"Once upon a time, a prophecy arose, made by an exceptional mage.
Evil will rise again, the earth will rumble from its core, the sovereign of evil will return.
A message to all races, those exceptional, those who stand out, those who fight.
Oh ten lights, or ten beings, gather, train, be prepared.
Oh army of ten, men, dwarves, elves, must cooperate, oh army of ten lights, prepare for what is coming.
This was just a fragment of a prophecy, the reason behind it was the preparation for the arrival of the demon king; every 4000 years a cycle repeats and a demon king is born.
Oh, those three lights, oh those three leaders, destined to obtain divine power shall not be born.
Without hope, they may, but do not falter in the face of adversity.
The prophecy also mentioned that those sacred warriors, destined to fight, could not be born, those three forces that could oppose the Sovereign of demons could not appear.
The reason? God had no power.
Humanity's faith in God died.
However, God never stopped loving humanity and thus decided to turn to someone destined to face the calamity, the individual destined to protect the world from the monsters.
Oh great army, there is still hope. A force will arise, someone capable of fighting, and you will be their support.
Oh ancient Sacred Warrior, the last one standing, a mage of countless tricks, faced Lucifer, sealed and contained him, once protected the world with the Hero, the Warrior, and the Saint, but now destined to fight alone.
With the help of the Sacred Mage, you, army, will be able to oppose evil.
Prepare yourselves, prepare yourselves, army of humanity, elven army, dwarven army, you must support the warrior, and only together will you defeat evil.
The last part of the prophecy mentioned that the Sacred Mage would return from ancient times, once faced the Sovereign of demons and would now face him again.
The army of all races, along with the mage, fought against demons and monsters.
It was undoubtedly the fight for the prevalence of all races unified against the demonic army.
The day came, together they fought and ultimately emerged victorious.
Sacrifices occurred, but that day was remembered by all.
But the story, at least of the last Sacred Warrior, did not come to an end.
"Inside a room sat an apparent young man, appearing to be 17 at first glance. He wore a t-shirt with a design of black and white stripes, paired with brown pants, rather formal, and an elegant wine-red cape embroidered in white. His appearance was fairly average; the only notable aspect might be his well-worked musculature, not overly bulky. He had brown eyes, brown hair, and wore glasses.
He sat, seemingly doodling in a book to the untrained eye, but in reality, he was sketching various elements of a magic circle. The man leaned back in his chair, leaving the book on the table. This 'young man's' name was Merlin. He took off his glasses for a moment, rubbed his eyes, then replaced them, took a deep breath, and exhaled.
"Ugh."
Merlin sighed, took another deep breath, and continued reading, readjusting his posture at intervals.
The place had a somewhat eerie atmosphere. Its location was probably irrelevant, but nestled within a mountain, this place was, to simplify, the interior of a dungeon—hardly an easily accessible location.
This place contained a library filled with magical books, spellcraft, and alchemy, stacks and stacks of unfinished writings, a room full of an uncountable number of flasks, laboratory tools, and ingredients. There was another room filled with books, unlike the library, these were scattered in piles along with papers and small artifacts. There was also a chair and a disproportionately large table, currently occupied by two individuals - the aforementioned Merlin and a Siberian Husky reclining beside him. In contrast to these immense rooms, there was a small yet cozy bed with a pillow resting on the floor—a place simply for rest and repose.
All that was described belonged to one individual, Merlin.
The 'young man' was jotting down some things in the book he had been reading earlier. To the untrained eye, they were mere scribbles, but in reality, they were complex magical formulas. The reason behind all this? The man himself pondered, 'I'm lost, I can't think of anything, a spell more efficient than fixed position teleportation, the teleportation I created is based on a combination of magic and spellcraft to disintegrate matter into intangible particles - magical particles that can be invoked through spellcraft into another magic circle, reversing the process, making teleportation virtually possible.' The man closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, 'Is there a more efficient method? Perhaps there's a way to bypass this transition and have two points truly connected spatially?'
