Petrified

Blue stood close to the window letting the grey sunlight fall upon him, he opened the history book of Altheon once more, he skipped one page and proceeded to the next.

"Zeroeth of the After Dawn, Recorded History."

After the Zalgan has been vanquished the land was taken by humanity. Those who were given magic were allowed to keep it, thus the bloodline of mages started, they formed different countries and systems, until this day humanity have lived on.

According to some ancient texts, Melias fell in love with a human and thus she started the bloodline for the Light Mages. The Light Mage City have remained independent throughout the lands as imposed by the Goddess herself, they would only interfere if the darkforces would make its appearance. Thus the city have been aloof from the petty political issues of Altheon.

The Sword of Righteousness were said to be lost since Melias' children fought against each other on who claims the legendary weapon. (for more information about the weapon, go to page 136.)

Blue tightened his advertent eyes, he quickly flipped several pages until he stumbled upon the given page.

"The Sword of Righteousness - Holy Artifact."

Most of the details about the weapon were limited to speculation as none have seen or found it. But based from the ancient records its hilt was said to be formed from a fragment of the clouds, making it soft to the grasps, between the hilt and the blade was a wing taken from the feathers of the angels, its blade was said to be forged from pure light, slaying any form of darkness in its path.

Blue cackled satedly with a grin revealing his fangs. "I found it, now all I have to do is to locate it." He said.

He continued skimming the page.

The whereabouts of the holy weapon is subject to speculation, some have presumed it is hidden underneath a distant mountain, the others told it was hidden below the Light Mage city. But one thing is for sure it still exists, since it was a relic that will last longer than the earth and skies itself.

Blue sneered. "What a let down, but I assume the Light Mage woman knows where it is."

The library woman scampered towards him, angrily lending him a book, Blue took it and the woman silently whirled, strutting away. "Hey woman, why is there no categories for the books on the shelves?" Blue said stopping her.

"They are arranged based on arrival." The woman said without looking back, then left him alone.

As Blue held the book he inspected its cover, it was wrapped with a light blue leather, its surface was smooth and soft, a bit dusty however. The title read, "Fundementals of Magic."

He lifted it open, upon the first page he started skimming.

"Nature of Mana."

Humanity have been blessed with the blood of the Goddess Melias, its true nature is still a mystery but mana as it is known can be commanded to act in a certain way. Mana in its raw form is comparable to an ordinary smoke, it is useless, however when applied with a command or spell, mana can be utilized in several ways. Including shooting out bolts of lightning, a direct control of plants, or even traversing space instantaneously, and many more.

Only few however are capable of mustering a mana, if ones parents are not capable of creating mana, the children will likely be too. Only one out of twelve people are capable of creating mana.

Blue stopped reading for a moment then skipped several pages.

"Branches of Magic."

There were seven known specializations for magic they were fire, wind, earth, water, light, electricity and nature.

Each branches have characteristics, they were; production, those who create an element from magic, summon, those who summon a creature or a material using magic, control, those who manipulate a certain element, temporal, those who tamper space using magic, and law, those who create a certain rule for their magic (sealing is a good example).

Blue paused for a while then looked for the page regarding the page for the Light Magic. And there he found it.

"Light Magic"

Light Magic stood out from the others due to its effectiveness against the dark natured creatures even if they exist in aethereal form, for example the armors, barriers and skin of the demons are easier to penetrate with light magic. However it was more difficult to learn than any other types of magic, since its nature is very difficult to visualize (as we learn in this book magic spells originate from visualizations), several light mages often have a hard time learning even a basic light spell.

As Blue read silently on the window, a flying dagger flew from the outside heading to his face. He scooted and dodged then laid his eye upon the dagger that hit the floor, he traced its source then a demon leaped upon his body, causing him to fall over and a demon sat above him.

Blue frowned. "Who are you!" He hissed.

The blindfolded demon cackled. "The one who'll take your life." He rose his dagger over his shoulder and aimed it upon Blue's face.

Blue gritted his teeth. "Don't make jokes with me."

When the demon sunk his blade to Blue, Blue halted it by clasping the blade with his fingers. Both trembled as they pushed each others force. Blood were starting to dribble on his arm as he gripped the blade, his fingers were being cut as he held it tightly.

The demon cackled a sharp tone. "Whoever you are, you shall die here."

Blue used his leg and kneed the demon's back, the demon then got keeled over and rolled over Blue's head. Blue stood back and a spread out his fingers, he threw his arm and unleashed his blue flames upon the demon.

The demon quickly crawled away like a fox and barely evaded it. He fired several shots and the demon leaped like a frog, dodging each attacks. The impacts of his fierce flames blotted the floor with black marks.

