all looked at Sen first, which clearly irked the dean, but when Sen stood, the others followed him out of the room. He walked down the hallway toward his dorm in silence, a small entourage at his back. He wasn’t surprised Milim and Samara were following. They wanted to discuss this further as much as he did, and he hoped Samara might have some additional information. Something he’d missed, or she noticed while being kidnapped. When they reached his dorm room, everyone piled inside, and Mori sealed the door shut behind them again.
Sen turned to Samara. But it was Milim who spoke. “I think…I think those men were members of one of the cults.”
Mori tilted his head. “But the Dean said that they didn’t have any affiliation.”
Sen remembered Professor Crosps’ words. “The dean doesn’t want to get on the bad side of one of the cults. Some are as powerful as small nations remember.” It made sense; the school would have to take action to prevent this from happening again, but accusing a powerful faction of something like this might lead to all-out war. The faculty held contracts with promising former students, students who would return to defend and protect it if necessary. But that didn’t mean they wanted to put themselves to the test against crazed religious zealots. Milim’s theory made perfect sense. These men hid their identities because cults moved in secret. She might be onto something.
It wasn’t the first time she’d surprised him with her knowledge. “Milim, do you know anything about the cult that might be behind this? Do you have a name or anything?”
She frowned. “I don’t…but I know somewhere we might be able to learn.”
Sen arched an eyebrow.
Samara groaned. “Ugh, the library again? Haven’t we spent enough time there?”
The library. That would be where they started. These cultists had made this personal when they took Ilm, whether she went willingly with them or not. And it was difficult to get information about them from faculty members; he’d been trying since that first conversation with Crosp. If Milim thought they could learn something from the school library, he would certainly try. He’d taken a special interest in the idea of cults, anyway. If they worshipped the gods of other times, people and beings who rose to the same peaks that he had in the past, they might have access to knowledge that could help him grow stronger.
Regardless, this cult in particular had acted against him, and he would have his revenge for that.