Lorn's Blood Trail

As we walked through the maze-like corridors, we came across various bisected bodies. Each cut was incredibly smooth with no hint of bone fragments or blood splatter.

Someone came to mind but before I could speak, Kelia said:

"Lorn's handiwork. Undoubtedly."

I nodded in agreement. There was only one of us who carried a sword. After all, only a blade was capable of such smooth cutting damage.

*Lorn is such a troll. A mage carrying a sword.

I shook my head in amusement.

I could vividly imagine our adversaries discomfited expressions when the long-range magic battle they expected turned into a full blast melee.

"Judging from the blood, he was here just a few moments ago." She added after analysis. Then, she turned toward me and remarked.

"You should wear their clothes. They are in a relatively good state."

I stilled instantly.

Pause.

Pause...

Pause...

*You mean to tell me that I have been fighting naked all this time!!?

I realized suddenly that since I was eaten like a tender piece of meat by that demon, I had been naked. When it chased me around...when I rejoined with Kelia...when we fought it together...and finally, after we won and were looking for our team. NAKED.

The embarrassment was almost enough to defeat me where a maddened demon wasn't able to.

I kept an unbothered front and calmly picked a few pieces of clothing from the corpses. I put on the pants and the hooded long jacket.

"Hum... thank you, I forgot myself for a moment," I addressed her, keeping a straight face. I could swear I saw her lips twitching briefly. It was like she was trying not to laugh.

I looked at her suspiciously. Was this the same girl with an empty expression that I met?

She coughed and spoke.

"Let's go, Lorn should be close."

We resumed our advance at a quickened pace. Kelia's words turned out to be true. We came upon a scene of pure butchery at a turn.

Limbs were flying to and fro. Highly pressured blood surged like a geyser and painted the walls like a canvas.

In the middle of the chaos, Lorn stood unflinching. At certain intervals of time, he would slash at the void. Following this, no matter where the enemy stood distance-wise, he would be cut down without a doubt.

He was like an opera conductor with each swing of his sword, a melody of death followed. Before long, the ground was covered with blood.

He turned toward us having felt us. His eyes were lit with magical power, a closer observation allowed me to perceive the various glyphs on his skin and under. They were moving like fishes in a river.

"Oh? Samsara and Kelia. Judging from the direction you are coming from, I take it you resolved the chilling presence I felt appear 4h to 5h ago?" He asked in a way of greeting.

"Indeed, a demon was summoned. We took care of it. This place is bigger than we think. Also, it feels like spatial magic is a building block of this place." Kelia answered and remarked while observing the walls.

"A demon? interesting. Yeah, I noticed too. Not only the glyphs protecting this place are sophisticated, but they are also arranged in a way that makes the space around here contort." Lorn added his observations.

"No wonder I felt weird while fighting the demon." I understood now. After all, we fought in a large area. He also chased me around for a time. If space wasn't tampered with, we would have stumbled upon the limit of this lair long ago.

"If I am right the one behind this organization is an incomprehensibly powerful mage. The like that can only be found in the Magic Council." Lorn spoke with a stern visage.

*Magic Council? Chloe had come to a similar conclusion after the fight at Razach's.

"In any case, we were lucky to be able to find each other. I think it's because of the rampaging demon. He destroyed all the glyphs on his path." Kelia said finally.

"If that's the case. Finding the others will be complicated." I said.

"Not necessarily."

Lorn had a smile on his face. "Although I am not as powerful as the demon and thus cannot brute force it, I am a glyph master. I didn't spend these hours merely getting rid of the trash." He looked at the dead cultists disdainfully.

"I was studying those glyphs. Although I may not be able to fully comprehend them yet, I found a way to deactivate them."

"That's great." To be honest, I was getting tired of these endless corridors and rooms.

"Though, I will need your help." He looked at me with glowing eyes.

"How?"

"If I wait to channel enough natural energy to cast, it will take a while. I have a faster way, but it requires your sacrifice." He explained.

"Let me get this straight, you want to sacrifice me to obtain enough energy to cast your breaking spell?" I asked my eyebrows raised.

"Exactly, I've been thinking about it. You are the perfect incarnation of inexhaustible energy. You won't stay dead anyway. So it's worth trying." Lorn said his eyes slightly fanatical. Somehow he reminded me of the demon.

Sigh.

"Fine. Let's get it over with."

I came before him and closed my eyes. He didn't hesitate, with a flourish of his sword, it was over. I felt a mosquito bite and my head was removed from my body.

*He is smooth, I'll grant him that.

When I resurrected, I saw that he had taken my blood and drawn a complicated circle on the ground.

The circle seemed to be composed of various glyphs. Lorn was seated cross-legged. After a few minutes, he lit up like a LED.

"So much power..." I heard his muttering.

The blood circle turned into ashes. Lorn was now literally pulsing with power.

"Is it enough?" I asked.

"Yes more than enough." He answered. He held his palm together and said a single word. It was a single word but it brought a large number of images to my mind. It was an element that encompassed the whole.

All of the images pointed toward the same general meanings:

Cancel, turn off, stop, BREAK...

After that, a wave of energy exploded from him and permeated into the walls and the floor. Most likely, it wouldn't stop until the entire structure was covered.

There was a terrifying backlash, as the glyphs fought back. The guy who laid them put a defensive mechanism in place to avoid any tampering.

An enormous force descended upon us. Taken aback, Kelia and I were blown backward. It was as if the array of glyphs had consciousness and knew who was trying to disrupt it.

Lorn stood unmoving despite the pressure. He was still glowing with the power he leeched out of my death. He was offsetting the power of the glyph array by himself. Lorn's calculations proved to be accurate.

The energy he got out of my sacrifice was enough to fight off the defensive actions of the array of glyphs. The previously barely visible glyphs started flickering violently. The flickering lasted a few minutes before the glyphs powered down.

The energy seemed to bleed off and Lorn fell on the floor breathing heavily. He looked like he had just exerted a great deal of strength.

I stood up a bit dazed.

"I guess, it worked?" I spoke to no one in particular.

"Yes, it did."

Kelia answered then helped Lorn to his feet. With this, we should be able to find the others without being led astray by the array.

"Now, Kelia would you please cast a locating spell on the others?" Lorn asked. He was already recovering from the momentous spell.

"Ok. It is easy enough now that the mystifying influence is gone."

*So, the enemy prepared all of this to divide us and pick us off one by one.

I thought to myself.

Kelia flipped her palm open, red vapor rose from it and coalesced into a brilliant scarlet miniature arrow. It moved erratically for a few seconds before settling in a particular direction.

"Follow me." She led the way.