When Rild woke up he had a terrible headache. As he tried to stretch his body a little it felt somehow unpleasant and foreign.
„This body was made out of a drop of my blood, so why does it feel, like it belongs to someone completely else and I am nothing more, than an intruder?“
Rild stared out the window and noticed that night has already descended. Sighing Rild started to do mild exercises. He has been training his body for the last few days now. On the day of his resurrection, his body was overcharged with magical energy and he did not detect the horrible physical situation this body was in. But after the superfluous magic power left his body it felt as if it was devoid of all energy.
Rild had no other choice but to build up a few muscles if he wanted to move without help.
A few days passed by and Rild’s condition got much better. The old mages, who brought him back had a few magical potions, which were helping him develop his body. Actually, there few very few potions increasing strength because mages simply did not need a strong physical body, as their strength was their soul. The few ones available were only a temporary strength boost, which was useless for Rild’s situation, so he had to use a different approach. What the old mages didn’t lack were regenerative potions, which healed the body.
Although the potions were not cheap, the old mages laughed it off, as they had sacrificed half a pool of magical essence to resurrect him. A few potions? These were worthless in comparison to the essence. So after the old mages gave him a lot of regenerative potions, he started to train. Every time he woke up he would train his body until he collapsed. Push-ups, squats running, shadow boxing… Every time he would train diligently until moving itself was painful. He then drank a regenerative potion and slept only to awaken and train again. Each time his overworked muscles were healed by the potions regenerative effects, they became a bit stronger. And so a few weeks passed. The progress was much slower than Rild anticipated.
Rild was sitting in his room reading reports about the eater’s advances. After two bloody years of running and fighting the situation was stabilized. A fine border between the remaining continent and the part which was overrun by eaters appeared. Although the border moved slowly but steadily in the direction of the remaining kingdoms and empires it was still better, than it was. Unfortunately, Rild knew, that it would remain like this only for a short amount of time. After one more years the so-called „destruction-border“ would once again move with an alarming speed towards the rest of the kingdoms. The reports of various eater attacks described four or five species of eaters, which was only the first wave. While the general populace thought, that the situation will be brought under control soon, Rild and every mage who bothered to read through the plundered worldmage archives knew, that soon a second wave would appear with completely unknown kinds of eaters. These kinds were stronger and more unpredictable than the first wave.
But the problems were not only the eaters. Because the church advertised their killing of the guardian and such a holy act the populace turned completely against them, once the truth about the eaters came out. Although the church had very deep roots, their main power were the believers and once these were not available anymore its power was shrunk. Now the church, which ruled over the entire continent had its power reduced to only the south of the continent. When this power vacuum appeared, struggles erupted in the rest of the world and chaos broke loose. The west, which was controlled by the three old mage families was the most peaceful one, but the kingdoms of the north were in a constant war with each other and with the remains of the church in the south. Rild was feeling a headache. In order to save this world from the eaters, he has to create the seal, which was closing the scar once again. The main problem was, that he needed to do it in front of the scar itself. A magic circle, which is classified as ancient by today’s standards cannot be prepared beforehand. It’s just too powerful to bind to a medium which will hold it, until deployment. But in order to achieve that, Rild needed the complete cooperation of the remaining powers. Drawing the circle required an extensive amount of time and he has to be protected until he finishes, but in this situation, the help he could receive from the various powers was minimal at best. He needed to march into the heart of the eater invasion, back into the former worldmage palace and for that he would need an army. The most difficult part was the supply train of such an army. Rild closed his eyes for a few moments and decided to think about this after he became a bit stronger. To draw the sealing magic circle he needed to open at least the sixth gate of each element and that was a very distant goal at this time. Although he needed only 11 years in order to open the fifth gate for every element, the world did not have another 11 years. There was also the problem that his body had far worse talent than his original one.
As Rild was thinking about this, a knock was heard on the door. Rild’s train of thoughts was interrupted and he said a „come in“ with a tired voice.
