106 Learning About the Dark Ones

"Blessing spell... here I come," Emile spoke in his mind as he made the turn left of the blacksmith guild.

Emile found the Priest Guild and walked into it.

Everyone inside the building wore white robes with a small badge on the middle-left of their chest. These people could heal illnesses, cast protection charms and could be hired for a mission.

"Hello, I want to get a blessing spell onto my sword," Emile said.

"Blessing spell? Those aren't for swords," The lady said without glancing at Emile. She was busy attending to her needs.

Emile took out his sword and wanted to show it to her. She didn't look at his sword.

Emile was awkwardly holding his sword as she worked on different activities. He closed his eyes and waited for her attention.

The surrounding people whispered about him. Their words didn't faze him.

"That sword... it can't be the Light Shadow Sword, can it," a man with a beard said walked up to Emile and grabbed the sword from his hands. Emile held the sword tightly so that the man couldn't take the sword.

The bearded man was much stronger than Emile and grabbed the sword from his hand.

"This sword is the legendary Light-Shadow Sword," the bearded man said with admiration.

"May I have my sword back," Emile said to the man.

"Don't you want to get the sword purified?" The man asked.

"Yeah," Emile said.

"Follow me," the man said as he walked into a corridor. The whispers from the surroundings grew louder.

"That's the Great Elder Razanah, right?"

"Yeah, I heard he likes to stay in his room and study the healing process. Why is he at the guild?"

"Who knows and now he's bringing a guy to the Guild Master's area."

Emile continued to follow the man. This man struggled with walking. He would seem to trip on nothing but catch himself before he falls.

"Do you need help walking," Emile asked.

"No, these bones are strong," the bearded man said with a laugh.

"All right," Emile said with an unsure tone. He felt worried about the old man.

Thye headed deeper into the corridor. The corridor opened to a garden where a man sat and drank tea. There was a small little cottage behind him.

"Razanah, I haven't seen you a while, how about some Green Tea," the man poured a cup of tea with elegance and served it on a platter.

No thanks; hey you can have the tea," Razanah gave the glass of tea to Emile in a swift motion causing the tea to spill over.

"I don't need it," Emile said as he tried to push the teacup away.

"He doesn't want your tea," Razanah pushed the teacup back to the man. The man took back the teacup.

"Why are you here on this lovely day," the man said with a sip of tea. His movement was refined and elegant.

"I needed materials to forge a Western Second Spell," Razanah said.

"To create a Western Second Spell you need..."

They talked about terms that Emile hadn't heard of. They ignored him as they talked about the different materials and composition of each material.

Emile felt like a third wheel. He wanted to leave and go do something else.

"Can I leave," Emile interrupted their conversation.

"Oh... I forgot about you," Razanah said with a hearty laugh.

"This young man has the Light-Shadow Sword in a corrupted form," Razanah said as he patted Emile's back.

"Corruption?" The man asked with a serious tone.

"Yeah, corruption," Razanah replied with a serious tone.

"They're corrupting the strong items... this is a problem," the man said.

"Who's they?" Emile asked.

"A group of individuals known as the Dark Ones. Many years ago, they were all great people, but something corrupted their being and twisted their personalities. Chaos is their goal and nothing can stop them from reaching their goals," the man said.

"Why haven't I heard of this before?" Emile asked.

"If everyone in the city knew there were individuals who would lure strong monsters into the city, then panic would ensue. They would become paranoid about others and worry about a monster outbreak. We tell the citizens that the monster wandered into the city to not cause panic," the man said.

"So, they lure monsters and corrupt items. What else do they do?" Emile asked with curiosity.

"We don't know. Those are the obvious things that we can link them up with. We don't know what they're planning or when they will attack again," the man said. He stopped drinking his tea.

"You shouldn't worry about it, the last attack was 10 days ago. Each attack has around a month break," the man said.

"Have you prevented these attacks?" Emile asked.

"Yes. Our warriors and mages defend the city whenever those people lure a great chief monster," the man said.

Do you know anything about the individuals who plan these attacks?" Emile asked. He was curious about this subject.

"Yes. One of them is my... son. His greed for strength and power caused him to join their side," the man said as he put his head down and stared at his tea. The tea rippled showing his deadpan face.

"Oh... I'm so sorry-"

"Don't be sorry. What do you need?" The man changed the conversation topic. He didn't want to talk about his son.

"Uhh... I need a Blessing Spell for the sword," Emile said. The drastic change in the conversation caught him off guard.

"All right," the man said as he stood up from the ground and walked into the small cottage.

"Don't talk about his son when he's around," Razanah said, "he blames himself for being the reason that caused his son to join the dark side."

"What did the guild master do?" Emile asked.

"Sazani promoted people around the guild for improving and becoming more responsible. The guild master's name is Sazani in case you got confused by the random name. Promoting people is a normal task for the guild leader," Razanah paused.

Emile nodded.

Razanah continued, "His son became jealous of the people who were gaining higher positions. Keep in mind that his son was only a normal guild member with no special privileges, so this jealousy was normal. Being the son of the most influential person in the guild, but having a status below others was humiliating."

"I think I know where this is going," Emile said.

Emile stated his prediction of what occurred, "his son wanted a high position and asked the guild master to give him power. The guild master declined. They formed a grudge. His son joined the dark side due to the grudge."

"You were close. His son had high ambitions and wanted Sazani to retire from his position. He wanted to take over as the guild leader. Sazani declined and said he wasn't mature or responsible enough to gain the position. His son left the guild in a fit of rage and never came back," Razanah said.

"A few weeks later, we witnessed his son with the Dark Ones. All the Dark Ones have one thing in common. They wore black cloaks with a purple demon face on their chest. His son was with them in the same attire. We tried to convince him to come back, but he gave us a deadpan face and teleported away with the cloaked individuals," Razanah said as he shook his head.

After this comment, the guild leader walked out of the cottage with water and paper in his hand.

"All right. Pass me your sword," The guild master said as he stretched his arm out. Their conversation about his son ended.

"The lady at the front desk said that Blessing Spell can't go on swords... is that true?" Emile asked. He forgot to ask this when he requested for his sword to gain the blessing.

"That is true, but there are unique subcategories to certain types of spells. The blessing spell has subcategories for items and abilities. Newer Priests don't need to learn about the subcategories since they aren't very important," the guild master said with a gesturing motion.

Emile handed the Corrupted Sword to him.

The man began drawing symbols on the paper with a pen.

He sprayed the water onto the sword. He used the paper to cover the entire sword. The paper didn't get wet by the water. The sword looked like a paper sword. Only the hilt of the sword had nothing on it.

He chanted.

His chant turned into symbols that floated in the air. After 15 seconds of chanting, the guild master stopped. He pushed his arm out in an open palm manner.

The symbols flew into the sword and the sword glowed in a warm yellow light. The paper melted into nothingness and the water disappeared. All that was left was a sword that lay on the ground.