11 Not worth it

That second smoke screen! to be defeated by a lowly trick! The cultist cursed his own carelessness, He tried to activate the magic from his ring again but a sharp chain pierced his shoulder.

"ARGGH!" He cried in sharp pain. He then looked for the origin of the chain and to his surprise, it came from Balthazar. But that is not what surprised him. Magic! Balthazar used magic!.

The cultist tripled check but he found no faults in his magic. "How?!" He shouted as the pain surges his body.

Another chain pierced the cultist. Balthazar walked slowly towards him. "Nullifying magic is certainly good for preventing the mana to circulate in the body. But unfortunately for you, my magic do not use mana."

"Lies! all magic use mana, no matter how strong your elemental prowess are!" "Trick this must be a trick!" The cultist refused to believe in Balthazar, 'That smoke from before!' He strongly believe that this was all an illusion, created by Balthazar's potion from before. He tried to dispel the illusion using a spell of his own.

His spell was activated but nothing happened, he could still feel the pain. It was no illusion!.

He looked at the man who are slowly approaching him. Balthazar's gold and black aura leaked. This was not an illusion either. He could feel the ground tremble with every step Balthazar take. Fear! he could feel nothing but fear. The pressure he felt was crushing him, even the pain he felt was overcome by fear.

Then he remembered, 'How could I forget, so he also have it. The magic of our lord'

"If you had it from the very beginning you could have won much easier, why didn't you use it? were you underestimating me the whole time?!"

"I can if I wanted to, But for you, potions would be enough. And to waste my magic on you." Balthazar paused for a moment. "It's not worth it".

Cultist: <!!!!>

He needs to flee. If he would be captured with the ring, his master would not like it and he would suffer a fate worse than death. He looked around for an escape path, but where would he go? and how could he go?. His path was blocked by Balthazar and both of his shoulders were pierced by his chains.

He accepted death. But not by the hands of anyone. He would rather take the whole village with him. His chant was stopped by a metal rod that pierced his chin. He cried in unbearable pain.

"Sir.... few of these cultist already left. A few of my men and villagers were held captive by them. They went east not so long ago... please sir... save them.. please." Zaiyan cried hugging the body of Alfred, due to her exhaustion, her cries can no longer be heard.

Balthazar removed the ring that was on the cultist's finger. The latter protested but he could not do anything.

A golden light from Balthazar's hands pulled the foul magic on the ring, and all the souls trapped were freed. He then grabbed the soul of a familiar face and put him back to where he was before.

Alfred breathed once again, Zaiyan was lost in words. Alfred were still skinny and looks like a corpse. But he was breathing!. "Alfred" Zaiyan weakly called his name. Alfred with his eyes open, could not move his body and only whisper Zaiyan's name.

"I did all I can, truth be told. It would be a miracle if he's still alive until tomorrow." Balthazar was lucky to even snatch back the remaining life force of Alfred. He worried about the ring, to have a power like this. 'This thing is not from here'.

Then sounds of horses and clanking steel approach their location. "You can rest now child."

A group of well armed knights and mage riding a horse stopped in front of Balthazar. They readied their weapons and spells and aim towards Balthazar. "Stand Down!" The man leading them commanded and got down from his steed and bowed in front of the masked man.

"Sir Balthazar, forgive my men's rudeness. My name is High Paladin Kelinor from the council."

"You there" Balthazar pointed at the man behind the high paladin. "Sir?" He answered.

Balthazar's chains grabbed one of the cultist and threw him towards the knight.

"It does not look like me at all."

High Paladin Kelinor: .......

Knight: ......