The door opened and the old mage in gray came in. The old man stared at the young man, who submerged himself in the reading material and shook his head. Even though they have resurrected him specifically to save the world, Rild overdid it a little. The old man never saw the young man resting.
„Neln, if you came here only to watch the beautiful floor, then be my guest.“ Rild's sarcastic voice drifted over.
Neln closed his eyes for a short while and said with an annoyed voice.
„Rild, are your muscles recovering at a decent speed?“
„More or less. I can work now the whole day without feeling half dead at the end.“
„Good. Then we can take a carriage to the nearest town. You need to get out for a change. Come, let’s take Solana with us.“
„Fearing I would run away if only one of you watches me?“
„That’s exactly what I am fearing. With your „I give zero shit for anyone else“ attitude you will most probably run away as soon as you decide, that us old bags have outlived our usefulness to you.“
„Don’t worry. I am not that ungrateful. I will at least try to say goodbye before I leave.“
Neln looked wordlessly at the young man in front of him. The young man has already shared his plans with them and those plans did not include the old mages at all. Neln couldn’t get used to the attitude of the young man. Most of the young magicians would follow every order they gave and respect every wish they had, but Rild ignored their suggestions most of the time and showed no respect at all. Neln knew that the only reason the young man stayed that long with them at all is because they resurrected him and he felt, that he should pay them back for it somehow.
„So, are we going to town, or not?“ Neln asked with a helpless voice.
Rild nodded in response.

After riding half an hour in the carriage the three mages who accompanied Rild have finally found something they could talk about with the young mage, without losing his interest. As they found out Rild was completely obsessed with magic and every possible application of such. At first Solana, Neln and Fors, the last of the three mages, tried talking about the weather or the scenery, but the only responses they got from Rild were just muffled „yes“ and „sure“. After 10 minutes the three gave up and started talking to each other about the different applications of support based water spells. After a short while, they were surprised, when they noticed Rild’s interested face when he listened to them. As they talked to him, their excitement reached a new high point, when they found Rild’s weakness in magic. Although he knew a lot of magic circles and spells, he was severely lacking in the practical application of the elements.
„You were at least the fifth gate in every element, so how could your application be so poor?“
Solana asked in a surprised manner. Every time she tried to teach Rild something to show him, that he needed them, he smashed all her efforts down, by teaching her something. And now she found out, that his greatest weakness was something, every mage would learn by himself.
„Teacher said, that my growth was just too fast. The practical application of magic comes through the continued practice of a single spell until one can manipulate it to one’s own wishes. My problem was, that I had no spell, which I used long enough to understand it's core so I could manipulate it better.“
Rild explained with an embarrassed face.
„And when I started going out to train on church lackeys, I was simply too powerful. While a normal mage in my age would attack his enemies with a fire arrow, which he already trained to a fairly high level, he would now directly attack but shot the arrow behind the enemy, but in the end, alter its trajectory and let it hit their backs.“
Rild looked at the old mages in the carriage with him, as they understood what the young man meant. „Experience,“ they thought as one. The young man was severely lacking in experience of his spells because he advanced too fast and learned new spells faster than he could master the previous ones. Rild continued to explain.
„When I attack my enemies, I manifest weapons made out of the pure fire and let them rain on them. In most cases, it was a one-hit kill. So I had no chance to analyze what my problem with the spell was, and how I could improve it.“
The old mages nodded as they listened to the young man. Experience on how to cast certain spells was very important for a mage. For example the fire arrow. While Rild with his lacking experience could summon 5 or more, he would only be able to summon these when he finishes the spell and they would fly at a specific speed in a straight line. Although it was enough to kill a few weaker enemies, every enemy who has even a bit of understanding about the battle, would immediately recognize this weakness and just move forward to Rild, while protecting his body with a shield. Fors‘ fire arrow was a completely different story. He would also summon only 5 fire arrows, but they would be completely different from Rild’s. Every fire arrow would have his own speed so it would be more difficult to react to them, they would increase or decrease in size to give a different sense of threat and would even change their trajectory and ignore shields in such situations. More importantly was the fact, that their magical energy consumption would be much smaller, than the ones Rild summoned. Until one has mastered a spell completely, one would always put far too much magical energy into the spell. Only by casting the spells for thousands of times, could one find out the best amount of magical energy needed for the spell.
