Chapter 13:

  She waved her hand through the air, and at first nothing happened. Then I blinked. My friends were gone and the citadel was in disarray. Things were happening in slow motion, but not me or Sophia were slowed. Houses below burned while others were being guarded heavily. Violent riots were being led with things like ‘Ban Magic Superiority’ and ‘Don’t Suppress The Unpowered’. I couldn’t believe my eyes, even the most sophisticated species could fall into such disarray? It seemed so improbable to me, the very notion of such a dramatic collapse and descent into madness was astounding. Fights were everywhere, magic wielders terrorized unpowered peoples. Whips of golden strands were used to contain the crowd, but it wasn’t contained. They had grown relentless. But what shocked me even more was the ley line tree. The rioters were tearing into it, the gold blood of the tree oozing out at some places and spraying at others. It was dying fast, and this could all happen because of me?!

  “Tell me this could be stopped, or tell me it’s not really going to happen.” I said, my expression full of fear and shock. Raised eyebrows with an open frown.

  “Corvinus. This isn’t a lie. And your denial only feeds you onto this path more. You must come to accept that this could happen, or it will. But, if it happens because of your denial, then you will bring about your own downfall in turn.” She said, straight faced, but with the slightest bit of, concern? Pity? Why is it she looks at me like this?

  “You said this is only a possibility of the future. That means that I can avoid this, that this won’t happen.” I said desperately. Her look of pity deepened and then her face hardened. It scared me? I think? The face of death itself staring at me like I had just committed a crime. I took a step back, involuntarily. My body had acted of its own accord. She wasn’t the same young gifted girl I once knew. She was someone else entirely? No, she was a person who knew no longer who she was, or what she lost, and now wondered why she cared of me. She was slowly falling to madness. Now she only knew this strange feeling toward me for which she had no explanation of, and she only knew power.

  “Covinus. I will not repeat myself again. It would seem you fail to hear me. This will happen, if you don’t accept that this could happen.” She accentuated the words; will, if, and could. But I had no mind to listen. I couldn’t imagine that by doing good would lead to such disaster and devastation. My expression must’ve changed to a look of loss and failure to see or understand her view, because her look changed again. She was done trying to make me understand. But then something odd happened to her. Her face changed slowly to one of a crazed person, she looked almost deranged and her facial features seemed to resemble more of a lich now. Her eyes began to glow a brilliant green, and I knew nothing good was going to happen. Nothing good ever comes from a lich like her.

  “Be silent FOOL!” She yelled. Her voice raspy now, and cold.

  I was shocked, she had become practically a different person. And then she didn’t just scare me, she made my soul leave my body. She raised her hand and from a cloud of green, blue, and gold, much like her portal from earlier. Appeared a black and gold wand. It was ornate and elegant, A straight black core with gold vines from the base. This was one of the most terrifying things of this world. A person who manifests a wand instead of a weapon, is not only a sight to behold but also a great terror. At least for those unlucky enough to be struck by these people. This is because a wand is the strongest conductor of a person’s magic, and also an insane amplifier of a person’s power. Your prowess doesn’t get confined to specific abilities or attacks either. Whatever you can imagine, is what you can do with a wand. I got very lucky with my weapon, because it is also technically the demon’s most powerful staff. But, this is nothing compared to a wand, because a wand is highly concentrated because of its size. But something perplexed me, this wand was familiar to me.

  “Wait! Is that? When did you manifest this wand?” I questioned, deeply fearing the answer. The answer that I already knew. This was my wand, from before I died, Sophia had never manifested a weapon. She had no need for one when she was my student. But as a lich hungry for power, manifesting a weapon would have been an easy way to gain it.

  “I manifested it shortly after your party left the demo academy ruins.” She said, clearly irritated. Her voice still sounded of death. “NIGHTMARE FISSURE SLICE”

  She slashed the air in an X motion, aiming with the tip of her wand. From the slashes in the air two perpendicular violet rifts were made. They quickly approached me. She was very accurate, however thanks to my speed her attack wouldn’t hit me. Or at least I thought it wouldn’t. Because moments after I had thought I dodged her attack the world started to shake violently, and a crack, no, a fissure tore open the earth. The citadel was split apart. People screamed, houses crumbled, and lava began to pour from this fissure. Lava here is normally blue, however due to the moon, it appeared a brilliant purple. I leapt up to a house roof and began to fight her with demonic sorcery.

