Chapter 20: Two Formations

Technically speaking, he was looking at two magic spell formations working together to form a whole, both working together to accomplish something. Using two formations instead of one was much easier to do, as you would divide the workload giving each formation simpler instructions instead of making a single circle that had to be given a complex series of instructions with many variables input to offset any chance of failure.

The two formations were placed about two meters apart from one another, the furthest one had a stone slab in the middle with a petite woman lying quietly in the middle and with round colorful spheres hovering at its edges. The other one was closer, in fact, it was right in front of the entrance of the caver, it had a single person hovering in the middle while surrounded by a myriad of other creatures and beasts.

Before Annabel could even react to the sight Lorthic was already hovering his hand over her head.

[Sleep]

A dim light flashes over from his hand causing her eyes to roll over falling into a deep sleep, her body swaying as it was about to fall, but Lorthic gently caught her before leaning her against the cave wall outside the small cavern.

Making sure she's in a comfortable position, Lorthic switched his attention back to the room and focused on the closest formation. The others only reacted with slight surprise on their faces when they saw him put Annabel to sleep, but after acertaining what he did there expressions returned to normal.

Looking at the formation Lothic easily saw through its secrets, it was no surprise if a formation of this level could elude Lorthics understanding he might just have given up magic altogether.

The formation was a customized necromancy type formation that absorbed life force. What was interesting about this formation was that the creatures surrounding the human, be it the goblin the wolf, or the rabbit, all of their life force was being pulled out of their bodies and being transferred to the human in the center, the human seemed to be a death thin middle-aged man whose hair was entirely gray, probably due to excessive loss of life force. As the life force passed through this human it mingled with his personal life force before being transferred over to the other magic formation via a red stream.

When the life force traveled to this formation it went through a series of runes before entering the petite woman, the woman had long black hair a dainty nose, she should have been a beauty, but at this moment her face was deadly pale her body just as thin as the human in the other formation and there were dark veins covering parts of her face hands and feat, Lorthic presumed there were more on her body but the thick violet mage robe she was wearing covered most of her body.

The spheres hovering at the edges of the formations had different colors but further, they were identical and had some runes carved into them forming another magic formation. This one seemed to only have the function of absorbing mana from the air and releasing it into the magic formation in which it was situated.

After giving the spheres another look, Lorthic discovered they were in fact monster cores, a very rare and expensive thing, in this world as only Warrior rank monsters and beasts had cores. The color of the core of course determined which attribute the creature wielded before its death.

"What does sir think of our formations", Zazi asked after a while.

Lorthic pondered for a moment on what to say before speaking, "I do have to commend whoever designed this formation for their practicality, this formation is somewhat special thought in that it is not meant for giving life force to the recipient but feeding life force to the poison within. This means your feeding the poison although this will negate the effects on your mistress this is in the long run, not an advisable method."

"Sir is correct, we are merely stalling for time, Gerbaut has been working on a cure for a long time, but unfortunately he has made little time, but still we have hope.", Zazi said a bit despondent but it soon recovered as if a flame of hope still burned in her.

"I see", Lorthic nodded before continuing his analysis. "From the life force of the creatures moving through the human, it seems that this poison is tailor-made for human, and you are making the life force of the creatures mix with the humans so as to trick the poison into thinking that it is only human life force it is consuming."

"Sir is truly knowledgable, it seems sir has already uncovered all the formations mysteries", Zazi gave wry smile before continuing, "Rei and I had studied and worked for a long time before creating these formations, I am quite shocked sir could see through it so easily"

"Oh, so one of you are skilled in the use of magic formations and runes" Lorthic asked.

Zazi blushed when she heard Lorthic before speaking, "While I do have some superficial knowledge concerning formations and runes, truthfully it was Rei that put most of this formation together, I merely showed her some necromancy spells that use life force as a basis"

"So she made this after looking at some spells?", Lorthic asked.

"Yes"

Hearing her answer Lorthic became silent for a moment before looking at her and said, "You said you showed her some necromancy spells, would that infer that you are skilled in necromancy?"

Shaking her head Zazi replied, "No, I have never used nor studied necromancy but I did inherit quite a few books written by my ancestores, sadly neither I nor my brother have any talent for necromancy"

Lorthic nodded his head in understanding, "I see, if there is time and if you would allow it I would like to peruse your collection of books.", He said.

Zazi immediately agreed in a respectful tone, she was no longer as stiff as she was before when interacting with Lorthic, she did not have to spend long with the man to realise that he was not someone with ill intent.

"Thank you" Lorthic said with a satisfied tone, before returning his attention to the spell formation. "If there is time I would also like to instruct Rei in better ways to structure her runes in the creation of formations, this can be considered compensation for allowing me to study the books in your collection.

Zazi was natural happy with this, she did not expect to receive something like this for allowing him to read those useless books of hers, although she might not directly benefit from this, she was all too happy to have her companion gain in her stead.

After some time Lorthic, whos was busy further analysing the runes finally had his eyes stop on the woman lying on the stone slab. "As per arrangement if I can cure this poison that has aflicted your mistress you will allow me to take the remaining life force of these beings."

Zazi obviously wasn't going to argue with this, not to mention that saving her mistress will make the remaining life force useless, she would even have scoured the forest for more creatures to give as a source of life force if Lorthic had asked for it in return for saving her mistress, that is given Lorthic could do it first.

"It is as you say, sir", Zazi answered him

Hearing her Lorthic turned his head to face her and said with a faint smile that lifened his gloomy look a little, "Good, and there is no need for such formality, your and your companions can just call me Lorthic."