While most of the mages, would learn those tricks after a bit of time, Rild was just too young.
„When I started to practice the spells I already learned, someone“ Rild looked at Solana „decided it would be an excellent idea to kill the worldmage and release the eaters.“
Solana just dejectedly looked at the bottom of the carriage.

The city the four mages went to was called Wolfwood. A few decades back a lot of wolfs lived here, but that in itself was not very spectacular. One day after an earthquake a node of magical crystals was unearthed near a wolf den. Exposed to the magical energy from the crystals the wolfs started to mutate and were getting more and more aggressive. In the end, the townspeople asked the great mage family Sorlis, which owned the land, for help. Sorlis send a dozen mages in order to solve the problem and found the magic crystal mine in the process. After this, the town got much more lively. To help to mine the crystals the other mage families sent golems and build special factories in order to process the crystals. The estate Rild was resurrected in was Neln’s personal estate, when he was actively supervising the mine.
Magic crystals were extremely valuable for mages and different types of craftsmen. A raw magic crystal has extremely violent magic energy inside it, which would harm anyone, who was standing near it, but after the crystal was processed, it’s energy was far calmer so the crystals could be used as containers of magic power. A mage’s staff needed at least one of the crystals on top of it.
„So this is the city of Wolfwood,“ Rild said as he looked around without much interest. „Alright. What are we doing here now?“
Neln looked at the bored young man with a strange kind of fascination. As soon as the topic changed from magic to something else, Rild immediately got bored.
„Let’s go to the market. Maybe we can find some magical ingredients.“ Fors suggested in hope to pick up Rild’s interest.
As soon as Rild hears the words „magical ingredients“, his face changed.
„Sure. There is something specific I need.“
The three old mages started to understand how they could manipulate Rild bit by bit.
The four people started walking towards the market. Rild carefully observed the town around him and noticed, that the buildings around the marketplace looked like they were far older than the rest of the town. Furthermore, Rild noticed slight magical energy coming from these buildings. If not for that, he wouldn’t have glanced a second time at them. Rild ignored the talking old mages and stepped near one of the houses. His face changed from interest to confusion, as he inspected the magic energy. He could feel, that the kind of magic energy was earth magic, but he couldn’t determine, where the magic came from.
At last Neln noticed Rild’s confused face and went near him. Just like Rild he started staring at the house, but could not detect anything. He frowned and asked the young man.
„Are you interested in this house? It is one of the first houses of this town. Actually, someone found these old houses in the forest and started living in them. And after a while, they formed a village, which became a town.“
Rild looked at Neln as if he was hypnotized.
„Do you own one of these? I would like to enter one.“
Neln’s aged face showed confusion as he answered.
„Sure. One of them is the headquarters of the united mage families mining operation.“
Rild shook his head.
„No. There are too many mages inside. The magic essence I feel from these walls will be unfindable inside it. Any other of these houses, that I can visit?“
Neln thought for a moment.
„Yes. One is at the moment a simple store.“
„Perfect. Lead the way.“
Neln nodded and went down the street with Rild following him quickly. The store Neln was talking about was a shoemaker. Rild looked at the old building and could feel the same strange magic from the building he felt before. As the group entered, an old man came out.
„Welcome. How can this old shoemaker serve you?“
Neln was about to say something when Rild interrupted him.
„I need traveling shoes. Hard leather and durable. It would be best if they were waterproof. If you can imprint a magic circle on them, that would also be a huge bonus.“
The old shoemaker glanced at Rild, who completely ignored his older companions and smiled.
„Young sir, if you want a magic circle on the shoes, I would need the needed inscription. Although I have the ability to imprint them, I myself am not a mage.“
Rild looked at Solana who just followed Rild and Neln.
