Chapter 19 - The Boy, the Demon

Judeau sat a few steps away from Viktor. The mercenary leader was still lie down with his hands as pillow, Judeau was watching the brothers' condition as he began to talk with the leader.

- "Back in the manor I found weird how easy was to kill the men on the second floor… I attacked quickly… but still, they seemed unable to defend themselves… they didn't even flinched" Said the enigmatic archer – "A now this wind magic…" said him pausing for a moment.

- "The boy…" Said Judeau… - "He is not who he says he is…" affirmed the archer.

Viktor listened to his words attentively… he was gazing the sky in a contemplative expression

- "He is connected to Maximilian…" Said Viktor after a moment of thinking, they were serious while discussing the subject.

- "Syldis would not have involved us if he weren't… and I do believe the boy is searching for him." Viktor turned his head and looked to the Dracar corpse once more

- "The boy is powerful, but that can be explained by the Magus influence on him, he may really be his apprentice…" turning once more towards Judeau – "But I agree… he is not telling us everything…" after saying that the mercenary leader smiled and relaxed his expression – "But who can really blame the boy? He is smart to keep things to himself in this lands… Even more so when in company of mercenaries".

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It didn't take long for Levi and Riou to reach the city, the big gates were open and they rushed through them.

Levi was in a hurry and quickly directed herself towards the mercenaries' camp entrance, she began to speak with Riou without looking back.

- "Let's go gather more men… it won't take long to get Viktor and Judeau, then we…" Noticing something wrong behind her, she suddenly stopped and looked, as nobody was there she quickly searched around for the he was nowhere to be seen.

Frowning her eyebrows she turned around and continue with her mission, as Viktor was waiting for her.

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Riou was going quickly through the streets towards the east side of the city. "It was a mistake to take the mercenaries help… I could have investigated both places by now if I was alone…" Thought the boy rushing through a dark alley. The only activity in the city by this time was near taverns and Inns, aside of course from the eventual shady figures on the alleys. Riou was searching for the House of the Landgraves. And as he approached the east side, a bad feeling began to grow inside him. "Something is wrong… I need to hurry" thought the boy.

The east side of the city seemed to be designed to some of the lords, as most of the houses there were mansions with big garden spaces. "Great, how do I know where the Landgrave's live now?" Thought him looking around, trying to identify anything. "I need directions…"

Riou kept going, now his target was the dark alleys, he wanted to find anyone who could point him in the right direction…

It didn't take long for him to find a group of 3 shady figures, leaned towards a wall between two houses. They were clearly monitoring the mains street.

Riou smiled and walked directly towards them.

It was a fat man and two women, the man wore the common folk clothes and had a dagger to the belt, he was ugly with double chin features and oversized head, he was wearing a small hat that covered his hair, and the characteristic odor that he hasn't washed in months could be smelled when the wind blew from his direction. He was about 40 years old Riou esteemed. He was just a bit taller than Riou.

The women were wearing small clothes, showing great extent of her legs and cleavage. They put some sort of makeup on their faces and body that poorly hid bad skin and some scars, it was a poor attempt to look prettier… They were not beautiful or young as all their features were saggy and mistreated. Both of them were shorter than the man.

The women showed no interest or reaction as the boy approached, they seemed very used to the job. Both had the usual dark hair and dark eyes combed in a similar fashion, in a wavy hairstyle.

The man step forward towards the boy going to his encounter.

- "It's 5 coins, 9 for both of them… payment upfront" Said the man with a sense of superiority, and clearly trying to intimidate the boy.

Riou ignored him and just asked what he wanted to know – "Where is the Landgrave house?" Said him in a serious tone… He had no time to spare, something was bothering him and he felt he had to hurry.

The man showing contempt replied - "If you don't have money get out of here boy… you don't wanna get hurt…"

Riou stepped forward, getting very near the fat smelly man, looking him straight to the eye – "I won't ask you again… Where is the Landgrave's house?" Said him slowly in a menacing tone.

