Icarus stared in incomprehension, Valerius also stared at the growing crimson splotch on his white tunic.
He looked up at Icarus and his lips formed words slowly "help me." He collapsed to his knees, his legs make sickening sounds as the gave out from under him.
Icarus looked down, he could feel it already. The burning mark on his neck, ready to burn through him then and there.
He clutched at his throat and fell to his own knees, he clenched his eyes shut and let out a shout of pain.
A moment later he stood up. The pain had never came, he was stunned, not relieved and simply stated at Valerius' body for a moment.
He came to his senses and rushed to the front door.
"HELP! Master Valerius needs help!"
He opened the door, and looked up.
In the doorway stood one of the slave trade guards, he turned back and piereced Icarus will a cold stare.
He was armored and resembled a regular guard of this city as to not draw too much attention, he held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other.
Icarus took a step back and the man twitched "filthy slave looking me in the eyes. Where is your mas-"
He looked past him and saw Master Valerius lying dead on the ground.
Icarus followed his gaze, which returned to him and a strange feeling filled Icarus.
The man radiated a chilling intent, Icarus was stunned by this, the man moved faster then he could register, shoving his spear forward into Icarus' neck.
Icarus fell backwards, blood streamed out of the wound.
'what? I survived the slave mark and this is how I die? What was the poin-"
His vision faded to black as the guard walked into the room.
.
.
.
Icarus stood in the center of the room, standing above Valerius' corpse.
He clutched at his throat and gagged, feeling that he could once again breathe without choking on his own blood.
'wh-what?'
He looked around, the guard was nowhere in sight, he stood up and walked over to a neighbouring room.
Icarus found his way to the mirror, he examined himself, he was pale and dirty, but no injuries were on his body.
'I don't understand, that felt so real..."
A loud banging interrupted his thoughts, he looked up, outside the door he heard the guards voice.
"Valerius! Get out here! Are you there?"
Icarus froze, looking around he saw there was space behind a dresser for him to hide, he quickly ran over and wedged himself behind it.
Icarus slowed his breathing and heartbeat, also casting an illusion spell to hide himself from view.
The man's voice sounded again. "I'm coming in. Please excuse m- shit!"
The door opened, evidently the man had seen the body and he paused for a moment.
"Who did this!? A slave? Where is the body? If a slave killed him they would also die!"
Icarus heard him walk in, he stayed as silent as possible, the man cursed and took a few steps into the same room Icarus was in.
" If you're here come out!"
Icarus froze, sweat trickled down his forehead.
The man waited for 10 seconds as Icarus Held his breath.
There was no response and the man cursed again.
Suddenly, outside there was a loud crashing sound. The man whirled around, shouting and screams followed.
Another guard shouted inside "Get out here! Something's going on!'
Icarus heard the guards rushed footsteps leave the house.
He breathed a sigh of relief and released the illusion spell.
A moment later he exited from behind the dresser.
There was a chest in the corner of the room, Icarus observed it but there was a keyhole that he had no key for and his lock picks were also not on him at the moment.
The wall beside him exploded. With no time to look he jumped to the ground to try to avoid it.
The dust settled he looked at the wall that was still standing.
The guards mangled body was imbedded in the wall and was twitching and broken with arms and legs bent at unnatural angles.
Icarus scrambled away, but heard heavy breathing behind him.
A beast stood behind him, it was humanoid but it's features were twisted and it was unnaturely muscular.
Some of its teeth were longer then others, and its hair had fallen out in clumps, it's bones were deformed and jagged.
It looked down at him, and as if it was swatting a fly, punted him back.
The strike was so powerful, that it's foot ripped him in half on contact.
Icarus did not even have time to wonder what was going on.
Once again the light faded from his eyes.
.
.
.
He stood above master Valerius, he adapted quicker this time, but still gasped for air and clutched his stomach.
He kneeled down and rooted through Valerius' pockets, there was nothing but coins and paper in most, he took the coins and stood up.
He walked over to the table were Valerius' kept his clothes, inside he found what he was looking for.
Walking over to the chest, he produced the key and inserted it.
He opened the chest and inside found several things of importance.
A leather jerkin, some new pants, and a cloak.
There was also a short sword, about 300 silver coins a backpack and most importantly, the Grimoire from the market stall.
Icarus smiled slightly, "old fox probably nabbed that during the commotion."