The man reached for a container by his side and took a sip, 'The biggest problem would be achieving this spatial connection, hmm… opening a door between two magical connections… spatial magic, perhaps if...' The man raised his hand and with one of his fingers infused it with magic, starting to draw a pentagram in the air. In front of him, he continued with a superficially embedded hexagram, drawing various characters around its circumference, each one overlapping with the others. What remained were diagrams and loose characters, squinting, Merlin observed what was in front of him and said, 'If I try to connect them…' With his free hand, he began connecting each of the characters with what could be termed as threads of concentrated magic. All of this fused into a single diagram; a faint whisper escaped Merlin's lips, 'Invoke.' The previous diagram began to glow as the mage's eyes watched with hope, 'I just need it to stabilize.' Each of the characters and pentagrams started to wobble on its two-dimensional surface, then suddenly disintegrated on their own, 'Seems like it didn't work.' Still gazing at the same spot where the spell diagram was moments ago, now appeared the face of a wolf or a dog. What was supposed to be a Husky?
In a slightly high-pitched voice, the Husky spoke, 'Master, don't you think you've spent too much time trying to improve teleportation? Maybe we should go out or something, I'm really bored.' After finishing her words, the mage's hands squeezed the dog's cheeks, 'Master, stop squeezing me...' Then the young man dropped the serious tone he'd been using while lost in magical thought.
"Aaahhh... I guess you're right; I've spent too much time on this... So, what do you have in mind? Ah, I know! How about we visit Alison? It's been a few months since I last saw her." Then the Husky replied, "Sure, Master, but I'd like to eat a bit first maybe..." Merlin smiled for a moment, "I'll take you to the capital's restaurant that you like - Kira." A smile appeared on the Husky named Kira's face, "You're the best master." "I know, no need to tell me," Merlin said with a slight smile."
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-"So pack everything we're going to need, Kira."
-"Understood, Master, although most of the things are already stored in your spell vault."
The Husky, seemingly teasing, stuck out and stretched her tongue, moving it in strange ways, but in an instant, there was a magical diagram on the floor. It appeared as an infinity of darkness with a faint emission of purple light within. The Husky jumped into it and disappeared.
"Well, while Kira checks the things we'll need, where did I leave that..." Merlin meticulously began examining the room, focusing on the shelves mainly. He approached one of them and picked up a pair of glasses, slipping them into his t-shirt pocket.
From the darkness spell on the floor emerged Kira, "Master, I've checked, I think we have everything we need." After a moment, Kira closed the spell known as the vault.
"I suppose then, we're off, by the way..."
"Don't forget this, Master." Kira went for a moment to another room and brought in her mouth a staff of golden and reddish metal.
While Merlin strapped the staff to his back, which clung as if by a magnet, he thanked Kira.
Using one of his fingers, Merlin instantly summoned a complicated magic circle and uttered a few words while raising his fist, "Invoke, Teleportation!" as a bright light enveloped both bodies.
"Mm................................................"
"Master."
"Yes... tell me, Kira..."
"Many little lights and all, but why are we still here...?"
"Mmm... actually, I was about to ask you something similar..."
Merlin and Kira stepped out for a moment from the magic circle hovering in the middle of the room to observe it.
"Mmmm... the only thing I can think of is... that..."
"Uh-huh, Master, what do you think?"
"Probably..."
"Yes..."
"Mmm... I see... I see."
"Oh yes, I see it too, it's very obvious, Master."
"The fixed position teleportation circle by Alison is probably deactivated..."
"Oh, of course, actually, I was about to say the same thing, Master..."
"In reality, you had no idea what happened, did you, little Husky?"
"That's right, Master..."
"Well, well, if that circle is deactivated... then I'll try the one at the magic institute..."
Kira and Merlin stood up again, while Merlin undid the previous circle, raised his fist again, and shouted once more while drawing at divine speed, the new circle, "Invoke teleportation," but again, the spell didn’t invoke.
Merlin stroked his chin while thinking, "I doubt they've deactivated the institute's spells; they probably altered them, it's the safest bet."
Kira thought aloud, "Without the institute spells and Miss Alison's, well, there are still the guild's spells."
"I just tried that a moment ago, it didn't work... well, I guess we'll enter through the main door, although I'll have to interfere a bit with that specific circle... and for that, I need to finish the new teleportation magic. With it, I'd just need to think of the place, and bam, a connection between two points, no need for two previous circles."
"It would indeed be very convenient, Master..."
"As I recall, there were remnants in the diagram of the main doors that I can alter... so..."
"I can't wait to have a good steak, yum yum..." said Kira as a little drool slid from her mouth.
"Well, I have to make some changes to the capital's spell - 'Invoke remote editing, let's see, a change here, another there, or the magic connections look a bit worn out, well, with this, it should be... ready, spell reconfigured, at this moment, the spell should update in a few moments.'"
