It was a quiet night in the rooftop courtyard of Scribe Dalin’s manor, maybe a bit too quiet. Small watchtowers that surrounded the estate had no one watching. Thankfully the courtyard itself was actually manned by three guards, heavily armored and equipped with spear and shield. The three pairs of eyes swept through the luxurious courtyard garden and through the exposed sky above, unaware of the unmanned watchtowers. They saw movement and their eyes immediately flicked to what it was. It was the statue of a woman in a ballerina pose in the middle of the fountain, they could’ve sworn its mouth moved to smile but as they tried to focus on it, the smile went away.

The guards ignored the statue. It was just added last week and it has rained a few times since then, and every single time it seemed to smile but only in their peripheral vision.

Three pairs of eyes, carefully watching their surroundings, but another pair of eyes was watching them. Samuel, a man of modest build, though his armor made him bigger than he actually was. He assessed the courtyard.

Three high guards, each one of them most likely a specialist in one of the five senses. Spears and shields, my chances of success with them should be high enough if I play my cards right. The man thought to himself. 

His eyes then traced the walkway of the courtyard to the overhang and into a hallway inside. One more obstacle and maybe another one beyond and I’m done. A few more steps before we find out more information on how deep this goes. If this doesn’t bear fruit then we’re back to zero. There should be something, no Scribe could have this much money, corruption is definitely a factor. Samuel thought.

Samuel was at the rooftops of the manor, just away from the mana controlled territory of the guards surrounding the courtyard. Mana was invisible to the naked eye but could be sensed once you have a deeper connection to the gateway of the senses. The mana flowed and thumped at an irregular rhythm, an obvious sign it was created by multiple people. He could sense their control of the area, if he made a mistake and crossed the threshold with even a finger, he would’ve been caught instantly. He was biding his time, analyzing each of the guards. Even though he was a talented fighter and ocular mage, three high guards were enough to maim him. He was positive he could make it out alive, but that’s not the mission. He had to take it slowly.

Samuel was at the opposite side of  the hallway and there was a guard right at its entrance. There were  two more guards at the sides of the courtyard and they were routinely casting spells and methodically looking at their surroundings, one of them even casted an ocular spell to look at the rooftops but his eyes just glazed over Samuel as if he wasn’t even there.

Using his own magic, he searched for his own connection to the gateway of his senses, he activated an ocular spell, piercing the veil of magic below. 

Sneaky bastards, invisibility huh, though it seems theirs isn’t as powerful as mine.

There were two invisible men in the garden of the courtyard below, obfuscated by ocular magic. Unfortunately for them, Samuel’s specialty was ocular magic. Even though they were high guards, their magic was still lacking compared to him. He then circled the roof to see more hiding guards, but there were only the original three and the two invisible guards, five in total. That’s why these three guards aren’t in a patrol and just standing guard. Lure the overconfident invader in, and quickly deal with them in an ambush.

But something pricked at the edge of his enhanced vision. Something that weaved itself into his perception ever so slightly. The statue at the top of the fountain that was in the middle of the courtyard. It’s smile that was so eerily bright and cheery now gone when it was in the focus of his vision. He tried to see through the veil of illusion but the statue remained as so. He had a hunch on what this meant, and he made a silent prayer that it wasn’t the case.

More evidence that Scribe Dalin is this ‘devil’ we’ve been looking for? As Samuel thought that, his body tensed as he moved his hand to his sword, resting his hand on the pommel. Let this end here.

He jumped twenty feet in the air, the roof cracked before the strength of his legs, but he had already prepared a spell before. The sound of splintering tiles were muffled and could barely be heard even if you were right next to it.

His trajectory had him falling on top of one of the guards hiding in the courtyard. Samuel’s iris broke apart like cracked glass, his body was beginning to light up, his body glowing and iridescent though for those without a connection to the senses, they would see nothing. His heart was beating erratically, his mind was racing with incoherent thoughts. As he fell, his eyes formed a coherent whole once again,  his heart slowly began to beat a normal rhythm and his mind established its focus once more. It was then he was at the edges of the high guards magical territory. Just before he touched it, he grabbed a handful of these tiny marbles and threw them before he hit the edge of their magical territory. As the devices did their work, Samuel unleashed his spell and undid his invisibility.

