Chapter 4: Magic Library

Several thousand miles away beyond the Darknar forest, at the edge of a cliff by the raging Red river, the wind was cold as the night was dark but the multitude of stars and the full moon expelled most of the darkness.

Two figures moving at an incredible speed heading for the cliff came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the cliff over looking the raging current of the Red river. “Should we jump?” one of the two female figures asked the other in a fluster as she frantically stared at the bottom of the cliff and over her shoulder.

“Do we have a choice, it’s either the water or him. I’ll rather take my chances withe the river.” “But…” She didn’t wait to hear a reply as she immediately jumped off the cliff, the other female contemplated for only a second, she pursed her lips in a bid to complain but ultimately decided against it as she jumped off the cliff to the untamed waters below.

The cliff return back to it’s previous calm for only a short while, three other figures appeared in the distance dashing towards the cliff in almost the same insane level of speed as the previous figures. They also came to a stop at the edge of the cliff, they looked at the waters below, there were two men and a woman, the larger well built man asked waiting for confirmation like a trained soldier “Should we jumped after them?”

“No need, if they survive the jump the current will take them towards the more dangerous region of the Darknar forest, if the monsters don’t finish them a demon scout will” said the slimly built man with a long face and without a change in expression, he had short blonde hair and dark skin with long pointed ears.

After staring at the waters below for a while his bright golden eyes dimmed until it was now dark brown. He turned around and said to his two companions “Let’s return before we are discovered.”

“Alright.”

The other two nodded slightly and turned around to follow closely behind. The female who was wearing a silver mask turned her head around for a second to take a look at the river below the cliff ‘Stupid’ she thought before turning back to follow her team.

••••••

Along the Red river near the Darknar forest, two figures could be seen swimming in against the now docile current headed for land, they slowly crawled out of the water with all their strength, they stood up and walked slowly, their movements were weak and each step was harder than the last, still they managed to walk all the way to a large rock by the side of the river in other to rest, they were obviously out of breath and panting heavily.

Fighting against the rivers current was hard enough but doing so while avoiding all the dangerous monsters in the water had clearly taken a toll on them.

The first to exit the river had Raven black hair that only extended to her neck with light green eyes and a thin face, her nose and eyes were well proportioned and her lips were cherry red, a little thin but full, which complemented her dark skin and long pointy ears, even wet and covered in dirt, it did nothing to hide her beauty.

“Are you alright Liz? How’s the leg?” she said turning her head to look at her companion with a hint of concern in her voice. “I’m fine, my leg’s not broken i just twisted it a little in the landing” Liz said with a faint but charming smile on her face. She was a little pale, her fair skin looked almost as white as snow but her dazzling blue eyes were glistening with life, she had soft facial features and her long blonde hair was tied in a ponytail to allow easy movement, even in her current condition one could tell she was quite beautiful as well. The red River wasn’t exactly known for being clean, the two women did not come out without being covered in dirt, it was why monsters liked it, or maybe it was a result of their hard work.

Both ladies were wearing dark coloured easy to move in clothing, it was without a doubt covered in dirt and hard to decipher. “Don’t worry Rain i won’t slow us down.”

“That’s not what I’mm worried about, and you don’t need to stand yet, i am sure they won’t follow us this far, but we can’t stay here for long.” Raine held Liz shoulders and stopped her from standing up, she looked around then pursed her lips and continued. “I think we can rest here for a while, the strong monsters in the forest won’t approach the red River, any one that does i can easily handle myself. Once we rest for a few hours we should head down the river to the Demon King’s fallen castle, as long as we don’t get spotted by scouts when sneaking in, we can rest and recover there for a month or two before seeking refuge from the Daki tribe in the Eastern boarders.”

After saying that she stood up slowly and said “Wait here a bit I’ll get some dry wood we can use to start a fire, after all i am not a demon like you, I don’t have as much resistance and i can’t see at night without magic.” Rain said smiling, without waiting for a response she started to walk towards the forest in search of dry wood.

Liz wasn’t able to interrupt her friend as she had already started rambling and she talks pretty fast, she could only smile and say in a low but sweet voice “Alright, be careful.” Rain did not stop nor did she turn her head as she just waved her hands indicating that she was aware. she soon disappeared into the woods.

Liz was left to her thoughts and the pain she felt in her legs, she had underplayed the injury to her leg when she had jumped after Rain down the cliff, although she did not have a broken bone she was sure the bone in her legs had fractured. If she was human she would have died on impact, neither she nor Rain could use wind magic well enough to the point of breaking their fall and flying would just make them an easy target besides they were already out of Mana at that moment and were unable to try anything else.

‘Even though all the high level demons and the five families are fighting with each other on who would become the next demon King they still send scouts to monitor the castle to prevent any one of them from getting desperate and doing something stupid. we should be really careful, it seems this might actually be the less dangerous plan.’ Liz had let her thoughts wander as she waited for Rain to return, this region was mostly abandoned but several key locations were claimed by the powerhouses in the demon continent so if they got caught by one on Ty heir way they wouldn’t get off easy.

••••••

Astrology magic was a technique meant to use the stars alongside ones Mana, complimented with a corresponding magic Circle to do things such as divination, it can also be used to calculate the date by receiving the exact rotation of the planet you’re on, by picking up on the wavelength of every single living organism to form a conscious network of information which can also be used to tell ones location and even time.

