Inorim

Inorim

Chapter:30

The trio went on, and it took them about most of the day to reach the end of the jungle.

Like yesterday, they found not even one bit of a sign of life and could only go forward. Sniffys magic helped them a lot to get them through the jungle since many plants slowed them down, but she used her magic to make a way for them to get through.

They could see the light at the end of the jungle and made a run for it. Kyle was the fastest and reached the end of the jungle first. What he saw in front of him stunned him and Richard and Sniffy joined him in his stupor.

In front of them was an enormous crater, which they did not see before on the platform, since the jungle was concealing it.

The crater was about a kilometer in diameter and the magic seemed to stay around it and did not go inside it. It acted like some kind of barrier and looked completely fascinating.

There was lava on one side that flowed around the crater's edges, and the water from the rapidly flowing river looked like it flowed into an invisible shield and stopped right there. The side with the tornados looked the most amazing and they could only stare at them in awe. The tornados had merged into one and this one was so big that it seemed to reach the heavens. Inside it could be seen some storming clouds that let out a lightning bolt every now and then, but because of the tornado which disrupted the airflow, they never heard a single thunder sound.

This entire picture should be impossible, but it looked amazing nonetheless.

The only side that looked completely out of place was the one where nothing seemed to go on. Nothing could be seen at the edges of the crater and everything was calm there.

The crater was not deep, and they looked inside it but saw nothing. Looking down there, they could only see fog concealing everything in it. It added more mysteriousness to this vast place. Not knowing what they should do now, Kyle suggested with a perplexed expression on his face.

"Hmm, it doesn't look like we have many choices here, other than to look at what is inside there." Said Kyle as he pointed to the middle of the crater.

"That's true, but if something happens and we get somehow split up, we should regroup at this exact place." Richard then added and looked concerned for some reason, but he did not know why.

"Yeah, we should be careful down there. I can feel bad vibes coming from down there. We should try to not lose sight of each other while we go inside." Sniffy said in a concerning tone.

They all agreed to that and went to the edges, and then walked down and into the crater. The slope that went on downwards was nothing compared to the one earlier back in the tunnel. The trio got down easily. Halfway down, or at least they thought they were halfway down since the fog disrupted their sight, was the time when they entered into the fog.

Not feeling any different inside the fog, they walked ahead while trying to not lose sight of each other.

At first, they had no trouble with that, but as they got further down into the crater, the fog got much thicker as they went on.

They looked at each other and Richard wanted to say that they should put a rope around them, to net get lost, but the fog churned and it was like a wave of fog that spilled over them.

This wave disrupted any sound and Richard found out that he could speak, but he could not hear any sound anymore. He lost sight of Sniffy and Kyle, which scared him and he tried to grab Kyle that was supposed to be right next to him a second ago, but he could only grab at nothing. It did not matter what he tried or where he grabbed with his hands; it took him some time to realize that he could not find his friends anymore.

The only thing that he could try out at this moment was to push magic into his eyes to enhance them. Richard did that and was stunned that he now could see a lot better. Now he could view everything in a ten-meter radius around himself.

Looking around and finding not even a hint of the whereabouts of his two friends, he steeled himself and searched for them or to find anything that could help him in this situation.

Sniffy and Kyle had the same trouble and were now walking around aimlessly like Richard, but they could not enhance their eyes with magic to let them see any better, and Kyle's physically enhanced eyesight did not help him in this situation, either. All they could see around them was fog and more fog.

Moreover, Sniffy tried to concentrate to feel the surrounding magic but could only let out a sigh of defeat when she saw nothing but densely packed particles all around her.

When the trio lost sight of their friends, they did the same as Richard and searched for some time for them, but after they could not find each other. They moved on to find their way out of here.

Richard was not too restricted and moved onwards to where he thought that the way back should be, and to regroup with his friends.

After moving for about half an hour, he fell into his thoughts, frustrated to not have had any improvements on finding his way out.

'What the hell, we were just down here for about 2-3 minutes before we lost view of each other, but moving back does not get me out of here. It's like a maze inside here. But what can I do? All I can try is to move on and hopefully, I will find my way out of here.'

While Richard was lost in his thoughts, he moved on and stumbled over something. Because of his good reflexes, he was not falling and could steady himself in due time.