As the marbles went through the magical territory, the world went white for the guards, but it was quickly suppressed by the enchantments prepared inside the courtyard. But as the enchantments worked in ending the magical effect, the devices persisted with its spell and made the enchantments busy.

It was then the world went white yet again. But this time it wasn’t automatically blocked. And a soft thump was heard followed by a soft gurgle moan by one of the guards.

High Guards as they were, they immediately removed the blinding effect on their vision. But as the guards vision corrected, what they saw was five invaders all wielding different weapons and armor, running at them directly.

Samuel removed his sword from the high guard he killed from his ambush. The guards death created a burst of instability throughout the mana territory and it was enough for Samuel to sneak his own territory within. But that was all his ambush got him as the guards immediately removed his blind spell. Samuel rushed for the other invisible guard before they could compose themselves into a proper defense.

The guards went and tried to sound the alarm. But the tiny marble devices that fell on the courtyard disrupted their casting of the spell.

“Shit! They know our casting pattern!” One of the guards yelled.

“Use the other one then!” One shouted while raising their weapons.

“That’s not working too!” A shaky voice replied.

“Forget that! Get in formation quickly!” Said the guard at the hallway entrance with an authoritative voice.

The two guards at the sides of the courtyard immediately went to the hallway entrance, wary of any attack by the five men as they were regrouping. They only had time to prepare one spell each to fire off. One used ocular magic and used a spell that messed with your perception of color. Another used auditory magic to rock their eardrum and make them off balance. But the spells seemed to not do anything to the invaders.

One of his illusions that was close to the invisible guard feigned deadly attacks on his command to keep him busy. Within just a few strides Samuel was on top of the guard and ended their life.

Controlling his illusions, he finally confronted the three guards that were making a formation in front of the entrance of the hallway. He made his two illusions including himself stop right in front of them and the other two flanked the three guards sides. His golden mana, conquering half of the courtyard. 

“Worry not, your souls shall be judged fairly for the Maker sees all. Dalin might like to play devil, but you have a chance to surrender.” One of the illusions said with a baritone voice.

The guards didn’t reply, they just remained stalwart in their formation. Shields up and spears forward, already all three of them were preparing to cast a spell.

The illusions at the sides jumped in the air to divert their attention in the wrong place. The three at the front including Samuel charged the guards. The guards, not realizing the illusions weren’t real, dealt with the jumping attacks but it was a mistake. Samuel immediately went for one of the guards at the sides who attacked the jumping illusions and killed them. 

“Illusions!” The guard in the middle said. This guard instead of trying to attack, enhanced his own vision and realized it was only one person who was real. That revelation shocked him to his core. Especially with the knowledge that no one person could make this many illusions, that would mean he was…

But it was too late, too rattled and too confused; it was exceedingly easy for a fighter of Samuel’s caliber to take advantage of it.

The pulsing mana throughout the courtyard dwindled little by little, the surge of power coursing throughout the mana territory, steadily being overtaken by a golden color.  As one of the guards died a spike of arcana spasmed throughout the courtyard, mimicking the dying body it belonged to. One after another, similar oscillations of mystical energy did the same. Until there was only one, a glorious gleam of gold.

The clashing of steel finally came to an end until only the soft pattering of rain was heard and the soft breaths of the man with the sanguine stained sword. His illusions vanished, they were far too expensive to upkeep even with his substantial reservoir of mana. His mind eased in pain as he undid the illusions but another type of pain was surging through his consciousness.

The blood running down his sword felt heavy. It felt excessive to kill without question. But he had to anyway. There was a point in time where one had to fight back with ruthless efficiency. Samuel just hoped that this was the right time.

“I can’t get distracted, if I fail we lose our last lead. Peter and everyone else are already risking their lives for this one chance. I have to succeed.” Samuel muttered to himself. He couldn’t communicate with his fellow team in this operation because in the middle of his mission his chatterbox got destroyed while he invaded the small watchtowers.

Just as he said that, Samuel heard almost inaudible screams coming from past this rooftop courtyard. They were doing their job. He needed to do his. 

He then turned around to the statue. Its visage trying to worm itself in his perception.

Walking up to the fountain and jumping to the statue. Samuel reached into his pocket and took out what looked to be an amulet with an eye carved onto it. Pressing the quaint ornament onto the statue’s chest, the amulet glowed and revealed the dense enchantments and the stony exterior of the statue rapidly aged and fractured. With each crack, a breath was heard from within. In the tiny crevasses of cracked stone, rainwater waded itself in, as if helping to give life to the being inside who so desperately needed it. It was then through one huge split of stone, the last major pieces fell off of the woman and she was human once again.

