Chapter 6

-"Hei, hei, what do we have here? A low-level warrior and his slave. Interesting." – The young man was wearing a long cloak, with a leather armor under it. He had a wavy black hair which covered his eyes, but Sal could still perceive his sharp gaze stopping on him for a moment. An irresistible fear made his hair stand. He felt like he was facing an irresistible beast.

Edward, who was far more experienced, was sweating profusely. His warrior senses were telling him that the young man he was facing could harvest their lives with a single thought. "A true powerhouse…"

-"What are you doing here? It's easy to be killed during the night…"- He said with a smile and jumped down from the carriage.

Seeing that no one answered his question he coughed, and the invisible pressure disappeared like it didn't exist in the first place. –"Hm, so? I don't hear the answer, or should I just obliterate you like the undead mutts earlier?"

Edward was the first one to come back to his senses. –"Don't be angry, my Lord. I'm only a small merchant, and I was directed to Url-Salan."

-"A small merchant…But with a novice Golden Mage as a slave."

-"I was fortunate to acquire one."

The mysterious man turned his gaze to Sal. –"Well, I don't care about how did you got this one, but now you have two possible choices." – He paused.

-"Or you transfer voluntary your contract with the boy to me, or I rip of the contract from your body my self and kill you afterwards. In your place I would prefer the first one."

Edward complexion changed. –"My lord that's…that's a bit too much…" – Sal was his ticker for good life and he couldn't let it go so easily.

Sal's complexion also changed. "From the old man I could eventually escape, but from this one it's probably impossible."

-"Too much? Hahahahahahahahah. That's the wrong choice."- Then he pointed Edward with his index finger. [Transmutation – Stasis]

The air started trembling slightly around the old man. Sal silently activated [Insight].

He saw a huge number of nearly invisible strings binding every bit of Edward's body preventing him from moving.

The evil young man sensed something the exact moment Sal activated his ability. "The boy knows some useful tricks."

-"[Extraction]"

-"AAAAAAHHHHHHH"- unbearable pain assaulted Edward making him nearly loose consciousness. Some treads of unknown energy were slowly pulled out from the old merchant and absorbed the man. After some minutes the torture was over and the binding on Edward was realized. He fell on his knees.

There was some terror in his eyes and the old face was as white a sheet of paper.

-"Now you're no longer useful, Old Man…"

In the exact same moment Edward crushed a pendant on his neck and an invisible energy covered him.

The man was surprised, and so was Sal. "That's the thing my father gave him for self-protection!"

-"Space and Time Essences! That's unexpected…" – Muttered the mysterious man. Meanwhile the next moment Edward silently disappeared.

"Hopefully I didn't offend anyone too hard to deal with…"

Sal was even more curious about his father now.

-"Slave, do you for some strange reason know where he get that artifact from?" – He wasn't very hopeful that a slave would know something so important but still it was worth asking.

Sal thought for a moment. "Well if it can help me to create some trouble for my old man…"

-"Yeah, It was my father who gave him that pendant."

The man was surprised. He mentally used the powers of the slave contract.

[Truth]

But there was no reaction from the boy. –"Hmmm, and who is your father?"

-"Victor Blacksnow. And I'm Sal'a'Zar Blacksnow."

-"Blacksnow…"- And then he started laughing loudly. Even some tears came out. –"Hahaha, so you are a Blacksnow?...Hahahahaha…and even a Golden Mage? Really…hahah…Brilliant."

Still smiling he looked at Sal.

[Pain]

–"Aaaaaahhh" – Sal fell on the ground screaming. Young man looked satisfied.

-"Why?! I didn't do anything wrong!"-

-"You're my slave now, so I don't really need a particular reason to torture you a bit."

[Pain]

-"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH"- this time the pain was more severe. –"Ok, get up and let's go. We have things to do."

He turned around and went in the direction where the dead trees were denser.

Sal stood up. –"Sir, may I know your name?"

[Pain]

-"Sure, I'm James, but you can just call me Master, my dear slave." -He seamed very happy to underline that Sal was now his slave. –"Now, shut up, and follow me."

[…]

The vegetation was becoming more and more contorted and strange. Were where no normal plants, and the ground became pitch black and dead. No animal or birds could be seen. Sal shivered slightly.

At some point the curiosity overpowered Sal. –"What happened with the forest here…Master?"

-"Dark magic corruption. Then someone uses magic to rise undead it causes a massive release of dark magic particles which affect nearby lifeforms."- explained James while breaking some branches which were obstructing the passage. –"There is a necromancer's den not too far from here. And that is exactly our destination."

-"And why do we have to go the…"- [Pain]-"AAAAAAAHHHHH"

-"It's not the time for the questions, Slave."

Sal had to stop his question and they went on surrounded by a complete silence. After e few minutes they encountered another group of undead wolfs and there was also one skeleton, but they were obliterated in one hit by James.

His only comment was: –"We don't have time to spare for these minions."

Finally, trees disappeared leaving a clearing. In the middle of it there was a square opening placed directly on the ground. –"Ok, now listen for the plan, Slave."

He pointed in the direction of the square opening. –"This is a backdoor to a Necromancer's Den. We have now to wait until the paladins start their attack on the main entrance. Then we enter, and while the holy idiots draw the attention you plunder everything that seams valuable in the outer zones of the den, and I will take everything from the inside zones."

Then he took out two rings. –"Put them on. One is the spatial ring and the other one is for the communication. To make them function you only need to inject some sort of energy…"- He looked carefully at Sal. –"You have a warrior's qi, so you have to inject it. Everything is clear, Slave?"

-"Yes."

Sal was very wary of James and didn't want to ask other questions but…-"Paladins?"

-"Yeah, an organization which hunts and destroys every form of dark magic, or everything they consider to be unholy, wicked, or just bad. Even if in my opinion they are stupid and stubborn, they still are one of the most powerful and influential group of people in Url-Salan and Url-Mazino."

-"And what about Url-Galesh?"

At this point a very evil smile appeared on James's face. –"Oh, I see. You never been outside your home and still don't understand how the three cities work. They tried to create a base in our city, but there're some cases where the bad guys win, and that was exactly the case in Url-Galesh."

He paused for a moment and closed his eyes trying to sense something. "They still didn't attack?"

Then he notice Sal gaze full of expectations on him. –"What else?"

-"So, what happened to the paladins in the city?

James looked at him like he was seeing an idiot. –"They were slaughtered the same day. After that they tried to send an army to purge the city, but only one tenth of it arrived alive near the city walls. To be slaughtered just like the one inside the city." – Now it no longer was only a tale, but they were memories. –"We poisoned their water and food, sent assassins to kill their commanders, corrupted them with gold…Hahahaha, some people even traveled all the way to the other cities to abduct some paladin's relatives and then blackmail their high ranked members. It was very entertaining thing to do…Hmm?"

Sal was looking at James with terrified eyes.

-"Well, yes, it was somehow brutal…probably…"- He closed eyes another time. "Ok, they are going to act. Finally it my time." –He went straight to the entrance of the den, and without looking said to Sal: -"Also don't forget that through the slave contract I can sense your location and also kill you with a single thought so don't try anything strange."

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

An explosion made the whole forest shake. James looked in that direction and smiled. –"Ok, let's go."

He was about to jump inside the hole when he stopped. –"One last thing. Beware of paladins. They are stupid but also a pretty merciless bunch so if they see you inside the den, they will immediately try to execute you in the name of justice or some other lame catchphrase."

-"Here we go."

James jumped down in the darkness. Sal, with some hesitation, followed his new Master and the darkness engulfed him whole.