His smile faded as he filled the backpack with the items, sheathed the short sword on his waist and put on the new clothes.
The guard started banging on the door, Icarus ignored the sound and slipped out an unguarded backdoor.
This was used by him during assassinations, it led down to the port and was his most likely escape route.
He thought as he walked, about how strange this was.
'this is some kind of time loop? I've read novels like that of course but it's much worse In person.'
The walk to the port was about 20 minutes, he was running currently to get there as quick as possible.
Icarus clenched his teeth 'in that case what was the event that began this loop, is this city there center of it or am I? Have I had this ability the whole time? In this case..."
He shook it off, the thought that he might have been able to avoid all this was too painful. Right now he had to focus on getting out of this city.
5 minutes later he heard screams ring out across the city, it had started, whatever it was.
Icarus ran as fast as he could, at this rate he would reach the port in five minutes.
He passed by a grate in the tunnel and stopped outside the city was burning, several explosions rang out and he heard shrill screams of people running from dying or being killed.
He stared for a moment, the sight was more than he had expected, he thought the attack would be localized to the areas around his building. but the whole city was affected, if he could not escape this time it would be hard to find another way out in that much chaos.
He shook his head and dashed forward, he could not afford another moment if this was the case.
The end of the tunnel was visible, he exerted all his energy and ran out, the sight that met him filled him with hope.
Ships were leaving already, and there were two more still there and people were getting on board.
As he jumped down to the dock platform his eyes widened.
Above the sea where the ships sailed, an ominous figure hovered, he panned his eyes around and saw that there was far more then just these ones here.
All around the sky they hovered, all at once in a great synchronized flash of light, rays of fire shot down.
A moment passed, those who did not look up did not notice this.
Simultaneously, all the ships were hit, the explosion rocked and fire streamed through crowds of people, there was no time to scream, no time to think, Icarus shielded his face but the fire burnt his arm and the blast knocked him to the ground.
The air was hot and smoky, Icarus struggled to take a breath and was winder from the force of the shockwave.
He looked up and saw several ships sinking into the sea, being burnt up, on the shore crowds of people were burning, screaming and milling about in all directions.
A woman clawed her way out of the fire toward him, she crawled about for steps, he features melted and darkened as Icarus watched on in horror.
She collapsed and the fire consumed her, he looked back up and saw the figures disappear in all directions, moments later more explosions rocked the ground.
He looked back and saw the city behind him, pillars of flame rose into the air and cracks of explosions filled his ears with ringing, he held them and tried to block it all out.
A pair of dark boots appeared in front of him, he looked up and saw a dark clothed man wearing a crescent shaped mask that covered half his face.
Icarus pulled this short sword free of it's sheath and dashed towards him, the man held his hand out and a ball of light expanded, filling Icarus' vision.
The light hit him and a moment later he was gone.
.
.
.
Icarus stood over the empty box of weapons.
He grabbed his face and felt around, nothing.
Looking in the mirror, he saw his star-like eyes shaking uncontrollably, he shook himself, and produced the key.
He headed over to the cellar door with key in hand, producing the key he headed into the cellar, down the steps he went, one by one.
The docks were not a way out. Even if he got there early all the ships that left were destroyed.
This was an organized war effort by another country, not an invasion by a group. Those men were powerful magicians and there was likely no way out of this situation for him.
Icarus stood in the room, cages surrounded him, slaves lay in their cages silently, not even looking at him.
Icarus unlocked the cages one by one. If he could not make it out, he would have to hope one of these people would make it out, leading him to freedom.
There would be no fighting his way out either, so making a group with these would be pointless.
Beside that, there were 5 people here, an orc, two humans, a beastman and a dark elf girl.
The cages had all been opened by now but not one of them moved,
Icarus spoke up. "Master Valerius is dead. There will be an attack on this city very soon, if you hold any value for your life, you will do your best to find your way out now.
He knew of course that there was no way out, even if the passed by those monsters, the magicians would bomb the city until it was a pile of ash.
The humans rose first, they looked at Icarus and at the staircase before running up it.
Icarus laughed in his mind, of course he did not expect Manners from slaves but still.
The orc stood up and nodded at him, it did not speak the Templorian language of this world so he just nodded back at it and it followed the humans.
The dark elf girl stood and walked up to him, she was good looking with a thin figure, she was probably freshly captured, she began to walk away.