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Kingdom of Stanford
Royal Capital
A place filled with towering structures, sprawling streets, a great number of people moving from one side to another, bustling streets, markets where merchants loudly advertised their wares. Towering security towers dotted the area, while guards supervised public order on the streets, all enclosed within immense walls that protected each section of the royal capital. Despite these measures, the royal capital was considered one of the safest areas in the kingdom. Thanks to continuous support from the royal family and other factions, even the areas considered marginalized had good standards within the capital, resulting in very low insecurity rates.
As the Royal Capital, among all these structures, the grand Royal Castle stood out. It housed the principal members of the Stanford family, who had reigned for at least four millennia. Another notable building was the immense school of magic and warriors, the largest institute of spellcraft, and the institute where the most distinguished warriors and mages of the Kingdom enrolled. In the central part stood an enormous bronze statue, coated with a golden-reddish mineral. Four figures could be seen on it: on the left, a muscular man in armor holding a sword firmly with both arms was the "Hero"; on the right, a woman with distinctly pointed ears, an elf indeed, also clad in armor, even more heavily armored than the man, holding a sword in each arm, her hair, sculpted in the metal, could be seen braided at the back - she was "The Warrior." Slightly in front of both individuals stood a wolf, "The Beast," in an attacking stance. And at the rear, lifting a magical scepter emitting a faint green light that contrasted against the reddish-golden metallic glow of the statue, stood "The Mage," who characteristically wore a cloak. This was the statue honoring the legendary heroes who fought and defeated humanity's greatest threat.
In the southern section of the royal capital stood one of the SKTC posts (Stanford Kingdom Teleportation Center), which used the legendary teleportation magic to connect all the most relevant points with an organized chain of fixed position teleportation circles.
Like every other day, it operated normally, supervised by pairs of guards. At the center of the extensive magical diagram on the floor, fueled by magic stones, was the registration center that managed the traffic of people.
One of the guards, named Kell, a graduate of the academy of spellcraft, was responsible for the proper functioning of the teleportation spell. He observed each activation of the spell that brought more and more people to the location, naturally not the only one responsible for the task.
The circle shone conventionally, and with its light emerged a large number of people. They were all guided by another guard who directed them to the registration area for teleportation counts, and following the instructions, each subject registered. After a brief interview, they could continue with their normal activities.
"The number of people coming to the capital seems a bit high today, doesn't it, Merdick?" Kell said to one of his colleagues.
"It's normal, since today is Heroes' Day, didn't you remember?"
"Oh... That explains why I noticed them decorating the streets and the academy building on my way here. What are your plans? Are you going to see the fireworks or something with your family?"
"Yeah, I'll take my kids to the carnival, to the attractions. I don't usually spend time with them, so it'll be a good day. And you, I suppose it's the same as always, right?"
"Mmm... it's not too late to plan something; I'll think about it... and here comes another round of 10 teleportations...." said Kell as the teleportation circle glowed again. A moment later, he turned to check his notes at one of the tables.
"Hey Kell... what's that supposed to be?" Merdick pointed to the teleportation circle.
"What are you talking about?" Kell observed the teleportation circle... when suddenly, it turned green, transforming Kell's calm and even bored expression into genuine surprise, calling out to his colleague, "Merdick!! Change of plans."
"Why, what's going on?"
"Close the gates."
"Why?"
"Just do it."
With Kell's sudden change, Merdick hurried to close the doors of what would be considered the teleportation chamber. While this was happening on his part, Kell approached what would be considered the control center and communicated through the messaging spell.
"Here, South Base of the SKTC in the capital, the South gate is temporarily out of service..."
"SKTC General here, what's the reason for the interruption?"
"Damages in the energy flow connections of the diagram."
"Understood, report when services resume... SKTC General Out."
Kell quickly returned in front of the diagram with his companion.
"Merdick, inform the supervisor that it turned green, she should be arriving any moment now..."
Without saying another word, Merdick went in search of the supervisor of the place, and then the diagram turned green again, while in its drawing, certain changes in the magical links could be noticed.
Then, the inevitable happened; a faint light covered the room. In the middle of the extensive teleportation spell, a man and his Kushy appeared. Silence prevailed for a moment until a high-pitched voice interrupted.
"To eat, to eat yum yum!" said Kira.
"Wait, we still have to contact Alison... uh... Hello!" Merlin greeted Kell.
And there they were in front of Kell, the last Legendary Sacred Warrior and the Sacred Beast who only wanted to eat a steak, the heroes who defeated Lucyfer and saved the world...