The fat man smiled with a sense of superiority… he slowly reached for his dagger… but before he could pull it, Riou protected his right hand with mana and quickly punched the man in the lower jaw, with a right hook… knocking him out cold. The fat man fell to the ground between the women who now acknowledged the boy, looking with a mixture of fear and surprise to him…

Riou looked at them seriously – "So… where is it?" Asked again.

- "North of here, keep going until you reach the graveyard, his house is the one to the right, following the cemetery walls." Quickly answered the one to the right.

Riou nodded and rushed to the direction, the women relieved stayed in the same position as he left… They didn't even try to help the fat man who was still down unconscious.

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The cemetery was massive and occupied great part of the north part of the city. It had stone walls all over its border, not too tall and Riou was able to climb it without too much effort. On its top he could see many mausoleums all over the graveyard land, they were far apart and seemed only entries, like doors to big underground tombs, no crosses or tombstones could be seen on the top. "Lots of underground passages by the distance between them…" calculated Riou looking at the mausoleums, he also noticed a house to the east… The Landgraves clearly were the caretakers of the graveyard.

Riou jumped down inside the land, and began to follow the wall to the east as he guessed that the big mansion in the distance should be the house he was searching for.

The cemetery gave an eerie atmosphere, as it was completely empty and silent, the dark entrances at the mausoleums gave a feeling that some monstrosity would crawl out of it at any moment… Riou shivered by the thought he could be in a thrash horror movie "No matter the world you are… a cemetery at night is always spooky…" thought the boy while going in the house direction.

Reaching the 3 floor mansion, Riou looked around it, no light in any window "Everyone inside could be sleeping" Realized the boy thinking Max was already gone and that he reached Eleanor's house too late… this one could be a normal house he would be trespassing now…

Aware of this he still followed his guts that urged him to search for a way in. Going around the house he found none, every window in the ground floor was tightly closed and the doors were all locked. Riou could only find one of the windows in the third floor opened. "That's my way in…" thought the boy as he didn't want to break any window or door… he approached the house and got right below the open window.

Putting together his feet, and pointing his palms towards the ground he began to concentrate his mana through them, "I need enough force to lift me to the window…" a jet of air began to blow towards the ground while a whirlwind formed around the boy's leg… both forces pushed him up, allowing him to adjust the direction as he moved the hands and feet.

Sound of the wind was not loud, but could be enough to alert someone nearby, he gave a few moments, but no one appeared.

Took a few tries to Riou get the hang of it, the control and the power needed to slow bring him up required a lot of concentration. But once he got it down, it was easy to reach the window… "Maybe with this I could have jumped the cliff and gone after the escaping mages…" thought the boy remembering the castle attack.

Grabbing the window ledge he looked inside to make sure no one was there before coming in. It was dark but it was an empty bedroom, Riou quickly got inside dismissing the wind magic.

Inside, the room was barely illuminated by the light that came from the open window, but it was enough to show Riou that it was well adorned, paintings of landscapes and red sheets on a high quality bed "Fancy…" Thought the boy looking at the bed.

Using his stealthy skills obtained by years of practice in many different games, he analyzed his surroundings after reaching the bedroom door. The upper floor seemed full of bedrooms connected by a large corridor in the center with a red carpet adorned with images of blue flowers and golden stripes. A stairway down could be seen down the corridor to the left of his position.

He could see nor feel anyone's presence in that house… he silently moved through the shadows reaching the stairs, they were wide and went straight to the ground level, and it had openings to access the second level. Riou looking to the design noticed that the space was poorly utilized… but it was clearly designed to impress visitors who came in by the front door, to be received under a big chandelier and a huge, detailed and decorated stairway.

The house was ostentatiously decorated as well, many valued objects like chandeliers, silver, golden cups and candle holders all over the place. Many paintings of a man with black hair and beard. Strangely the house seemed well cared, no dust or webs could be seen anywhere and still not a single light source could be found in the house interior. Luckily his eyes were used to the darkness by that time and the weak moon light that passed through the clouds was able to indirectly cast some light through the main window above the front door.

Riou began to go down the stairs, the second floor was very similar to the third, a corridor with many rooms… Riou felt an ominous feeling coming from the ground floor as he approached it, a vile stench assaulted his nose when he left the stairway at the ground floor.

