CHAPTER 14

Rhys almost didn't have time to jump out of the way when the ground beneath him turned black and green and the Terror demon jumped out of it!

"Tricky bastard!" He shouted as he rapidly stood on his feet.

The Terror demon was about to attack him once again, but his body suddenly turned slower when a wave of cold energy penetrated his body, turning to see the origin of this issue it roared at Avexis who tried casting Winter's Grasp, although she succeeded her power wasn't enough to truly damage the creature yet, only to slow it down.

Rhys used this opportunity to cast Lightning at the creature launching it on the ground, struggling in pain, it had no way to react when Abraham approached and finished the job by piercing its head.

Turning to the corridor where the demons came from, they were surprised to see that the apprentices were still somewhat holding on against the two rage demons.

"Rhys! Let's do this together and finish them off with a single spell!"

Rhys nodded at Abraham and they both approached the two rage demons rapidly. Rage demons were considered one of the weakest demons of all, although the damage they cause is quite high they really lack in the intelligence department.

Distracted by the apprentices they didn't notice when Rhys and Abraham cast a cone of frost, freezing them and eventually killing the creatures.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes sir, we somehow manage to get out of this without any serious injury." One of the apprentices answered.

"Good, follow us them, we are going back to mage quarters."

The group nodded and followed them closely through the corridors. The chaos in the fortress was infuriating, no matter where they looked it was always possible to see demons and blood mages fighting both Templars and Circle mages.

After some time they managed to arrive at the mages' quarters and were gladly surprised by the barricade erected by their colleagues.

After bidding their farewells to the apprentices, they went up the stairs.

"Abraham, I need to do something, be careful, I'll see you later." Rhys patted Abraham in the back and left.

Abraham could only nod and focus back on his objective.

His room wasn't exactly the most organized of the places, Avexis watched in amazement when she saw how messed up it was, papers filled with notes, books, and scrolls could be seen everywhere, some on the ground, others in tables and cabinets.

Seeing his stave on the bed, he took it and turned to Avexis, after thinking for a moment he thought that this would be for the better.

"Avexis, I want you to stay here, lock the door, and don't let anyone in unless you're sure that it's me behind the door."

"Master, what are you going to do?" Avexis asked worried, she was afraid that he might try something dangerous.

"Don't worry about me, I'll see if I can help somehow, the sooner we kill those bastards, the sooner we will be able to rest." He gave Avexis the key and went out of the room, turning back he nodded at her and left.

Avexis had no choice but to obey and pray for the maker, hopefully, this situation would end soon.

...

"... Their objective doesn't make sense, what exactly are they doing here!? Tell me your templars have any clues on this situation..." Edmond asked with a frown on his head.

Trentwatch sighed and messaged his head, he looked at the documents spread through his table and closed his eyes for a moment. This situation is something which had never happened before as far as he could tell.

With demons and blood mages invading the fortress, they have no way to receive notice from outside, if someone is plotting something against either the Templars, mages, chantry, etc. They could only rely on their own at the moment to try and figure out the situation.

Turning his head, his eyes swept the room, a row of soldiers stood patiently waiting for the Knight-Vigilant to command them.

"Report on the situation." He said.

"Sir! At the moment, all we know is that they broke through the first layer of the repository, and have been trying to kill as many as possible, but they seem to avoid our most powerful mages and templars, suggesting they know their identities somehow."

Nodding he thought for a moment and said, "Any leads on who's behind this?"

"Unfortunately, we didn't manage to identify anyone who could be their leaders."

"Is that so?" Edmond frowned. "They come here, steal some of our property, kill some of our mages and apprentices, and spread chaos for nothing? This is obviously a distraction, they must be doing that to prevent us from acting on something else, there is no other possibility based on what we currently know unless you think they are to commit suicide and take as many of us in the process."

Feeling Edmond's piercing gaze, Trentwatch lowered his head and sighed. "Call everyone and distribute the lyrium, we will make a strong advance, and kill as many as possible, I want at least one Knight-Commander outside of those walls accompanied by a full squad to inform the Chantry and the Seekers of the truth."

"Yes, sir!"

With their orders given, the Templars turned away and marched out of the room.

"Just that?" Edmond asked.

"Let's go help protecting the survivors."

...

The Rage demon exploded in countless shards of ice, dying just a few seconds after trying to kill Abraham.

Seeing the shards he turned to the left and nodded to kids who thanked him and left the room, running towards the mage quarters.

"Now... There shouldn't be any more demons around."

