Chapter 211: A Clue, and the Creation of a New Magic
"No, Flamme," Ela's voice was suddenly sharp. She squatted down and brushed the sand from a black stone. "Look," she said.
The stone was smooth and unnaturally charred. Flamme knew at once. It was not a natural rock. It was a piece of a building, a piece that had been melted and then had cooled. And on it... she could feel the faint, yet unmistakable, trace of a dark, corrosive magic. "This is from an elven village," she said, her voice trembling. The hut she now called home had been built from the same material.
At last, a clue.
The aura had not yet dissipated, which meant the attack had been a recent one.
Hope flared in their hearts.
They began to search the area. And a short distance away, they found more charred stones, and the ruins of a great, ancient tree, and the foundations of a building that the demons had not had time to completely destroy. "The bastards," Ela said, her own voice a low and angry sound.
Just then, a group of figures emerged from a pile of rocks in the distance. The horns on their heads marked them as demons. The cleanup crew. The lead demon saw them, and then his eyes widened in shock. The human girl's own mana was small, but incredibly dense, and the elf beside her... her own aura was a vast and powerful thing, an aura that could only belong to a mage who had lived for hundreds of years. This was a fight they could not win. "Retreat!" he roared, and turned and fled. The others, seeing his panic, scattered in all directions.
"You're not getting away," she said, a cold fire in her eyes. And with a spell her teacher had taught her, a spell of thorns and vines, the very earth began to tremble. A thousand thick and thorny vines erupted from the ground and shot towards the fleeing demons. The two slower ones were instantly entangled, their bodies pierced by the sharp thorns, their movements now a series of a pained and futile twitches. But the other three... they were faster. With a quick spell of their own, they managed to fight off the vines and, in a few leaps, they were gone. "Damn it," she said with a frustrated flick of her wrist.
Ela was now standing before the two captured demons. She had a special spell, a spell her other teacher had invented to interrogate demons, a spell that could shatter their will and make them speak. The spell had its drawbacks; the demons' own minds would be destroyed in the process. He had not intended to teach it to anyone, but she had been an exception.
And now, she used it. The light in the demons' eyes went out, and they were now just empty husks. "Answer me," she commanded. "Who sent you? What is your purpose? And what is your next target?"
"General Bazalt," one of them said, his own voice now a flat and robotic sound. "He is in charge of... cleansing... the elven villages. And he has ordered us to leave no survivors, and no traces."
"Bazalt?" she said, and her brow furrowed. She had never heard the name before. "Is he one of the Seven Sages?"
Her two teachers had told her of them, the seven most powerful demons, the seven Sages of Destruction. She remembered that every time they had spoken the name, Serie would glare at him and say, "This is all your fault." She had not understood then. But now... a demon of that level... she was not sure she could win.
"The General is not one of the Seven," the other demon answered. "The Seven... they are Lord Macht, and Lord Beze... the General is just one of His Majesty's own commanders."
So not one of the seven. They exchanged a look, and a silent understanding passed between them. But he was still a commander of the Demon King's own army. He was not to be underestimated.
"And his next target?" she asked.
"A village to the northwest... about three days from here."
With that, they had all they needed, and the two demons were now... dealt with.
"We have to go, now!" she said. They had to get there first, to prevent another tragedy. She would not let what had happened to her own village happen again. "We'll have to fly. It will be too slow on foot," Ela said.
They both knew the spell, but rarely used it. The mana cost was too high. But now, they had no choice.
As they flew, a new thought came to her. The demons... they had fled the moment they had seen them. She remembered her teacher's own words: 'Demons can sense a mage's own mana, and they will adjust their tactics accordingly.' Her teachers... they had never tried to hide their own immense power. They had never had to. But she... she was not yet as strong.
"The aura of mana," she murmured, and an idea, a new and exciting idea, began to form in her mind. 'If the demons can sense a mage's strength from their own aura... then... what if I could hide my own?' Or even... disguise it, make it seem weaker than it was, to lure them in?
"Sister Ela," she said, "you know a technique to blend your own life force with that of nature. Can the same be done with magic?"
"Elves have a natural talent for such things," she answered, a look of a surprise on her face, "but it is just a form of a camouflage. You mean...?"
"To hide my own mana. Or to disguise it."
She immediately understood. To make it so that the demons could not sense her true strength. "That... is a bold idea, Flamme. But a mage's own, innate mana... it is very difficult to completely conceal or change. I have never heard of such a spell. You would have to... to create a whole new magical formula."
"To create magic," she finished.
"Yes. It is very difficult. Other than our two teachers, I have not known of anyone who can do such a thing. In fact, a great many of the spells that are used today... they are derived from his own creations." She then added, "You know that, don't you? About him? And the Codex?"
She nodded. She had even read it.
"Then you know how difficult it is."
"I know," she said, her own eyes now a burning fire of a new resolve. "But we have seen the result. If our auras were not so obvious, we could get closer to our targets. Like him... he always has such an... unfathomable aura. You can never tell just how much power he is really hiding."
A new and clear goal had now formed in her mind. "I will create a new spell," she declared. "A spell to hide, or to disguise, a mage's own aura."
Her senior just smiled. This human girl... she was a constant source of surprises. She was now beginning to understand why he, too, had chosen to be her teacher.
In the human city of the magic academy, in the great library where the original copy of the Codex of Origin was housed, he turned to the guard at the entrance to the magical section.
"A mage's qualification certificate? What is that?" he asked with a frown, and a strange and unfamiliar feeling, a feeling of an unexpected and yet not-unpleasant déjà vu, now washed over him.
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