This kind of magic was not actually rare but using it was a different story most mages could only tell the time with it. To tell the date was a little more difficult but it didn’t have any special requirements as long as one knows the corresponding magic circle, it was important to picture it perfectly unlike other forms of magic that allows for little mistakes, so as long as you could do that and was not stupid even someone as weak in magic as Tyler would be able to use it. As for divination, it would take someone really special to be able to receive any feedback.

After being dumbfounded for a while, Tyler took deep breaths and calmed down, after all this was better than death by drowning, a fate he had been sure would happen. He walked back into the room and sat down in the sofa he was sitting on before, the night was cold but it didn’t bother him too much. ‘Hmm what am i supposed to to do now, all my formal friends are probably dead by now, I can’t even go to the Human continent those assholes used me and my team as cannon fodder and when we got captured they didn’t even bother rescuing use and just started bombarding the place.’ He furrowed his brows as he had a bad thought. ‘I guess I’ll stay the night here and head for somewhere else by morning it might be too dangerous to stay at the Demon King’s Castle, since am not aware of the situation in this era.’

“Umm maybe i should go to the elf’s continent?” ‘No they don’t really like humans that much, they don’t care much for other races and they didn’t take any sides during the war, remaining neutral.’ Tyler stood up as he paced back and forth. ‘I don’t know if that has changed during the last thousand years but it’s better not to take any chances. Damnit, with that logic no continent might be safe and with my level, I might not even make it out of the Demon continent alive.’ He went back to take a sit as he massaged his temples. ‘I should try finding a weapon first, and maybe some supplies, even though I have been awake for almost seven hours, am not hungry at all but that might just be a side effect of sleeping so long.’ Tyler frowned a little as he got up to explore the other areas of the castle, it was better to find anything that would be of help to him now that he was still full of energy, but as soon as he took a step forward, he notice something, there was another door in the room next to the bathroom door.

Even though the room was very large or maybe it was because it was so large, Tyler had carefully observe it when he first entered, there was only one other door to the room and it was the bathroom door the balcony had a different sets of doors that looked nothing like the two other doors.

When he had entered the room the first thing he had seen was the very large bed positioned in the far end of the room directly opposite the door, there was a desk to the right of the room as well as a small empty bookshelf and the entrance of the balcony, and opposite that was the bathroom door, now however there where two doors. ‘When did… is my memory still fucked up?’

Tyler was stumped at first before he remembered where he was currently standing in ‘That’s right to not have something strange happen in the Demon King’s chambers would be the truly weird part in this.’ After coming to this conclusion he decided not to investigate the new door after all that’s how most horror movies take a dark turn.

Tyler then headed for the door leading to the hallway, he only took a few steps when a cold breeze blew through his skin sending a chill down his spine.

Thump thump thump…

His heart was beating faster and louder

Step Step Step…

Each step he took was getting heavier as he got closer and closer to the door that leads to the hallway, he took one more step then turned his head slightly towards the strange door that had appeared out of nowhere only to see it tightly shut like nothing had happened. ‘Was it all in my head?’ he couldn’t figure out what was going on and he couldn’t feel any malice or danger from the door, the only reason he wanted to leave was because this was the Demon King’s chambers, although it wasn’t like his intuition was that great to begin with.

Turning his attention back to the door in front of him that leads to the hallway he strangely felt a sense of danger coming from it instead, it was an innate fear that was creeping into his core.

He had an alarming feeling that opening this door would have terrifying consequences. ‘What’s going on here, why is leaving a more dangerous choice?.’ Tyler was confused he didn’t know if this was some kind of deceit spell or if he should trust his instinct after all he had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a thousand years he hadn’t trained for all that time maybe his senses got crossed because he hadn’t been using them for so long.

After a few seconds of deliberation he decided to study the strange door first, before making a decision. He took a couple steps and didn’t feel the pressure he felt before so he just continued and arrived at the strange wooden door, it looked almost identical to the other two doors, but had what he would consider magic Runes inscribed on it.

Tyler then began to study all the little details in the door, but he didn’t notice anything special about it apart for the little writings. ‘Umm it might just be a secret room that the Demon king kept his most priced possession. Did he use a concealment spell? if so why couldn’t I leave, is it part of the spell?’ Tyler came to a conclusion based on his previous experience with magic, he didn’t study much but he had a Tier 3 secret mage as one of his party members.

Secret mage were good at concealment spells so he had seen a few of them in his time as an adventurer. Tyler decided to open the door after some deliberation, it wasn’t because he was careless and not cautious but because it might be the only place in the castle that was not raided.

This might be the only place he could find a weapon in the castle. That way he wouldn’t have to wander the demon continent unarmed.

He placed his hands on the door nob then turned it and push.

Creak…

Tyler stood in front of the strange door he had just opened with vigilance only to see the content of the room in front of him, there wasn’t any weapons or any signs of danger.

The interior was full of rows and rows of tall shelf’s filled with books, different types of books and scrolls that he had never seen before and the weird part was unlike the rest of the castle there wasn’t a single speck of dust in the room or maybe it was an hall a very large hall that looked as clean as the day it was built.

This was not what Tyler was expecting, this was a Library, and judging by the books on the shelfs and the carvings on the walls, this was no ordinary library.

This is a Magic Library.