The woman fell from her pose but she was caught by the man in bloody armor. Her mouth agape, desperately trying to intake oxygen, but she overdid it and choked on some rainwater that found itself inside her throat. Softly and gently, Samuel took her next to the door opposite of the hallway, where the overhang saved her from intrusive rainwater.

Upon closer inspection, Samuel could discern some eye-catching features of the woman. She had striking green eyes and long wavy black hair. She is currently mumbling to herself some incoherent stream of thoughts. He could make out water and bakery from her babbling.

“Miss, it is going to be okay.” Samuel said to the woman with the most comforting smile he could do.

The green eyes looked at him “T-they… t-hey…” The woman couldn’t even let out her thoughts, let alone speak.

Looking around at the garden of the courtyard, Samuel picked out some Yunli fruit, yellow in color and about as big as a finger and similarly shaped like one as well. Though this one looked oblong & violet, trying to imitate a poisonous fruit at first, but being away from their natural habitat their control of mana was meager and it was easy to push aside and see through its true appearance. Gardening Yunli… He thought while shaking his head.

He then gave the fruit to the woman. “Don’t eat too much, you’ll get even sicker. Take your time eating this, okay?” Samuel said.

The woman appeared to acknowledge him as her erratic movements began to slow as she  listened to him but she gave no verbal response.

That was all he needed. “Call for help once I’m done, I still have business to do in this place, don’t worry if they suspect you to be the perpetrator of all this. Even if you get convicted you’ll walk away soon enough.”

Taking an absurdly big leaf from an exotic plant he didn’t know, he wiped his sword clean of blood and began casting a spell lessening its odor and chemicals wafting from it from slicing apart so many people. Any competent olfactory or gustatory magician would find him out while he was walking through the hallway if he didn’t do so. While he did so, he took every marble he threw in the courtyard, it would be wasteful to just leave them there, they still had some mana in them after all; there’s also the fact they cost a commoner's life’s worth of salary.

Walking through the courtyard and into the hallway of Dalin’s manor rooftop, right before his office. Samuel’s heartbeat began to flutter, his mind was racing as he reinforced his connection to his senses. Casting every spell he knew to detect any traps, illusions and people but there only one element showed up in his myriad of spells, a single person inside the office room, sitting behind the desk, it distinctly didn’t feel comparable to Dalin’s body shape. Suspicious. 

The hallway was made of extravagant imported marble and had the austentatious art carving of a man staring at parchment while holding a quill on the left side of the wall. There were people watching him standing on a platform, as if waiting for him to sign it. Jameson’s treaty of the hapticians, it seemed you had respect for this country Dalin. While on the right side of the wall it was a blank, rugged and corrugated stone wall as if it was a piece of parchment paper. 

Finally, a few steps between him and the door. A final spell to find any traps, even using a wand to help his spell but it brought out nothing. Funnily enough, the spell informed him the door was unlocked.

Unsheathing his sword, taking over the surrounding area with his own mana, a glorious color of gold while preparing some offensive and defensive spells. He burst through the door, his nose was the first to notice the change, a strong rancid smell violently crept up his nasal cavity, Samuel immediately blocked his nose’s capability to smell, though it wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t an olfactory magician and therefore couldn’t completely kill the smell.

His nose wasn’t the only sensory organ that was assaulted, the smoke climbed its way inside his mouth and he began to taste the rancid, acrid smoke that built up inside the room. Just like olfactory magic, gustatory magic wasn’t his forte and his work to kill his taste senses was imperfect.

All the while his eyes watered because of the thick amount of smoke that hit his face, but he managed to reinforce his retina to avoid the chemicals affecting his eye. Immediately releasing a spell of enhanced sight, he saw clearly into the room. The ground was littered with hundreds of papers, there were even some pieces of paper that were blown away because of his breach and the sudden change of wind pressure in the room. He saw in the sides of the room, filled bookcases burning to the ground, with the smoke coalescing in the ceiling, moving towards the door he opened to the hallway.

And he noticed something far more important. A woman with a lean build and short straight platinum hair, with shadows lining her face was holding a stack of papers and ripping them apart and throwing them to the flames to the side of the room.