Blue grunted. "Stay still."

The demon had a gremlin laugh. "You can fire flames without casting a spell huh? Interesting."

The demon mumbled under his breath, "Dark Shadow Cast!" he whirled and then thrown his dagger again, but this time its aim was off, it struck the floor beside Blue's foot. Blue eyed the dagger with a confused look. "I think you should practice more on how to throw a knife." Blue said.

The demon laughed menacingly. "Really? Because I hit the mark."

Blue smirked casting his fangs. "You better retreat otherwise you wouldn't have another chance to play with your knife."

In a sudden, the confidence on his face were wiped away, Blue struggled to lift an arm but he couldn't, his body felt heavy and was rigid like a statue, he held a scowl as his body slightly agitated. "Damn it, I can't move my body."

He couldn't even turn his neck, however his eyes can still move around, he eyed the dagger that were stuck upright on the floor, it was where his shadow was, right now the dagger was covered by a dark swirling cloud. "The dagger! Damn it." Blue said.

It was definitely some sort of eerie spell, but he couldn't point out its nature.

"Hahaha, you could have dodge that one but you didn't, gotten a little cocky have we?" The demon said. "Now it's time for you to die!"

***

The group inside the room stood up, everyone was ready, Celina gripped the sword tightly. Reston kicked the door open, then he charged in straight to the three bottom ranked demons, he sliced one with his sword cutting its belly open. Radmun covered Reston, he unslung his bow, then three arrows made of fire were conjured on his bow, he pulled the string then fired.

The flame arrows flew piercing the two demon's body, the arrows went through the demons chests and it caused them to collapse helplessly.

Radmun had a dismayed look. "They were weak."

Don calmly strutted to the streets, he attentively gazed to and fro on the empty environment. "Of course they were just fodder, what we should look out for are the elite demons."

Celina turned to Don. "So we're going to split here?"

Don nodded. "You four will sneak and find your way around the mansion without being seen, don't worry I'll attend to you if problem arises."

The team broke off, Reston and Radmun sprinted straight towards the town hall. While the four took a curved turn around the mansion, it will take them time however to reach the backside of the townhall, since not to mention they had to remain unseen.

As Reston ran on his path, it clanked with every steps of his iron plated boots, the noise took the attention of the demons sparsely standing on the area, the demons then frowned upon them and pursued them.

Radmun effortlessly shot them down with his magic arrows, the demons fell one by one as he chucked their foreheads. He then grinned as he stared down upon the demon corpses. "Geez, you're quite boring."

Reston cleared his throat. "Focus on the road ahead of you."

Don found himself leaping from one roof to another, traversing across the buildings, he was getting close to the town hall, it was already within his sight due to his high vantage point. Fortunately it was as usual, the barrier stood high and mighty, unperturbed from the demons trying to break in.

Don also noticed that as one approaches to the town hall, the throng of demons on the streets were getting denser. He hoped the two fighters would be able cut through them.

Celina jogged with Turner, the boy and Shiela, she turned her eyes to her blade, then to Turner. "Turner what are you gonna use to fight?" Celina said.

Turner grinned. "You don't have to worry, I have a spare knife and I'll do anything for a beautiful woman."

Celina chuckled, then their attention was directed to four demons ambling across the streets, the group turned to the alley and avoided the block with the demons. They emerged to the next empty street and continued their pace.

Shiela sighed. "I can't believe that this will take us some time."

"We have to bear it." Celina said.

***

Don found himself on a perfect spot to spy on the town hall, somewhat distant but not too far, he then assessed the state of the mansion, as expected the elite demons were guarding on each corner of the barrier. And the throng of demons are attempting to barge their way through. He counted the Elite demons within his sight, there were four of them, but based on his knowledge there were supposed to be five, it was odd since a minor mistake might ruin their plans.

"But there was another uncertainty." Don said to himself.

***

Underneath the murky skies, a broad clearing was found that stretched to the horizons, a woman with freckles on her cheek, with brown braided hair sprinted as though she was being chased by death. "I have to hurry otherwise.." She tried to create a portal so she could escape from the demon, however she used up all her mana when she assisted the others to escape.

She looked over her shoulders and the distant skies behind her were very dark, accompanied by bolts of lightning which casted a blinding light every second. It was looming and fast approaching, the landscape beneath the dark thick clouds were turning dim that she couldn't make the details on the area. On the dark area she saw a red pair of eyes that pierced its glare upon her. It sent chills on her spine as though her soul was threatened.

"Human, where do you think you're going?" A raspy lifeless voice spread out through out the land until it reached her ears.

It caused her to tremble and fall upon her legs. Her eyes produced a rivulets of tears. "Forgive me Baron."