The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 10 – Ferneth (2)

Written by : eleven

* * *

Whirrrrrrr-

The wall started to crumble inwardly with magic, like the bricks were being sucked into a vortex.

Beyond the darkness behind the wall, Ferneth and Roy’s eyes widened.

Ferneth quickly brought a flame into his hands for light, and the two confirmed what they were seeing.

Heaps of gold, chests, scrolls, magic formulas and much more. Roy noticed a couple things inside that immediately stood out to him.

One, was a small blue vial that was seemingly plain in all aspects. It was a vial containing a clear and translucent liquid and he immediately recognized it to be the item he had been searching for. The Fairy Tears.

The second thing that caught Roy’s eyes however, was something that looked like an automata in the back of the large room.

Amongst several other things, this had caught his eye because of the peculiarity of the doll. The materials made of this doll were very unique as Roy was sure that the lining of the automata was made with a coating of Mithril.

“It’s likely to be the centerpiece to the ruin.”

Ruins tended to have rooms or places that the ruin centralized around. Of course not all ruins had keepsakes or inheritances left, hence why this ruin was a complete exception and left Ferneth speechless.

Ferneth went on his own, examining some of the artifacts and magic formulas left behind.

As Ferneth went to go examine some of the artifacts, Roy did the same as he pocketed the vial quickly and determined he would use it later on in an elixir form.

Looking around, Roy saw a couple of weapons that caught his eye but they were more focused towards style rather than practicality. Simply put, it was something a spoiled noble brat would put in their living room quarters and call it Excalibur while it was really just made of cheap materials and scammed to the noble.

But as Roy looked around further, he was able to see a couple of weapons that looked actually usable.

Taking a quick look around, there were single-edged swords, maces, daggers, spears and even double-edged swords, but there was nothing close to a saber; something he used as his main weapon aside from spell casting.

With a disappointed look on his face, Roy decided he might as well check out the spears and see if there was anything that might suit Nate. 

Sadly there was nothing for the size of a nine year-old to wield but Roy thought of it as investment for the future.

In the corner of the room, buried under a pile of gems and gold, there was a rather plain-looking spear. Although it seemed plain at first, Roy thought it might be a complete diamond in the rough. He wasn’t sure why he thought so, but the blade of the spear looked especially sharp and well-maintained compared to the blades of some of the other weapons.

Surely if a spear could maintain such a condition after such a large amount of time, it had to be worth using. Opening up his spatial pocket, Roy stored a couple of the gems and gold for later purposes and stored the spear as well.

After some time examining the several artifacts in the room, Ferneth turned towards Roy and spoke, pointing with his bony finger.

Ferneth pointed towards the automata in the corner of the room.

Roy was also wondering just what to do with the doll. Obviously they would take it with them, but Roy had no knowledge of programming automatas whatsoever. The same could also be said for Ferneth, although he had a broad skepticism that soul magic might be applicable towards it. Not only that, but Roy wasn’t even one hundred percent sure that the materials that it was built with, consisted of Mithril.

“Well… obviously we have to take it with us. There’s no need to leave it here, is there?”

Ferneth nodded in response.

When the two were about to pack up, that was when it happened.

Brbrbrrrrrrrrr-
One of Ferneth’s magical alarm spells went off.

Ferneth immediately waved his hand in the air while muttering something briefly.

A black sheet of dead mana appeared in the air and displayed an image of where the alarm had gone off.

Roy started to remember what he had heard about the reports of the expedition to the Fairy’s Ruins.

The adventurers stumbled across a sea of monster corpses before entering the ruins.

As Roy had spent more time with Ferneth and Elizabeth the past few weeks, Ferneth had shown him that he was controlling the monster horde with a spell. This meant the monsters acted as a barrier of sorts.

But what would possibly destroy so many corpses of monsters so easily and presumably murder Ferneth while not taking the ruin’s artifacts.

Roy had a couple of guesses, but the answer was being revealed to them both right now.

In the image that the two were looking at, both of them had different expressions.

Ferneth’s turned to one of anxiety and Roy’s turned into confusion.

There was a group of people; mean and women dressed in white and golden robes. They were exuding a holy aura around them and it was obvious they were from the church. Roy wanted to know how they had gotten wind of this location, while Ferneth was more worried about Elizabeth being safe.

[We need to go now.]

Roy looked to Ferneth and nodded slightly before kicking the ground after enchanting himself with auxiliary magic.

[Enhanced Strength]

[Haste]

Ferneth immediately blinked; a spell that allowed one to rapidly teleport within eye distance, as he moved faster than Roy to Nate and Elizabeth’s location.