"Fuck, what was that now. I saw nothing in front of me. How can I stumble over something when there was clearly nothing a second ago?"

Richard was cursing at that and looked back to see over what he had stumbled. Shocked at what he saw, he could only curse again.

There were lying some bones onto the ground that should have belonged to a human a couple of years ago and he was now even more scared. The bones were pure white and not one ounce of flesh was on them. They just laid there on the floor and he was sure that they were not there a moment ago before he stumbled over them.

"Nice. Now, this looks even worse than at the beginning. I guess we should have never entered this strange crater. This should be some trap, like the rolling stone ball before, and I can only guess that it is here to trap people inside it forever. How the hell did the bones got cleaned of their flesh in here? There is no living being inside here at all, therefore no little insects and beings who eat the flesh or start a process of decay. How come they are completely clean?"

Angry at not understanding what was going on, he put strength in his right leg and kicked at the remains on the ground. At the moment when his foot made contact with the bones, he saw them turning into dust.

Stunned at this, he looked worse than before. 'Nice I could stumble over them to notice them, but at the exact moment that I kick at them, they turn to bone dust. A nice way to freak people out. I can only hope that Kyle and Sniffy have an easier time.'

Richard thought this but was not able to change anything and could only move on.

On his way, he cast a Lumos out of sheer boredom but was shocked at what happened. He could see and feel the spell take form in front of his eyes, but after a mere moment, all the magic that he had put into it, got absorbed by something unknown and disappeared into the surroundings.

He tried it a few more times, but everything occurred exactly like before. However, the only thing that he noticed was every time his magic got absorbed into his surroundings, he found out that it disappeared in a particular direction.

Not knowing what else to do and a bit elated at the fact that he now found a direction to move in, he followed it, hoping he would find something.

With a possible way out of this situation, Richard now was much more spirited and walked in the direction where his magic was absorbed into. He did not want to run, because he wanted to play it safe and not run into any kind of deathtrap along the way, therefore he walked ahead with steady steps.

It took him about half an hour and 100 Lumos spells to reach the end of the fog. He could only thank his luck that he had no trouble casting this many light spells after his breakthrough. Had it been before it, then he would be completely helpless right now.

Richard could only smile at the sight that the fog got scarce, and he saw light shining through it and thought.

'Finally, I thought I will need to use Lumos forever. Even if one Lumos does not cost me much of my magic, the one hundred ones took their toll on my whole reserves. I only have about 50% of it remaining. If this had gone on for longer, I would have not known what to do.

To sit down and be defenseless in such a situation and to regain my magic in such a place should not be a good idea. I don´t even know if it's safe to absorb the magic in here. Good, that I did not have to test my luck. Let's see what I find here.'

He stepped out of the fog and, at the same moment, was stunned at what he could see.

The sight in front of him shocked him and he could only look stupid in the picture that appeared in front of him.

There was no fog about 10 meters in diameter and the middle could be seen as a human. But said human was completely wrapped up in chains. Only his head and feet could be seen clearly, and the rest of him was wholly tied up in chains.

The man was standing in the middle of the fogless zone and had his eyes closed. On the chains could be seen some strange symbols that made no sense to Richard. They looked like some kind of magic was constantly channeled through them. The symbols on it were lit all the time and seemed to have the function to restrain the human in the middle of it.

At the moment that Richard saw this shackled human, the human also opened his eyes and let loose a burst of laughter that sounded happy in one second and somewhat crazy in the next.

"Hahahaha, you made it, kid. I thought I would have to wait for a much longer time to speak with someone ever again."

Richard stood there stunned for a moment but got his bearing back quickly and changed his expression to a calm look while he thought.

'This is something that I did not expect. Seeing that this man is chained up completely should mean that this whole place should be a sealing array and only here to bind its prisoner. Looking at all the measures that were taken for only one man to be bound here should mean that he is more powerful than I can imagine. Seeing the look on his face that looks completely healthy should mean that he could be immortal, or at least be able to live for a very long time.

I need to play this safe if I want to leave this place alive. Even if he should not be able to do anything to me, because of the chains. I do not know how to get out of this damn fog. I don't want to try my luck and use up all my magic to go in the opposite direction of where my magic flows. That would not help me with finding Kyle and Sniffy again.'