"Smell of Death…" Thought the boy not liking it one bit… "Oh shit… graveyard… empty house… foul stench… I know this pattern…"

Now on the ground floor, Riou noticed paying attention to a small section of the door, a strange faint red glow, approaching it he saw a small rune carved in the door… looking around he now noticed that it seemed to be present at every window he could see from there as well… Deciding to leave it aside he turned back to face the stairway, he needed to continue his search.

The ground floor had 2 ways, to the right and to the left of the stairway, to the right Riou could see through the open doors what seemed to be the servant quarters and kitchen… to the left, he noticed a closed door to the very end of the house and corridors that leaded to other rooms. But that closed door got his attention…

Nearing the closed door, the smell intensified, he approached his ears to the door, but nothing could be heard. He got down on the floor, looking through the door gap, but it was too dark inside to see anyone there… but to his amazement, he was able to notice a faint red glow shining on the floor.

"Really strange… a trap perhaps?" thought the boy getting up… He touched the door and poured his mana through it, feeling the rune magic power Riou involved it with his own mana, containing the magic on the rune trying to prevent it from activating.

Feeling confident, he put his hand in the door handle, slowly opening it… the light from the window at the entrance was able to disperse some of the shadows… allowing him to see a storeroom with some shelves and sacks on the floor… nothing of ordinary could be seen there, but the smell of rotten flesh increased even more… but uneasy and following his guts he put his finger up and called upon a flame, big as a candle light, seen a bit better now he stepped indide the store room… The stone floor squeaked as an old wood.

Riou quickly got down and searched for a hidden Trapdoor, it had a small cord attached to one of the sides, pulling it up he was able to open the trapdoor, it was a wood plank disguised as the stone floor.

When that door opened, the already strong and characteristic fetid odor, intensified, forcing him to cover his nose. The trapdoor had a small stairway to an underground passage, looking inside Riou could see a stone corridor lighted by torches on the walls.

A man scream echoed from the deeps of the corridor

- "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Graveyard, empty house, incredible foul stench, underground passages and screams… great… just great…" Riou was cursing his luck at that moment.

He got down and walked through the small corridor cautiously, wary of traps and possible enemies in front. He also noticed the corridor was inclined. Each step brought him deeper into the earth.

As he approached the end of the corridor, he noticed that the ceiling was getting higher and higher. At the end of the corridor he saw a large room, connected to other 2 corridors at the right and left side adjacent walls from where he was coming. The room was bigger than the whole Drinking Bear tavern ground floor, and it had torches fixed to the walls which were made of big gray stone blocks put neatly together, the ceiling was high and forming a dome with the stones.

Many tables with alchemy apparatus, glasses and substances held by iron wire. Old books and parchments all over the place. In the center a wide round well filled with a red liquid almost to the top… in the ceiling, all over the dome many different red runes, very similar to the ones he found in the door but in a much larger scale and glow intensity. The runes were written all over the dome and some walls as well, it covered the entire room.

To Riou's left, near the corner of the room there was a pile of corpses, the top ones seemed fresh, but the ones on the bottom showed signs of advanced decay… "Probably victims or bodies extracted from the cemetery for experiments" concluded Riou.

On the far side to the left, many iron cells, they were made of thick bars connected forming a square, enough to hold 2 persons inside, a door could be seen in each one of them. Almost all of the cells seemed empty, but Riou quickly noticed in one of them what seemed to be a person lying down in the cell floor. Right next to it 2 dead bodies on top of a table with many substances and tools near them, seemed as they were being used as experiments of necromancy, guessed the boy.

But what really caught the boy's attention, was the black hooded man. He was near a big green rock that resembled an emerald by the color and transparency, fixed to the wall at the end of the room. It had a palm of diameter and was lapidated skillfully like a beautiful jewel.

Below it, a gray haired man was chained to the wall by his hands and feet, unable to move and fighting to remain conscious.

"Max!" Recognized Riou as the Dark mage approached the prisoner once more.

- "You are surely resisting bravely, much more than she did…" Said an old man voice with a dark tone to it - "Shall we continue old friend?" he said approaching Maximilian, and rising his hand touching the green stone that was right above the prisoner.