After leaving Avexis at the mage quarters he went out on a killing spree, this moment is something that although unexpected was extremely beneficial for him, at this point he probably saved 12 or more apprentices in total, besides killing almost 15 demons already.

Once this is solved, he might finally get leaving permission from the circle.

He was about to go back to the mage quarters when he suddenly felt a wave of energy crushing him, it was soft but damaging in a sense, it felt like it was trying to siphon away his vitality. Looking around he frowned when he saw someone entering the hall. It was a tall man wearing a black hooded cloak, unlike the blood mage's dark red cloak, not only that, but he only carried a normal stave made out of some sort of metal.

"Oh... I wasn't expecting to see someone here..." The man spoke with a joyful voice, the corners of his mouth raised in an amused smile.

Wasting no time, Abraham cast his barrier and enhancement magic, instantly he felt much better and he finally noticed what was basically trying to eat away his vitality, that was probably the spell known as miasma from the Entropy school of magic.

The man under the hood blinked his eyes, surprised painted his face as he stood motionless watching the boy.

"Well, who would have thought, I didn't know that the knowledge on the sniveling rattus' magic still existed..." The man smiled and walked past Abraham, not even bothering to attack.

Seeing the man trying to leave, Abraham frowned. Who did this guy think he was? Did he seriously think that he could simply walk inside this place so freely? Besides, what did his words mean? Why did he have such a strong Tevinter accent, could they be the ones behind this?

Clearing his head from such distracting thoughts, he called out to the man. "Stop right there! Give one more step and I'll attack you."

"Hahahaha!" The man started laughing, he hugged his belly and almost fell on the ground as he laughed. "Why don't you try to enter the golden city, you have better chances of succeeding at that. Besides..." The man looked at him from the corner of his eyes. "I'll do as I please. And there is nothing a lowlife like you will ever be able to do about this."

Frowning, Abraham didn't hesitate anymore, he warned the man and he still chose to ignore his words. Running towards the man, Abraham conjured his spirit blade and ran towards the man. With the blade lifted high, he brought it down with speed, trying to slash the man in a single movement, but what happened next made him open his eyes wide in surprise.

The blade was knocked back so hard that it felt like he tried to hit a stone with it! However, it still managed to tear apart half of the man's cloak, revealing what seemed to be a golden Tevinter armor with an uncommon design, although it still bore some resemblance to the common Altus mage armor.

"Hoho! Such a powerful body, you probably aren't that far from the physique of a Knight-Commander, unfortunately for you, at my level, not even that bastard of an Archon would ever be able to defeat me."

The man's eyes shone brightly with a red light, the ground beneath him broke as a powerful wave of kinetic energy hit Abraham with such strength that his barrier was broken almost instantly, the powerful attack threw him away, making him fly towards a few crates on the back of the hall and breaking them all.

The wave of pain assaulting his body was unlike anything he had ever felt before, Abraham tried to move but the pain intensified with the action and he spat out some blood. Lowering his head he watched with a frowned face as blood spilled through his pants a sharp piece of wood pierced him in the leg somehow.

"Do you feel it? The pain, growing as time pass, it is so... Reinvogarating isn't it?" The man laughed. "I do it with my body from time to time, it helps me feel better, it reminds me of the path and the destiny that awaits me ahead when I finally get rid of this curse."

Smiling, he reached out his hand, the bright red energy now forming an aura around him, at that moment Abraham gasped as he felt the air in his lungs being drained away as his body was lifted in the air.

With less than a gesture, the man forced Abraham's limbs to stretch with such power that he felt like his limbs were about to be torn apart. "You see? This is what you get from defying me, but lowlife has always been like that, hadn't they? You truly believed that there was something you could do about me, but little did you know that you stood in front of someone who will become a god!

"Now you suffer, this is my punishment, but know this your aberration, today marks my first step towards my objective, the other six waste their times with useless objectives, but with each passing day, I approach mines... But be glad, for I have seen your potential and won't end your ant-like life, for now, when the time comes, you as well as the others will willingly bow down to me."

With a single motion, he threw Abraham on the ground and left the hall. Seeing the man leaving, Abraham couldn't help but curse his luck as he tried to slowly reach out towards the sharp wood rod that pierced his leg.

Biting his lips, he closed his eyes and in a single motion pulled it out, feeling the blood gushing out, he closed his eyes and spared no effort in the healing process, using his knowledge of biology to assist in the process of healing the veins, the muscles, etc.

As he healed himself, he heard footsteps coming towards him, turning to look, he was greeted by the sight of 30 templars marching in unison. Following them from behind, were both Edmond and Trentwatch.