Back at Mack’s house,

Mack kept looking at the runes on the device in his hand, even being the case that he nano bots in his eyes showed the name and purpose of each rune, it was just that, without the actual rune circuit those runes were nothing, he would need to crack the precise way to use those runes inside a rune circuit so they could show its effects.

Mack had already tried a few common rune circuits he thought that may apply to the situation, but they didn’t work in the end.

“What a banger, to know the runes and not be able to use them,” said Mack, throwing the device at the table and reclining his back in the chair.

Mack put his hands behind his neck and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what to do, but no clear ideas came to his mind. The only thing that remained was ‘try and error’ and Mack hated that.

‘Old Man, give me some translated martial arts manual or something like that. I need to improve my hand to hand combat. I always wanted to learn Krav Maga. There is something close to it that you know?’

[You will be able to learn martial arts once you enter the tower. I don’t think you need it now, is better if you focus on the shadow steps]

‘Indeed, but this will be hard as milking a rock. I tried a few combinations already, but nothing came out. I’m truly lost here. The runes that appeared at the device, or they are not all of them, or the circuit needed for them to work is very complex.’

[What do you expect? That black chameleon skin powder is not used on a daily basis. I’m even surprised that the wave analyzer could recognize it.]

‘Is that so? Art, too, said he never heard of it, but I simply thought that was not his expertise. When I think about him, I think of guy who knows about plants and not animals. I think I’m being biased by my poor knowledge of common things,’ Said Mack, stretching his back and raising from the chair to take a cup of water.

[You should start with the common tongue. I could put a translator in you nanobots in your eyes back in the tower, but I think is important for you to solidify that. Languages have a deep meaning in its words when someone truly knows them instead of just translating them]

~pffff~ 

Hearing what the old man said, Mack almost choked while drinking water, not because he found funny, but because he finally came to a realization.

“deep meanings! that’s it!” said Mack, turning his back and looking at the device that still showed the runes of the black chameleon skin powder in it.

Mack grabbed the device and looked at the format of the runes, the curves, and the lines of it. Runes could be as simple as a few strokes of a pencil or complex to the point of looking like a miniature maze.

Mack stared at those three runes and kept glancing at each small corner of them for a long time, until, “There!” he then quickly grabbed a paper and drew another rune he knew, the rune had the same format and design at his left bottom corner, as if both runes shared something small in them. But for Mack, that was a huge discovery. It was if he had just discovered how runes truly worked for the first time.

“How I’m so dumb to never had noticed it?”

But Mack didn’t ponder over it for long and started to draw more runes and analyze them together. His work was just starting.

….

Inside his studio, Harlack, that had just finished talking with Mack, gave a faint smile and said to himself only, “Took me dozens of years to notice, I’m not sure if I spilled the beans or if you are just a genius when it comes to runes.” but his smile lasted little, as he looked at the message that had just popped in his device.

#we need to meet#

And the sender of the message was none other than Kios, the overseer of the trial that Mack took part.

“Finally, the fish is taking the bait. I guess he could not hold himself anymore,” said Harlack, putting his hand on the device and typing a few words.

The next phase of the plan was about to begin, and he had to rush the other parts. All had to be fully prepared before they could start.

The world was about to know what a Warlock was truly capable of doing, and the events that would unfold after that made Harlack only think that he wished to live more, just to be able to see all of that.

~cough~

Just as Harlack was thinking about his future, the cough came back. “I guess I will not have the ten years that I predicted anymore. All the uses of essence made me speed up the process. We need to hurry, Mack. Unfortunately, I will not be able to see your growth, or see you becoming the apex of this world,” said aloud to himself only, as if lamenting the future he will not be able to see.

Harlack opened the drawer by his side and took a small and transparent flask that was half empty already, and took one pill. After swallowing the bitter pill, Harlack felt a little better, but he knew those pills were just prolonging the inevitable.

He had no time to lose. He had to fulfil that promise he once made to his teacher.

The promise he made to Raz.

To kill everyone that once took part on that bloody slaughter, to avenge his race, and to show the true power of a warlock, not the prospects of one, but to make every single mage in all the galaxies understand that if they met a warlock, they were to bow, or die.