Roy recalled the man standing in front of the large group of priests and paladins from the Holy Church.

He had heard many stories about the man and knew his face only through posters and papers.

Lucius, the fourth swordmaster of the Empire.

‘Why is a swordmaster working together with the church? Was it a direct order from the Emperor?’

Roy was confused as the Holy Church and armed forces of the Empire typically had separate agendas. The Armed Forces, which consisted of the Empire’s army and was under direct command of the Emperor, rarely interfered with the religious group’s agenda.

However, Roy had no time to be worried as he sped up his pace. 

* * *

Nate was flipping the pages from one of the books within Ferneth’s large collection of literature on magical theory.

Nate already had inept and keen senses as a combatant, yet his interest was always deeply invested into magic.

Simply put, when he saw Roy casting magic for the first time in front of him, he found light at the end of his pitiful life he was living. Always taking a beating from the other boys in the village, only to come home to a set of parents that were always drunk and abused him, magic gave him something new. It was something that could help him escape his terrible life.

With his newfound love for magical knowledge, Nate ate up any theories or spell theorems that Ferneth or Roy gave him.

Although… there was one person who used a certain type of magic he would never use.

Splat!

Nate’s face was full of red blood. He looked like a tomato and the book he was reading became drenched in it.

“Dammit Elizabeth!”

Nate found himself becoming more and more emotional around this girl his age. 

She was cute, and Nate definitely had feelings developing towards her already, but she was always pulling pranks on him with her blood magic.

“Hahaha!”

Elizabeth burst into laughter and fell back on her bed, holding her stomach from the belly laughter.

Brrbrrrrrr-

As Nate was about to cast a water ball to chuck at her, the alarm magic sounded out and rang loudly throughout the laboratory they were in.

“Ack-“

Elizabeth almost choked on air as she became instantly surprised from the loud noise.

Nate and Elizabeth’s eyes shook as they looked at each other. 

Nate started to feel his body become prickly as his adrenaline started to spike. His body was already in fight or flight mode, whereas Elizabeth was already stumbling out of her bed getting her shoes on and trying to get out of the laboratory to head in the direction of where Ferneth and Roy were.

Elizabeth jerked her head and turned to Nate who was standing still; confused as to what he should do.

“Nate hurry up!”

“Huh?- oh shit.”

Nate hurriedly snapped out of his daze and grabbed his spear lying against the wall.

Hurrying himself together, the alarms blared throughout the several passages within the ruin.

Outside, the paladins and priests were buffing each other while handling Ferneth’s controlled monsters one-by-one.

Wuooong-

Suddenly the space cracked apart in a flash and Ferneth appeared before Elizabeth and Nate before they could get far.

Tatat Tata-

Roy quickly arrived at the laboratory where the others were as he stopped his hurried footsteps.

Ferneth’s will o’ wisps trembled slightly as he felt the pressure to take care of the kids.

Roy noticed Ferneth’s calm figure start to shake and decided to speak up.

“Well where are we going to go? Is there a way out around them?”

Ferneth shook his head with a regretful countenance.

Roy finally understood just how grave this crisis was.

Though the situation was sudden and worrisome, Roy and Ferneth were Mages to the core, they coldly started to analyze the situation to see what they could do.

Ferneth nodded to himself as if assuring his thoughts and collecting himself.

It was an incredibly bold and one might even think reckless decision to try and reverse the spell that several priests had assembled together. Especially when leaving it to an 8 year-old.

However, Ferneth already knew that Roy was not some simple child and that his magical knowledge was in no way lacking to Ferneth’s on the scale of 5-star spells and below.

The only problem would be the massive amount of mana required to destabilize the barrier, but Ferneth had a way around that.

“Yes, I think so. I need a massive amount of mana though, and there’s no way I can currently house that much in my core right now.”

“Yes.”

Roy nodded with a firm and competent tone.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

The two children nodded and spoke synchronistically. 

They were tense, but it would undoubtedly be a time to make or break here. They would gain great experience in a large scale fight, and they would have first-hand experience of going against higher-level mages than themselves. Roy knew it was an arduous task, but he could help from the back lines as well if he had time. Roy still had one question left.

“And the swordmaster, Lucius?”

History had shown time and time again that swordmasters were terrible match-ups for Archmages. Their incredulous speed was something that could effectively close the gap of distance between the two and prove to be fatal as their aura blade could cut through most spells.

Roy felt the odds tipping against their favor, but swallowed down his anxiety.

Ferneth was no simple Archmage, and Roy had no option but to trust him on this.

“Alright, let’s move.”

Chapter 10 – Fin