She finally looked at Samuel and beamed with joy. Despite the shadows covering her face, the familiar creases still showed up on the shadowy exterior and the smile was apparent on her face. If it was real shadows, it would be pure darkness, but magic scarcely followed the rule of the natural world.

“Too late.” She said while putting on a helmet that didn’t belong to any military, guards or adventurer parties in the country.

He noticed her miasmic black mana, compared to his it moved slowly but it hungrily swallowed everything it came across, looking more and more blurry. A blackout magician, huh. That’s why I couldn’t sense the smoke inside the room. Samuel thought to himself.

Should I retreat? From what it looks like the place is ruined. But there are still papers littered around the room but more likely than not they wouldn’t contain anything important. His eyes, much the same as a lizard, independently looked at two things at once and examined the room. The desk right in front of him was unburnt and appeared to be relatively untouched. Chances were it was ransacked, but that tiny sliver of chance that he could rid this country of a deviant who liked to play devil, then he was more than happy to take that chance. Samuel made his decision. I have to act fast or else everything is going to burn down.

Once he made his move, he could sense a bit of delight from the woman. Whether his choice was correct or not would rely on his success. The black-clad armored woman’s mana spiked unnaturally, she leapt atop the desk and while leaping unsheathed a handful of knives and threw them across his way. Each of them practically thrumming with energy, they were enchanted. Shortly after, she controlled her black miasmic mana and took control of half of the room, pushing back against the golden wave of energy.

Shit, another merged like me?! Samuel thought as his own eyes cracked again like glass and his own golden mana spiked in energy.

Stopping his gait towards the desk, he brought out the marbles he threw previously and scattered them against the knives. Each of the marbles, weaker than before, thrummed with energy and counteracted the enchantments of the knives. But as they went against each other, sparks of multicolored mana crashed against each other, but it was apparent the tiny devices couldn’t handle the knives and let two knives go through. 

Samuel already leapt to the side to evade the knives that went through, simultaneously his spellcasting didn’t stop while he reinforced his vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell. The two knives exploded, one knife burst into a cacophony of wretched sounds that pierced his reinforcement of hearing, his hearing was now useless and he even lost his sense of balance. It was clearly made by an auditory magician as it cleanly went through his defenses. The other erupted though the effect was invisible even to his own mage senses, but then he felt a coat of uncomfortable slimy transparent energy that clung to his skin. The room suddenly felt that much hotter, the warmth of his armor more acute and the heat of the room felt comparable to that of the flames of hell. His body reacting to it began to sweat bullets and steam was beginning to waft from his own armor from the quickly drying sweat. When he moved, he could feel the intensified blaze from his metal armor, though he wasn’t literally being burned alive, his magically enhanced sense of touch only made him perceive it that way.

The woman continued her warpath, taking the darkness emitted by the enormous amount of fumes in the room, she willed it to be dimmer, to the point where his earlier spell of being able to see through the room was being counteracted and his usual glorious gold colored mana was being tainted by a dark seedy miasmic energy. While this was happening, the woman was gunning for the door.

Shit! If she closes that door then I’m truly fucked, she’ll have full advantage in a fight inside a near-lightless room, it doesn’t matter if I even have my mana territory there, the energy of the room will be sent into her advantage. Samuel thought while he dealt with ringing in his ears, loss of balance and his skin that felt the scorching heat as if he was inside the flames.

As she ran through the room, to her surprise, the magically deafened and faux-burning man was still able to cast spells left and right that made crossing the room difficult. Even more miraculous was the man with no hearing and increased sense of touch, ran for her, even with his loss of balance, he charged her.

Good, good! The woman thought. While she could’ve chosen to fight him while he was incapacitated, she was well aware he was highly trained to fight with less than his full array of senses and could defend until he had his bearings again. But this was ridiculous, she could sense him repairing his own senses while casting spells. Enhancing her own sight she could see behind his helm and saw both of his eyes were cracked apart like a shattered pane of glass. More importantly, one of his eyes was independently looking downwards and guiding his feet where to step because of his loss of balance. 