Icarus spoke the dark elf language partially well as he had worked with other dark elves in the past, as they were common race to be enslaved.
"What is your name."
The girl turned with a surprised, suspicious look on her face "I am Lyra..."
Icarus nodded "good luck."
The reason he asked this was because he had sensed strong mana coming from the girl, he doubted she would survive and was disappointed that such talent would go to waste.
Finally the beastman stepped out from the cage, beastmen always had an animal assigned to them, this was a boy a couple years older then him, he had red hair and his facial structure was dog-like.
Icarus was unfamiliar with animals in this world so he had no idea what beast he was mixed with, he just nodded at the boy and walked away.
Upstairs, the guard burst through the door, Icarus stared at him Coldly, the guard looked from him to the body of Valerius.
He yelled and rushed at Icarus, he took five steps across the room and Icarus released the illusion spell.
The guard had seen Icarus about 10 feet in front of him, however in reality Icarus was six feet in front of him. Due to the spears reach the man would always kill him if they were at range.
However stood directly in front of him, poised to strike "damn bastard, say hello to Valerius for me."
He thrust the short sword into the man's heart, he stumbled back but Icarus followed, driving him down, he ripped the sword free and shoved it through the man's skull.
He cleaned himself up, and walked out of the front door after casting a cloaking spell around him, this one mixed invisibility with the spell that made him unremarkable.
This meant even if someone sensed his mana they wouldn't pay it mind as it would seem unimportant to them.
He walked down the street that lead out of the cities main gates it would take him 15 minutes to walk there, five minutes in he heard screams, chaos erupted around him but he continued walking.
Buildings were torn apart by humanoid monsters, fires erupted and on the distance he saw a flash of light.
'shit! Already?'
He hurried forward, he clutched the Grimoire to his chest, if he knew how to use it he would be able to fight with one of those magicians, however as he was he had no chance apart from sneaking up on them.
In the distance, explosions destroyed the shipyard, Icarus continued running, he saw a sickly man tear into another man and gorge on his organs.
He saw others mutate, their bones and flesh tearing and transforming into gruesome abominations.
He kept running, finally the nightmare was
over the main gate was in sight.
Blood sprayed from his mouth
'huh?'
He looked down, his vision blurred as he saw the point of a sword thrust through his back.
It was pulled out and he fell to his knees, he laughed.
It really was impossible to get out. This has never been a second chance at a life.
This was hell.
A flash of red passed his vision, he heard a monstrous crash and looked up.
The beastman stood in front of him, his red fur covering his entire body, he radiated strong killing intent, but when he looked down he looked terrified.
"Shit! No!"
He kneeled, all around them the abominations were taking notice of them and heading in their direction.
"You can't speak..." He looked confused, around his neck a pendant hung it swayed In the wind.
He thought for a moment, he suddenly grabbed the pendant.
"This is... A family heirloom. Please! Take it! You saved me now it's my turn! I was told by my grandmother.. that it will give you exactly what you need at times like these!"
Icarus stared back dimly, the blood loss was starting to take a toll on him.
The beastman placed stage pendant in his hands and zipped away, behind him he heard another clash, explosions were all around them now, streaking down from the sky.
He held the pendant unconsciously, it began to glow, above him a ray of fire shot toward the gate, it free neared and nearer, his eyes were nearly shut, the heat filled his mind and once again his vision darkened.
.
.
.
He stood in a strange, cobbled hallway, there was a room in front of him, he looked down and saw the pendant, shattered in his hand.
Blood still flowed out from his chest and he was dimly aware of his surroundings.
He kneeled against a wall, there seemed to be some discussion going on inside he closed his and tried his best of focus.
"Everyone. Open your books to page 101. This is the final page of the visualisation pathway stage one."
He heard flipping, he could not remember why he was here any more, more of his life flowed out of him every second.
"This details how to cast more complex spells in this pathway, I will read aloud."
Icarus focused as hard as he could, the only thought in his mind was to hear this. Nothing else mattered.
"When you cast a small spell, your mana leaves your body, you cannot yet manage this s
mall amount of mana, so you cannot hang on to it. When you try to release more mana, you are subconsciously hanging on to it. As a visualizer, this is much more detrimental. So what you must do, is imagine your mana exiting your body, and simply letting go. That's it."
Icarus let out his breath and collapsed.