„Can you please give him a „weight“ circle?“
Solana was about to ask how he knew, that she learned this specific spell, but remembered then, that she used it in his presence when she and her friends went out to kill him. She nodded and took out a red paper out of her pocket. With a few quick strokes from her hand, the formerly blank paper was filled with a silvery shining magic circle. Solana handed the circle to the shoemaker.
„Yes, that’s perfect. Young sir, please sit down and let me measure your foot.“
Rild sat down on the chair the shoemaker pointed at and closed his eyes. The three old mages were looking at each other in utter confusion. They understood, that Rild ordered the shoes just in order to be a little longer in this old building, but they could not understand why exactly. After about 10 minutes of asking details about the kind of shoe, Rild wanted they finally left the shoemaker.
„Why was he asking me all these questions? Why does it matter if the damned shoes have dragons sewn on them? I could hardly concentrate because of his questions.“
Neln laughed as he answered Rild.
„You were the very first one to speak of us, then you told him very detailed what you want and finally just asked Solana to give him a spell. It seems, that you do not know, but spells from mages are worth quite a lot. The fact, that Solana just handed you such an expensive thing, without even asking anything gave him the impression, that she is your subordinate. And only the children of rich nobles have personal mages, so he thought you were nobility. He probably wanted to appear extremely professional and dedicated so you would recommend him to your noble friends.“
Rild stopped for a moment and looked at Neln surprised.
„Inscribed magic circles are worth a lot?“
Neln helplessly looked at the young man before him. Rild seemed to have no idea about the standards of normal people.
„You need to have opened at least the fourth gate of magic to be able to inscribe a magic circle, but mages of such status have better things to do than waste their magic energy to inscribe low leveled spells.“
Rild understood what Neln meant and nodded slowly.
„Why did you want to enter one of these old buildings anyway?“
Rild started walking towards the market stands as he answered.
„I felt some kind of magic coming from the walls. I tried to feel, if a mage was channeling his power into the wall, but couldn’t find one. Therefore, I wanted to enter one of the old building in order to verify if something else is channeling power inside it.“
The three old mages were shocked as they heard him. Neln and Fors lived for quite a long time in this town and they visited a few of these old houses, but they never felt anything from them. But the most shocking part was the point, that something was emitting magic energy, without a mage, or a magic crystal supplying it. It has to be known, that every magic needed a specific circle in order to activate it normally. The only exceptions were the magic spells of mages, who opened the fifth gate of magic, and some ancient artifacts. And the magic circle needed to be supplied by magic energy in order to work and emit magic. There was also an exception, which was an Ancient magic circle, but none of them were even near the town of Wolfwood, so it was completely unexplainable, how the buildings were emitting magic energy.
Rild shook his head as he said.
„No need to think too hard about it. At the moment we have more pressing issues, like saving the world from demise. You can study the building once it’s saved.“
The other mages unwillingly nodded. They naturally wanted to study these houses, but knew, that it would take probably years until they analyzed them completely.
As the four people strolled through the market, they visited a lot of stands, which were selling magic ingredients. Each one of the four bought a few specific ingredients and were ready to leave when Rild spotted a little bottle with the name „Soul ripper“ printed on it. Excited Rild threw the asked price to the seller and placed the bottle in his bag. Solana grabbed his arm alarmed.
„Rild! This is poison for every mage! If you drink it, then the elemental essence your soul has acquired will be pressed out. To you, it is harmless, as your soul does not have any elemental essence, but a trained mage could lose tens of years of painstaking work if he drinks this.“
Rild looked at Solana with an extremely sly smile.
„That is true, but… It also has other uses. Nobody knows of these because nobody tried them.“
The next moment Rild’s face fell.
„Listen, Solana… I will need a favor from you, but you… Doesn’t matter. I will tell you later about it.“
With this Rild left the confused Solana behind, as he walked in the direction of the carriage.
The next day Rild was sitting on his bed with closed eyes.
„Alright. My body should be strong enough now to absorb a bit of magic energy.“
The next moment Rild entered a meditative state.
As Rild opened his eyes, he was no longer in his room, but in a round hall. The floor of the hall was made out of white bricks, with red mortar in between them, while the walls looked like they were built from a single slab of pure white granite. The room had no ceiling and one could see the stars high above, but the most noticeable thing about this room were eight doors placed all around it. The first door Rild was facing was fire red. If one looked at it, one would have the impression of a burning flame. The door to the right was shining brightly and gave the impression of life. Rild looked at the next door. This one was ethereal and calm, but changed from time to time and gave the impression of strength. The next door was the most confusing. When Rild looked at it, he had the impression, as if he was looking at absolutely nothing. It was like the door was not even there. Rild sighed and thought.
„I was never a huge lover of the void element“
He looked at the next door. This one was blue on color and gave one the feeling of absolute calmness, but changed from time to time to the feeling of rage and power.
The sixth door was completely dark and gave the feeling of death. Rild smiled as he saw the door. Although he was especially gifted in fire magic, his second most powerful element was without doubt darkness.
„Hello old friend.“ he thought and looked away. His gaze fell at the seventh door. This one was completely brown and gave the impression of sturdiness and hardness. It was like the door would preserve against everything. With a distraught face, Rild looked at the last door. When he looked at it, his head started to get dizzy. The door looked like everything at once. Rild could see the stars and planets in it. He could see the endless time and unending existence. With a dizzy head, Rild looked away.
„Yeah… I think I hate space at the same level as void.“
Rild once again quickly looked at the doors. This was his Soul hall. Every mage could freely enter and leave their own soul hall. The fleshly body remained, where Rild sat in meditation, but his soul was in this room. The doors across the soul hall were his personal gates of magic. Fire, light, air, void, water, darkness, earth and space. These eight elements were the power sources of mages. Void and Space were already lost elements, so normal mages were completely unable to see these doors. If one wanted to see a gate of magic, one needed at least the most basic understanding of the said element. Of course, even if you could see the gate, it did not mean you could open it. If you did not have the right aptitude, you can only watch at the door, without being able to do anything. At the moment Rild’s had no aptitude towards space and void.
Rild sat cross-legged in the middle of his soul hall. He closed his eyes and started to attract magic into his body. Minute after minute passed, as Rild was sitting without moving. Then finally his eyes opened.
„This body’s talent is bad to say at least. If not for the fact, that my soul is really strong I would need about a few years to open my first gate of magic. It also helps, that my soul is already trained in gathering magic. It’s easier for me to train till the fifth gate, but it still will be a hassle.“
He once again closed his eyes. Slowly above the hall, a black drop of liquid formed. The drop was extremely small but was getting bigger bit by bit. After an hour, the drop was as big as a common raindrop. After reaching this size, it slowly started to fall down. Shortly before it reached the soul hall it stopped. Rild immediately opened his eyes and stared at the dark drop. He needed to get this drop into his soul hall if he wanted to become an official mage. He closed his eyes once again and started to pull the drop towards him with the power of his soul. Bit by bit Rild pressed the drop through the invisible barrier. Every single millimeter required all of his power. Rild’s face showed an expression of extreme concentration. Although only a few minutes passed, Rild felt, like it was an eternity. Rild’s power was depleted and he lost control of the drop, which in turn started to rise once again and float over the hall.
„What the hell.“ Rild thought dispirited. „In my old body, I only needed a few moments to press the damned drop into the soul hall. After a year I could make a little rain out of them and after ten there was an unending waterfall. Is the talent from this body really so bad, that I will probably need a few weeks until I have pressed even a single drop into the hall? Well maybe not a few weeks, but still...“
Rild opened his eyes in the material world and looked grimly at the ceiling. For him, this was a major problem. Although he never believed, that it would be as easy as the first time, he never expected it to be this difficult. Rild sighed as he went to sleep.
The next few days Rild was desperately trying to get his first drop of magic into his soul hall. Every time he tried he could press the drop a little further through the barrier until he managed it on the sixth day.
Once again he was sitting in his soul hall with closed eyes, while he was concentrating on the drop. For the last days, he woke up, tried to get the drop into the soul hall and went to sleep. After one attack after the other, the barrier got weaker and the drop of magic could fall more smoothly. Rild pressed the drop stubbornly through the barrier and at the second the very first part of the drop entered the boundary of his soul hall the barrier seemed to disappear and the drop fell down on its own. Rild’s face full of concentration relaxed as the drop fell right down into the middle of the soul hall, where Rild was sitting. The drop did not fall on Rild’s soul sitting in the soul hall, but passed through it and fell to the floor. It looked like it melted the floor just enough to fit inside it. As soon as the drop hit the floor, Rild’s body gave out a magic shock wave in the material world. Solana and Neln, who were sitting together drinking tea raised their heads at once when they felt it. Neln’s aged face showed surprise as he asked.
„Someone nearby became a mage? Who is it? There is no one near this compound.“
Solana looked equally confused as Neln until all of a sudden she thought of a person.
„Rild?“
Neln’s face was plastered with an unbelieving look.
„Are you for real? After not even a week? He knew his talent was good, but the talent of the body we created is not even nearly as good. How could he absorb his first drop of magic after just one week?“
„Maybe because he has already done it once or maybe his definition of bad talent is still above everything we know of. Come on, let us go and ask him.“
Both mages stood up and moved towards Rild’s room.
Rild, on the other hand, was sitting happily in his bed. Although he was tired, he did not go to sleep. He had a plan he needed to accomplish, as long as his soul was completely worn out. Just as he was getting up in order to search for Solana and Neln he heard a knocking on his door.
„Come in.“
As Rild saw Solana and Neln entering the room he smiled said with a happy voice.
„Perfect, now I do not need to search for you two. The answer to your question is yes and I need a favor from the two of you.“
The two old mages looked at each other. For some reason, both of them had a bad premonition.
„Come sit with me“ they hear Rild’s voice, as the young man sat on the floor. Both of them followed his order and sat down.
„I’ll be honest. I don’t trust the two of you very much, but what we are about to do is extremely important for a worldmage, so I need to take a risk. Take my hands and don’t resist“
Rild held out his hands and closed his eyes. Neln was the first to react.
„I have a bad feeling about his, but I will play along,“ he said as he grabbed Rild’s hand. Solana said nothing and followed suit. As soon as both were touching his hands, Rild entered his soul hall. He directly located the drop of magic he collected and summoned it into his hand. The drop obediently flew up and started levitating around his index finger. Rild closed his eyes and started drawing a magic circle with the drop of Magic. He needed only a few moments to complete it. He activated the circle immediately and a flash of light filled his soul hall. In front of him stood now the souls of Solana and Neln. Solana’s soul was dyed in three colors, which were flowing through her soul without a break. The brown color was the most dominant and the blue and black were equally distributed. Neln’s soul in comparison looked purely ethereal. Solana’s face showed disbelief as she looked around.
„This… This is your soul hall? But that’s impossible. Only the owner of the hall can enter it. And why are you so calm and collected?“ Solana looked at Neln, whose face was completely indifferent. He looked at Solana and said in an annoyed manner.
„I started to completely accept the things this little freak throws at us.“
Their conversation was interrupted when they heard Rild’s voice.
„Purely an air soul. This means you are able to open the sixth gate of air.“
Neln looked at Rild with a sad smile.
„Yes, but the method on how to open the sixth gate was lost long ago. Until someone rediscovers it, I will remain at the fifth gate.“
Rild’s smile froze as he started looking at Neln like he was a complete idiot. He sighed, closed his eyes and extended his hand. Slowly a small ball of light was materializing in Rild’s hand. Solana and Neln were curiously looking at the young mage, as they had no idea what was happening. To them, this was already a once in a lifetime experience. All of a sudden Rild opened his eyes and pointed at Neln’s soul and the white ball of light flew from his hand to Neln’s head merging with it. Neln shook and opened his eyes wide.