“Twice Tiered, Merged and Gifted!” The woman said then immediately after cackling like a madwoman. Realizing she couldn’t close the door, she turned and fought him instead. Since she realized he was one of the gifted that could perfectly multi-task, trying to close the door was a bad strategy, he had the equivalent of someone casting for him and she was only one person, she had to put her focus on him. But there was a downside to his amazing gift. The more he did, the more mana he consumed than normal, even just trying to concentrate on independently controlling his limbs consumed mana. The answer was simple: feign for the door and give him as many things to focus on, burn his mana to the ground.

Arranging her black miasmic mana as lances, she began to focus on destroying his controlled mana territory. Raising her saber, she swung at him, relentlessly. One attack after another, switching from physical to magical to feigning for the door. Then she released a spell within the pressured mana territory to completely take over a portion of his control.

 

---

 

Samuel’s mind was a mess, while he was repairing his hearing and touch, he was dealing with her mana territory attacks and physical attacks. He focused, he focused until his mind was killing him, he focused until he could feel his veins on his head bulging and his heart palpitating. The situation was borderline impossible, but if anyone was going to do it, it was him.

What could he use as an edge? He already used up all of his marbles. With how it was going, he was going to lose mana fast and soon after that fall to her blade. He looked throughout the room. He smiled. The answer was always just beneath the surface. 

Even with a room full more of smoke than fire, the blazing roar of the heat was more than enough for his uses. Almost like treasure hidden away, the light beneath the smoke became his weapons to wield. Utilizing the fire in his side of the room, he amplified their light and fought against the miasmic black mana. The man, through his efforts felt his maimed senses come back to normal. His tarnished golden mana, regaining their full luster. Right now, to the woman, he appeared as though she was fighting the sun itself, unyielding and unrelenting. He unsheathed a second sword, knowing he had the advantage if she was focused more into the physical angle of the fight and he had free reign on the magical aspect.

It was as if he was a candlelight, fumbled down into the floorboards that turned into a smoldering disaster. The light emitted by the fire became his fuel, while his reservoir of mana was practically being burned to the ground, it seemed as if the woman was going to burn alongside it. The room became luminous, the shadowy likeness of the woman becoming clearer and clearer.

While the woman did try to amplify the darkness the smoke brought, she couldn’t do what he could. Which was being able to focus on multiple things at once perfectly. She had a choice, defend physically or defend magically.

Just as it was normal that prey be killed by a predator. It was child’s play for him to conquer her territory, he was essentially three people at once with his multi-tasking of spellwork and mana control. While she was just one person, a strong fighter and magician, but still, only one person. The light gave him the edge he needed to make his conquering of her territory easier and more efficient. Dalin’s office was becoming crystal clear under Samuel’s perception.

The woman was being driven back, the dual bladed style of the man being too much for her to handle. She was beginning to be riddled with slashes and stab wounds. Her head thumped in sharp pain as she desperately clung onto her territory. It looked more and more apparent she was going to die, but as she was pushed back, she was beginning to laugh, like a child who couldn’t control their emotions. Samuel could now read the scattered papers on the floor of the office that were inside his control, papers he thought were meaningless, now more important than ever. His smile was gone. 

Spell after spell, her black mana was savagely being battered down and replaced with golden light. The desk was the only important piece he couldn’t clearly perceive. Her inky impish energy desperately hid what was beneath. 

A cackle.

Until she was pushed back to the desk. And he saw clearly inside them, using his ocular magic to create an eye to survey inside the drawers. Samuel was reminded why there was darkness in the first place, to hide the things not meant to be in the light.

A snicker.

His blade slashing through this fiery hellscape, the trajectory of his blade was true. But he stopped his swing. Centimeters before her neck. 

She looked at his blade, smiling wide. She saw the edge, shaking. She saw inside his helm, his eyes crying. 

“How… How is this possible?!” Samuel shouted.

She smiled. “You are weak.”

His legs gave out under him. Removing his helm. He unsheathed his knife and sliced through both of his eyes in one clean swing.

What he saw here today was not something to be seen. How could it be real? It wasn’t possible. Yet it was. The country he knew and loved, was bound for ruin. They were too late.

May someone stronger than me, do what I couldn’t do today… Almighty Maker save us all. 

The woman then beheaded him. The roaring flames sputtered and instantly weakened, being taken over by the smoke. His body was being charred and buried in a cloud of smoke and ash, dying with the knowledge he was burdened with. Shadows once again ruled the night. She looked at his body, she saw a sun slowly setting behind his severed head. She blinked and it was gone.