The green stone began to shine brightly, and with it the very wall itself in a glow of a light shaded green, revealing many runes that descended from the stone to where Maximilian was been held prisoner.

A green twisting light, as a string blown by the wind formed and began its way towards Maximilian's head…

As it touched him Max began twisting in pain and agony.

"Crap!" thought the boy as he noticed that Maximilian would not endure it any longer… without much thinking he rushed forward, trying another sneak attack as man in black robe was focused on Max.

As he entered the room the red runes at the ceiling lighted up brightly, making the Dark mage stop and turn around immediately. He was wearing the same robes used by the attackers in the castle. Beneath the hood Riou identified white hairs down the man face and a very short and trimmed white bear. He was an old man, probably over his 70 years old.

"A trap?" asked Riou readying himself for any attack from the runes…

- "Seems like we have an intruder…" – Said the dark mage pointing his hand towards Riou, he could clearly see a ring with a dark red stone on it, resembling a big ruby.

- "Riou!" Said Max when he noticed the boy… relief could be seen in the Magus eyes. Turning around, the mage could clearly notice the change on Maximilian, the dark mage got very intrigued by the boy and lowered his hand.

- "So you are acquaintances…" he said slowly – "And by this old fool reaction… he clearly thinks you will save him… how curious!" Said the dark mage in a mocking tone looking to Maximilian – "Is he, by any chance, your new disciple?"

The dark mage turned to Riou – "How fortunate of me to meet a fellow apprentice, this shall be our reunion!" continued in a mocking tone.

"So he is the owner of the house and the last Apprentice of Max, Lord Landgrave…" concluded the boy.

His mocking expression suddenly became a morbid serious one, Riou understood he would make his move and readied himself against him.

- "I confess I don't know how you entered my house without me noticing, but it doesn't matter now… you are clearly alone and inside this room no one can stop me." Said Lord Landgrave pointing his hand and ring to the dead bodies near the cell, Riou saw the big ruby briefly shining a faint red glow.

The 2 corpses on top of the table began to move, standing up and walking towards the boy… The advance decayed of the bodies were severe, ribs and part of the cranium could be seen, the flesh was rotten and had a dark brown color to it, many cuts and substances could be seen stuck to the flesh, they had no eyes and roamed slowly, mindlessly approaching the boy…

"Well… that confirms it… necromancy is a thing here… and oh my god, what is with this smell, I thought it couldn't get stronger… It's ten times worse now that they are moving…" thought the boy with a tense expression at his face as the vile stench assaulted his delicate nose…

Noticing the tense expression on the boy, the dark mage rejoiced

- "Hahaha! Did you just realize where you got yourself into boy? How will you deal with the undead?" Laughed the dark mage looking at the boy

- "How can you stand this smell?" Said Riou snapping his right hand fingers, both of the undead stopped in place and a white glow poured out of all holes of the undead body, principally eyes and mouth. The both corpses collapsed as soon as the light vanished…

The dark mage showed a confused expression… he pointed his ring to the same corpses, the ring glowed once again… but this time the corpses didn't move.

- "Impossible! What did you do?! No magic can be cast below this runes without the ring!" Shouted the dark mage at the boy…

Maximilian was exhausted but still conscious, watching the scene he faintly laughed, as he knew, well enough, the power of whom his former apprentice was challenging.

- "It seems now it was YOU who didn't realize where you got yourself into…" Mocked Maximilian looking up to the dark mage with some difficulty.

That statement made dark mage furious, he brought his both hands up, pointing his palms to the ceiling and using his ring to channel his mana to conjured a massive fireball above him, its diameter was bigger than the dark mage himself. It had a white flame core and orange flames on its borders, clearly a very powerful fire spell and as soon as it formed, it was thrown at the boy…

Riou was ready as soon as he saw the flames forming. To the dark mage just seemed that the boy brought his right hand to his left shoulder and then he swung it in a violent horizontal movement to the right, and once it finished the massive fireball collapsed on itself, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

The dark mage couldn't believe his eyes, he couldn't see how his fireball vanished without a trace… To him it was not possible that the boy did anything. He could only think that he made some kind of mistake while conjuring it…

The boy began walk towards the dark mage as a form of pressuring him into action… Riou wanted to see what else the Dark Mage was capable of.

The dark mage pointed his ring once again at the boy… and began chanting in elven tongue.

Riou could feel the temperature around him dropping considerably, "Ice magic!" thought excited the boy as it was the first time he was experiencing it. Riou spread his mana in a large radius around him and commanded it to agitate the air molecules around him, creating a barrier of heat. He then got ready to whatever could be thrown at him.

When the dark mage finished his chanting, to his and even the boy's amazement, nothing happened… Riou looking to him in confusion asked

- "So… what else was supposed to happen?" The Dark mage was baffled, the boy that should be a frozen block was still talking and walking…

And what was worse to the dark mage, even if he suspected that the boy was able to use magic inside the room, 2 of his most powerful spells somehow did not work. The fact he couldn't understand why was driving him mad.

The old Mage couldn't help but to blame his ring, he looked to it once again asserting it was still intact and functional…

Convinced that the ring was not the problem he began chanting in a strange language, very different than the elvish he was used to hear… he pointed his ring towards the boy once again.

Riou felt all his hair standing up on his body, an experience he was well aware by this time, recognizing the pattern of the lighting spell he quickly forced his mana to involve him to avoid attracting the lighting charge…

Massive quantities of lightning erupted from the ring in a cone towards the boy as soon as the chant stopped

Once again to the Dark Mage disbelief the boy kept approaching in a slow but steady pace as none of the lightning discharges was able to hit him. If the dark mage didn't know better he'd swear that the lightning were avoiding the boy as if they had a will of their own… afraid to touch the boy.

Lord Landgrave was clearly desperate as all his best spells failed completely, he quickly glanced to Maximilian who was relaxed watching. Finally he had understood why his former master was so confident…

- "What are you!? Why the Argonian runes have no effect on you? How can you instantly conjure invisible magic so powerful to top my best spells? How?!" Shouted the mad Mage furiously at the boy

Riou smiled and scratched his head… - "Let's just say, I'm not from around here…"

The Dark Mage still not defeated, pointed his ring towards the well at the center of the room and once again began to chant in that strange tongue…

The ring began to glow more and more brightly, until it suddenly exploded in pieces. The dark Mage covered his face and looked with expecting eyes towards the red well.

The red water began to boil and menacing figure came of the water, hovering a few palms over it.

The figure was as tall as Syldis, the biggest person Riou encountered so far, its face was hidden by a ragged cape and hood, a black darkness was the only thing that could be seen beneath it, the ragged black cape involved its whole body and it seemed to hover over the water as no legs could be seen. It was very thin despite its size.

Riou looked to the dark figure and the red water with attention… "This well must be a communication device with this thing..." concluded the boy.

- "This have gone too far already…" Said Riou pointing his right palm to the entity and then to the well below it… Tightly clenching his hand.

- "Nature abhors vacuum…" – Said calmly the boy.

At that moment something that resembled a silent explosion occurred inside of the well, making its wall collapse. The red water vanished quickly to its bottom as if a sink drain had been opened. At that same instant the figure vanished together with the red glow on runes at the ceiling. The well was clearly powering them.

The dark mage couldn't believe what happened…

- "My well of souls… over 20 years gathering power to conjure a powerful abomination from beyond the spirit world… and this boy ended it in an instant…" Said the dark mage falling down on his knees still staring blankly to his well…

Riou left the dark mage to its thoughts and went towards Maximilian… the boy touched the chains that were imprisoning him, they rusted in a second, crumbling completely a moment later. Freed, Maximilian muscles were exhausted from the position he was being kept and the torment it was to endure the strange Emerald power, Riou helped him to sit down to relax his body for a moment.

Maximilian nodded with a smile to Riou, showing the boy he was comfortable. His real concern was not himself. The mage expression became preoccupied as he looked to the cells… Understanding his wishes, Riou quickly went towards the only cell that have someone inside it.

Breaking the cell bars the same way he did with the chains he was quickly inside. Down on the ground an old lady wearing a dress as the noblewoman did on the castle. This had tones of dark blue and white stripes adorning it. She was clearly over her 50 years, with gray hair and a few wrinkles at her face… she still possessed a beautiful aspect to her. Approaching her Riou turned her in a more comfortable position, he noticed she was unconscious and weak, but breathing steadily.

- "She is alive Max!" Shouted Riou for the Magus relief.

Maximilian sighed as his head fell down, a heavy burden was lifted from him as his some of worries had left him with that news. And with a renewed liveliness he looked up towards his former apprentice with burning eyes…

- "You had fallen beyond redemption, Albert…" – Spoke the angry Magus raising up to his feet – "Using Argo's Dark Rituals to defile the dead… consorting with evil entities… helping the Council… and for what?!" said the Magus in a loud angry tone.

Standing up, he began to walk with some difficulty towards his former disciple, with burning eyes as if a turmoil of rage burned inside of him…

He stopped beside the kneeled Dark Mage that was still staring blankly to the broken well…

- "You wished to force your way into my mind with that damn stone… after all this years, you still want to know my secrets… to take a look inside my mind" Said the Mage looking his former apprentice, that hearing those words regained some of his attention, he was able now to look at his old master..

Noticing that he had his attention, Maximilian continued…

- "But instead, let me show you something else… as you now prefer to walk amongst evil entities and dark gods, what I offer you is a much greater gift… a glimpse into a true demon's soul…" The dark mage eyes widened.

Maximilian removed the hood on Albert head, showing an old man face, he was clearly over his 70, white hair and some flaccid skin, he had an unhealthy skinny appearance. Wide dark eyes looking upwards towards his former master… Max put his hand on the Dark Mage head… The Magus knew his former disciple's curiosity would be the end of him.

Maximilian concentrated and began to form a pathway with his disciple, but differently than the other time, Max was not extracting but forcing images…

The magus brought forth a great quantity of extremely disturbing images that had been burned in his mind, and forced them into the Dark Mage's mind.

The Dark Mage saw the selected images, gore, death and rivers of blood and disemboweling. Truly indescribable terrors to a simple that had no idea what a movie or a game is. All he could feel as he watched them, was a sense of insignificance.

All he lived so far, was nothing compared to the horrors that the owner of these thoughts had walked through, unscathed. If an evil god existed, this was certainly his mind… was all the dark mage could think as the images ran amok inside his head.

Mind reading techniques were rare even amongst the most powerful mages, as it had a costly price at any mistake. It consisted into forming a mana pathway between the minds to extract bits of information from one mind to another.

What Max was doing was the opposite of that, forcing one's thoughts into someone else mind was an entirely different level of difficulty. It was hard to form a pathway into an unwilling mind. But once formed, the receiving mind could not control the flow of the mana and information, which meant it could easily be overwhelmed by it, which resulted in the death of the receiving mind, in all attempts.

Few moments later the dark mage eyes began to lose its light as he fell to the floor… Dying with a terrified expression.

Max didn't regret his actions, but still the act of killing his disciple took its toll on the Mage as a great sadness could be seen on his face - "You always were a curious one…" – said while looking at the lifeless body on the ground…

Riou looking at Maximilian – "Let me guess… I'm the demon…" said a conformed boy…

Max looked back to Riou, forcing a smile to reply…

- "You certainly are the most frightening existence I know my friend…" Said Maximilian in a mocking tone, as he slowly sat down near the body, he was truly exhausted now.

- "I began to think you wouldn't show up… what took you so long to get here?" Asked Maximilian looking to the boy that was tending to the lady inside the cell.

Riou got confused… - "I didn't know you were here" Said him looking to the Mage – "it took me 2 days of search to get here… So what happened? Why didn't you tell me anything before leaving?"

Maximilian pondered for a moment, recollecting his memories before continuing - "I received a disturbing letter that morning, I saw it as it came into the run, it was pushed under the door… I tried to see who put it, but there was no one there by the time I looked" – Said the Mage remembering that morning facts.

- "It said that the Eleanor was captured… and that they would kill her if I didn't go to the Landgrave's house immediately…" Said Max pausing for a moment

- "I didn't have much time to spare… but before leaving I went to your room… as you were not there, I put the letter on top of your desk, under the candle holder and rushed here… Even if you didn't know how to read it, anyone in the castle would be able to"

- "There was no letter Max… and no one saw you leaving… also a few hours later the castle was attacked by the Twilight Council I think. They almost kidnapped the queen and the princess…" explained Riou – "I think they lured you out to weaken the castle defenses, this here was only a ruse to their real target… they wanted to cripple the alliance with the Northlands."

Maximilian became extremely preoccupied by the facts he came to knew. It took a while for him to process the boy's words… - "It makes sense now… they knew I would rush to Eleanor and used Albert's hate towards me…" – He looked towards Riou - "Luckily for us they didn't take you into account…"

Riou nodded in agreement while his mind drifted back to the letter Max left in his bedroom.

- "The question now is, who took the letter from my room…" – Said Riou intrigued by the identity of this person.

Riou suddenly stood up and left the cell to face the entry corridor as noticed a presence coming from it, soon after he could hear footsteps coming in his direction.

3 familiar faces appeared weapons in hand, Judeau with his bow, Levi and Viktor holding their swords… they relaxed at the sight of the boy.

- "Are we too late? Did we miss the whole party already?" – Said Viktor sheathing his sword, Levi followed his action right after while Judeau put his bow to his back.

Riou smiled to the mercenaries presence – "You missed for just a few minutes… how did you come here so quickly?"

- "Levi brought horses and a carriage to the riverbank, it sped up the trip back… after your disappearing act we knew where you are going and we came directly here as soon as we arrived at the city." Spoke Viktor looking around the strange laboratory with a preoccupied expression… - "Is this what I think it is?" Said him walking towards the center of the room, looking at the well – "An Argos' Defiler mage, inside Allard capital?" Asked Viktor preoccupied looking to the body of the dark mage.

Riou looked towards Max "This is with you old man…" unsure of what to say…

Max taking the cue addressed them, especially Riou…

- "Unfortunately, yes… Albert Landgrave was my apprentice about 50 years ago, at that time, his curiosity was greater than his ability…"

Maximus sighed before continuing

- "He was a power hungry man, he wished to be better than everyone else… but lacked the humility to accept his own flaws and refused to work on them… in a sense he was his worst enemy…" Said the Mage in a sad tone looking at Albert's body.

- "It took too long for me to notice" Max paused for a moment before continuing – "In the end we fought… he lost and swore vengeance… I thought he was young and would grow out of his hate eventually… and as you can see" Maximilian pointed to the surroundings…

- "I was wrong… he ended up being used… lured and seduced by the Council with the forbidden spells of Argos' death mages… he even got his hands into an Argonian Emerald…"

Viktor looked to the big green stone in the wall behind them… - "So that's the stone Argos use to safely extract information from prisoners… a fearsome device that exhaust the mind and body of the victim, slowly but surely to break the defenses against mind reading techniques…"

Riou looked once again to the green stone, thinking in the history between Max and his apprentice he began to walk towards Eleanor once again, it was past the time to leave that fetid room already… Riou feared that the smell was stuck on him and would never leave his nose.

- "Give me a hand with her, let's take them both to Syldis tavern… they need a place to rest… " Said Riou to the mercenaries.

The Viktor took Eleanor while Judeau and Levi helped Maximilian to leave the room… Riou waited for them to get some distance… he walked the corridor until he reached the stairs… turning around and facing the room once again, he sent his mana towards the room they just were, filling it with some of his mana, he combined it with the rotten smell creating some methane gas… just enough to reach the torches causing an explosion… he just wanted to bring the ceiling and walls down, his intention was to bury the evidence without alarming the whole city.

Riou wanted to keep the Council spies unaware of what happened there, keep Albert's death a secret for the moment… perhaps buy them some time.

The mercenaries felt a small tremor as they left the house gates into the street, they looked behind just to see Riou coming out of the house… The group now together kept going towards the Drinking Bear Tavern.