„So it’s like this! HAHAHA! The secret of opening the sixth gate is to completely purify the five previous halls of air! HAHAHAHA! Yes, it’s painful and difficult, but it’s possible. It’s completely irrelevant how much magic energy one uses in order to open the sixth gate because it’s different. HAHA! With this, I can start improving once again!“
Neln understood now, why Rild looked at him like he was an idiot. It was precisely because he was one. There was a worldmage in front of him, so he could just ask for the method, but instead, he was lamenting his own inability. Neln looked at Rild with a big smile on his face.
„Alright… Now you are creeping me out“, said Rild „but enough of that. I need the help of the two of you.“
Solana was still looking in disbelief at the two men in front of her when Rild’s voice brought her back to her senses.
„As you know, the worldmage needs to be able to master all eight elements. But this is an impossible task, as a soul cannot hold two elements, who are in opposition to each other. A fire soul, cannot hold the water element and so on, but how does the worldmage do it then? Well, this is the reason, why the most important quality the worldmage must possess is…“ Rild smiled as he made a theatrical pause in order to raise the excitement of the two old mages.“ an extremely strong soul.“
Before Solana and Neln could say, that it doesn’t matter how strong one soul is, as it still couldn’t hold opposite elements, Rild hastily added a sentence. „So the soul could be cut in eight parts, which will be filled with only one element each.“
Neln and Solana stared at Rild with open mouths. This was insanity. This was no longer genius or difficult, but pure insanity. What kind of normal person would cut his own soul in pieces? All of a sudden, they understood what Rild wanted from them. He could not do this alone. If he could, then they wouldn’t be even told this fact. It was most likely a guarded secret of the worldmages.
Rild looked at the understanding faces and said.
„Yep. This is a secret, but as I’m the only worldmage right now, I need to share it. I need your help in order to cut my soul into two pieces. It’s just impossible to do it alone.“
Solana and Neln looked at each other with complicated gazes. They really didn’t want to do it. If they accidentally killed Rild, then they could resurrect him again, but if they destroyed his soul, then he would be gone for good. Both of them knew, that they had little choice in this matter as they needed a worldmage, who was as powerful, as he could get. The two old mages looked back at Rild and nodded. Rild smiled and without more words, he created once again two balls of light, which entered the heads of the two old mages.
„This is the last time I am doing this for a while. Every time I’m doing this, I am losing a part of my soul. It needs to heal for quite some time, until I can share knowledge like this again, without having a permanent loss“
The two mages nodded and looked at the information they just got. Both of them manifested spiritual blades in their hands and started walking. Neln walked around Rild and positioned himself behind him, while Solana stood in front of the young mage. Both of them raised their blades and wordlessly struck down. Both spiritual blades traveled the same path and Rild’s soul was split into two pieces. The upper piece started floating away from the lower and after a short while, both pieces started to regenerate. Rild smiled at the two old mages and said.
„This will take quite a while. Only after they both healed will it be possible to cut my soul once again. Now I will send the two of you out.“
The next moment Neln and Solana abruptly opened their eyes in the material world. Both were trembling from the experience they just lived through. They were in the soul hall of another mage. More importantly, both of them gained a spell, with which they could attack the souls of their enemies. Although it was not very effective against humans or the likes, it was an excellent weapon against ghosts or restless spirits. Neln has even gained the method to open the sixth gate of magic. Just as the two stood up and wanted to say something the door flew open and Fors ran in.
„Lady Solana, Lord Neln. Something big happened. The spies of the mage families have reported something special.“
Rild felt a very bad premonition as he heard it.
„The eaters do not follow the same pattern, as described in the archives of the worldmages. They had built a breeding ground in the old worldmage palace and a wall around it. Furthermore… It seems like they are sucking away the life force of the land around their breeding ground. The land around… is just dead.“
All three old mages looked with alarm at Rild waiting for an explanation.
Rild looked back at them with wide open eyes.
„Don’t look at me. This is the first time this is happening. Until now I believed, the eaters are just wild animals. I had no idea, they could build walls. This is… not good.“