  I was deeply focused on surviving, because if you are killed by an oneirokinetic in your dreamscape, then you die outside of your dreamscape as well. Sophia was now flying using her lich magic to seemingly walk on air itself, all the while swirling green mist encircled her heels. But the way we fought was very different from the chaotic ‘survive or die’ way I fought Lesleigh. This was a dance of death, where I toed the line but never crossed it. Graceful strokes of her wand sent devastating attacks my way, as I leapt from rooftop to rooftop. I had summoned the Whispering Blade after she attacked me for the first time. And I only just noticed how a specific set of runes were glowing on it. I glanced at them between dodges and then two words seemingly popped into my head. I knew this was an incantation to activate a new ability. It seemed that the Whispering Blade thought I needed some help, and I gladly accepted.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “NEATHERWORLD RIFT” I said with complete confidence. And I brought my blade up from the floor in one fluid motion. It tore open the very fabric of reality. This was to allow me to teleport? Not a direct ranged attack? This perplexed me. Then I remembered then that the great demon sage who first manifested this weapon, he was known to be almost unstoppable and could disappear in an instant and reappear anywhere. Now it made perfect sense, this would be used to close in on her while she flew above.

  So that's exactly what I did. I hopped through the portal and imagined exactly where I wanted to go. Soon I was face to face with her, hopping in and out of portals at insane speeds. I was quickly accelerating, and after I exited a portal I would immediately try to attack her. She had surprisingly quick reaction timing. And knew a lot of spells for only obtaining her wand recently. She was deflecting attacks and dishing them out just as fast. She reminded me a lot of a lich that I once fought and killed. She was quite powerful and determined not to die, that lich. Then, Sophia said something that shattered what I knew about her.

  “I TOLD YOU I WOULDN’T DIE” She said in that same raspy voice. But that’s the thing, Sophia had never told me she wouldn’t die. But that lich I thought I killed, had, said, those, exact, words. Was it possible she survived? I didn’t want to think of that right now though. I just needed to survive. Sophia was becoming worn out slowly, she couldn’t react as fast as she was before. It was like someone else was controlling her like a puppet, and she was fighting it. Was she possessed? I didn’t know, but I was determined to find out later.

  I found an opening when she slowed down, I teleported behind her and went for the blow. Something snapped in her at that moment right before my blade would cleave her head from her shoulders. I wasn’t worried about killing her because I wasn’t an Oneirokinetic. But she swiveled around, her face a little fuller, the malevolent look in her eyes gone, the crazed madness, the determination to end me. It was all gone, I hesitated.

  “Sir, Please!” She raised her hands and closed her eyes as she screamed that in terror. I stopped myself. She called me ‘Sir’ when I was her teacher. It was like she had two completely different personalities. “Just-”

  “Sophia? What’s going on? With… with you?” I asked, true concern overpowering my senses.

  “I just needed you to listen, but you wouldn’t! And-and- and. I lost it. I couldn’t control myself. And I keep seeing this woman, she tells me how I can achieve my goals. She’s shown me so much. She’s taught me so much.” She was almost hysterical, she went from angry, to upset, to understanding.

  “Sophia, who is this woman? And what do you mean goals?” I asked, becoming increasingly more troubled.

  “She told me to tell you this message, ‘Corvinus, remember the price of the magic you used to kill me, or at least think you killed me? Well that price has taken its toll.’” She recited. “And my goals? She said you wouldn’t understand. But I’ll show you, I’ll do something so great that even you’re shocked. I’ll be so powerful that even you are rivaled by me.” She said, pride and anger swelling in her.

  “Sophia, you have to stop listening to her.” I said concernedly.

  “She knew you wouldn’t understand! And deep down I knew it too! I tried to help you! But you wouldn’t listen! Your fate was decided, before you even cared to know it.” She shouted heatedly.

  “Sophia, ple-” I was cut off by her casting a spell.

  “BE SILENT IN THE SMOKE” She raged.

  Suddenly the smoke from the surrounding burning buildings thickened and surrounded the entire citadel. And in turn, me. I began coughing hard, but I kept pushing forward, determined to find my way to Sophia. I refused to close my eyes because I knew if I did everything would disappear. But, in the pit of my stomach, I knew that Sophia was gone. Gone from this place, gone from her mind, gone from me. The student I once adored had become a monster? No. It wasn’t true. It can’t be true. She was a lost child, who had been saved by the wrong person. I wasn’t there to save her. Once again I was reminded of the night I died. And exactly what I said still haunts me. ‘I couldn’t stop this, I couldn’t save myself, I couldn’t save the students, I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.’ One thing was still true, at least just this one thing. ‘I couldn’t save the students’. It was true, I couldn’t save Sophia. She was lost, desperately chasing power, to show me she was something great. While also simultaneously chasing the person she was. The person she lost, the person she would never be again. She has failed to realize that I already see her as great. But I’m sorry for her, because she’s sacrificed so much to be here. And regrets it all. And is now slipping into madness. It breaks my heart.

  I eventually closed my eyes, and returned exactly where I was before Sophia appeared. Right back in the city.

  Chapter 14: