NOVEL NEXT Chapter 79: A Journey To the Past.
Agis had taken me back in time several hundred years, creating an entire world in our minds that only we shared. It was a perfect copy of the past.
As we walked through the town of Kasesh I could see people wearing various uniforms belonging to countless different organizations. Each outfit was modest and covered their entire body. Far different from the type of clothes that I would see my family wear.
My face fell flat. “These people look normal… What happened…”
“Well, I didn't exactly use magic all that much, and I was considered the greatest leader in the kingdom's history. The king that followed me didn't use magic either. The mages began to feel like they were being treated unfairly and rebelled. They lost tragically. After that war, magic became a sign of weakness. If you were truly strong you would be better off fighting with your swords, that was the saying anyway.”
“How did they win so easily, is magic actually that weak?”
He sighed again, “No… It's complicated… Let's just say most of the magicians in our country were more inclined toward the theoretical applications of magic. They were more like philosophers than wizards.”
“Oh, so they were useless…”
He laughed embarrassingly. “That isn't to say they had no talent…. Here! I'll show you.” He took my hand, guiding it to point over toward massive empty fields traced with giant buildings.
In the blink of an eye, we were there. There was an instructor there standing in front of several students all lined up in true military fashion.
“Right then, who's first?” he asked.
A young man and woman stepped forward.
“Seeing them so young like this gives me such a feeling of nostalgia,” Agis said, pointing at the two as they stepped into a ring.
“These two were prodigies. I always loved seeing them at work. They were rivals, but I was sure they would fall for each other eventually.”
“Did they?”
“Well… They did, but neither of them ever got to share their feelings before it was too late. I like to think that they both knew anyway though. After he died, she turned blood-crazed and wiped out hundreds of soldiers single-handedly before the king himself challenged her to a duel. She took off his right arm before he finally stopped her…”
I could see the deep sadness covering his face. “I wish… never mind, we didn't come here to dwell on my regrets… watch this fight closely. These two were real mages.”
I looked over at them, the battle had already begun. Neither one was standing still, or even chanting words as I imagined. They were moving their bodies swiftly, dodging spells and sending their own back at the other.
A cage of lightning appeared around the girl, but with her own magic, she made a tiger of lightning. It broke through the bars and charged him. He dodged its claws and countered, shooting the electricity directly from his fingertips, but she pushed back, meeting his spell head-on.
She overpowered him, but he managed to dive to the side creating several floating spears of the same magic, and throwing them at her. Making a wall, she blocked all of them before it began sliding across the ground at rapid speed.
“He loses...” I said bluntly. I had seen enough of the fight to tell he was at a clear disadvantage… I had been overpowered enough times to be able to see what was happening.
“Not so fast,” Agis interjected.
‘Does that mean that he wins?’
I looked back at the fight in anticipation. He had been on his heels, even if it was subtle, I could tell he was outmatched. ‘If he actually wins this, that would be amazing.’
The man charged the electricity into the ground, somehow allowing him to jump higher than any normal person. He vaulted the wall and made a gesture as if pulling something down from the sky.
A crack of lightning whipped through the air and struck her directly from heaven.
Agis started laughing as her body began to glow, the electricity shocking her and coursing through her.
“It's not over…” I said. It was clear she was still trying to do something, slowly forcing her body into the right position. She redirected it, channeling it through her body and striking him with his own magic.
His clothes burned nearly to a crisp and turned half to ash as he stood still twitching. Finally, he admitted defeat.
“Told you…”
“Come on, don't look like that. He's the stronger of the two mages you know.”
‘I guess he's not the only one that's easy to read…’ “How is he stronger? He was overpowered time and again.”
Agis smirked, completely satisfied that he knew something I didn't. “Let me show you.”
Time suddenly moved forward several months until the same situation arose.
It was the same two students, and they were having a similar fight, the only difference was the magic. This time, they both fought with fire.
Seconds into the battle a fireball so large it put the sun to shame came reigning down from the sky and cratered the entire area around her, melting the earth underneath it.
Luckily, the instructor teleported her out of the way just in time. I turned back to Agis. “So it's like that is it.”
His smirk never went away, only growing wider. “You figured it out then?”
“Well, it wasn't hard. When there are no limitations, he is stronger, but under specific rules or regulations, she can outmatch him. It's most likely because he just likes fire a lot, but he probably isn't nearly as good with anything else.”
His smirk suddenly turned sour. “Know it all.”
I chuckled. “You're saying I was right about all of that?”
“Are you admitting you didn't actually know that for sure?” His eyes narrowed like he was trying to make me admit defeat.
I wasn't exactly sure how admitting I was only guessing and not using precognition was him winning, but I really didn't want to give him that satisfaction either way.
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn't,” I said slyly.