Thinking this in a split second. Thanks to his stronger mind that he got upgraded along with his body and magic, but he did only find out about it recently and was happy to have a much better grasp of his memory and a faster reaction time.

It was like he broke through some kind of barrier as he had his breakthrough and his mind could grow a lot stronger after that. Therefore, he only realized this gradually over the last few days. It was not a huge upgrade, but the improvements could be seen over time.

Richard spoke in a steady voice to this human being while he studied his face. But made sure to not into his eyes, since he did not know what he was capable of. He cupped his hands in front of himself and bowed a little to show his sincerity.

"It's nice to meet you, senior."

All of what could be seen of the man in front of him was his youthful-looking head, and he seemed to be only about 25 years old. He had golden eyes and completely white hair that was cut short. He had a scar on his face, which made him look a tad menacing but also kind of added mysteriousness to his whole being. The scar was beginning on his right cheek and ended right under his eye.

"Hahaha, it has been forever since I have spoken to someone. It's good that kids nowadays have not lost their respect for their elders. What's your name kid?" asked the man and had now a curious smile on his face.

"My name is Richard. Can you tell me your name, sir?" answered Richard, since he had found no need to hide his own name.

The man could only frown a bit when he thought of his name, but he seemed to have recalled it after a moment and answered in a cheerful tone.

"That took me quite some time. I had no need for my name for a looooooong time and gradually forgot it. To think that I could fall to this point." He sighed when he said this, and it took him a moment to talk again.

"I am the grand wizard Inorim. One of the strongest beings of my time. You sure have heard of my name." Inorim said this in an arrogant tone and sounded sure of himself.

Richard wanted to chuckle when he heard this but got himself together and to not let out any unsightly emotions to anger Inorim.

He thought about all the history books he had read but could only answer in a truthful voice. "I am sorry, but it seems that I cannot recall having ever read your name in any history book I have seen, but that does not mean a lot since I need 2 more years to even attend a magical school."

Inorim got shocked when he heard that this kid in front of him did not know his glorious name and that he was not going to school yet. He asked in an enraged tone.

"What do you mean you don't know my noble name? It should not have been that long since I am here. Just a couple of centuries or something like that. Maybe I have somewhat lost track of time since I am here, but it should not have been that long? What year do we have right now?"

Richard heard him and could understand how he felt. Inorim should have once been famous and been sealed in this place here for an unknown amount of time.

The first thing that he gets to know after he talks with another person is that his name was lost in the river of time. That surely would enrage everyone that would be in the same circumstances.

"We currently have the year 1988." Answered Richard and looked at the confused face of Inorim.

"What is that? I was imprisoned in the year 5125, after the first magical era. How could it be that it is now 1988?"

He looked in confusion at Richard and waited for his reply.

Richard thought. '5125? After the first magical era, that does not ring any bell at all. That should mean that he is from a long time ago or that from another place altogether. However, that also seems not to be the case as he speaks fluent English.'

"I am sorry to inform you that your calendar seems to be out of date now. I have never heard of it before. We follow now an entirely new one which started 1988 years ago."

'It should be better that I hide the fact that we now use a muggle calendar. That could spell too many problems. It also looks like that answer has stumped him a lot.' Thought Richard while he looked at Inorim's shocked face.

Inorim heard this, but could only laugh out loud when he realized he should be sealed inside this mountain for a far longer time than he had assumed.

"Hahahaha, it really seems that I grew old with time. I did not even realize how many years have gone by.

To be so long sealed in this place, I swear I will take my sweet revenge if those old geezers are still alive right now."

Inorim said this in a lost voice while he understood he was sealed for a far longer period of time than he had realized. But that changed in the instant into an enraged tone as he swore his revenge.

Richard could only ask curiously. "Senior, how did you actually end you end up sealed here in this place?"

Inorim heard this and got angry at this question when he recalled the details of his capture. Richard felt the surrounding air change, and the pressure got stronger and stronger, but at the moment he thought he would die there could be seen some change in the chains, which got a lot brighter and the pressure disappeared immediately after that.

Richard started to breathe again, which he had unconsciously stopped for a moment and was thankful to be alive.