Prologue
Baptism of Fire
Ryze had always been afraid of fire. The pain and destruction an uncontrolled fire could cause was terrifying, but it wasn't what troubled him the most. The scariest aspect of a fire is the fact that once it gets out of control, it can't be stopped.
He'd seen destruction, sorrow, and death. And despite being a powerful mage, even he'd felt powerless when faced with a raging fire.
Shaking his thoughts off, Ryze took a step back, making sure his hands were empty. As he opened his eyes, he saw a red crystal placed in a pillar in front of him. It reminded him of a fire; an unstoppable power waiting for the right moment to show its true colors. But he wasn't as afraid anymore; the object was now, at least temporarily, powerless. He breathed a sigh of relief, as a smile formed on his face. He'd just managed to take control of another world rune.
He took a look around the room, making sure everything was working the way it should be. There were four more pillars, three of which already held their own rune. Every crystal was different from the others, both in color and shape. In their current state, surrounded by the magic-resistant metal, they looked relatively harmless... but the mage knew better than that. Even without a brain of their own, they were weapons of mass destruction capable of razing entire countries with ease. And he wasn't going to underestimate them... never again.
"Finally..." Ryze whispered to himself, as he shifted his glance towards the last, empty pillar, "the last one."
However, the mage's grin quickly disappeared, as he began to feel the room getting warmer. Something was happening, and it definitely wasn't good. His expression twisted from surprised to one of horror in an instant, while the echo of a familiar laugh echoed in the walls. Although the voice was cold and twisted, its laughter was filled with a burning passion.
"So close, yet so far..." the voice hissed from behind Ryze, making the mage turn around almost immediately. Even with his hearing getting worse because of age, he could recognize the voice as soon as it reached him. And what he saw in the darkness only proved him right.
A man stood in the shadows, staring Ryze down menacingly with his piercing eyes. His entire body was covered in a bright fire, which didn't seem to mind the anti-magic material in the walls. Ryze tried his best to stay calm and collected, but he couldn't stop his body from trembling. That man was the fire he was afraid of. His name was Brand.
"You... what are you doing here?" asked the mage.
"You look desperate, Ryze," Brand replied with a mocking tone, as he began slowly walking across the room, "that scared look on your face... there are people who would kill to see it."
"These walls are made of petricite... your magic shouldn't work here..." Ryze said, his voice cracking. He'd always been stronger than Brand, but not even his magic could completely ignore the effect of petricite. That made Brand a more dangerous foe than Ryze would have hoped, but he knew he didn't have the luxury of fleeing from that battle.
"Times change, old friend. When we last fought, my power was too young and weak to stand a chance against you," Brand said, as he began conjuring a large fireball in his hands, "but as you can see... I've matured."
As the fireball grew bigger and bigger, Ryze began summoning an orb of energy with his own magic. However, being under the effect of petricite, his spell paled in comparison to Brand's flames. Eventually, Brand's fireball grew too huge to be contained in the room, and it touched the walls and the ceiling of the petricite vault.
Ryze knew that was Brand's limit, and a new spark of hope glew in his mind. Even though Brand had an advantage in a battle of sheer power, there was still a limit that he couldn't overcome: the enti-magic walls of the vault. Ryze smiled once again and threw his orb at the fire mage, hoping to distract him. He quickly conjured several smaller orbs and fired them almost instantly, knowing Brand would have to protect himself, thus dispelling the fireball. Unfortunately, Brand only widened his grin in response to the spell.
"I know what you're thinking, Ryze. 'The petricite is his limit. His magic can't go further than that, and I can still win'," Brand told the rune mage, taking him by surprise. As soon as the orbs collided with Brand's body, however, they all disintegrated and vanished into the air, leaving him unharmed.
Ryze's eyes widened in shock, but before he could reply, Brand pointed his finger at the ceiling. As the rune mage looked up, he saw the flame getting even bigger and burning through the petricite that was supposed to stop it. The walls soon started to crumble, and large chunks of petricite began falling everywhere across the room.
"How did-"
"I haven't seen that expression in ages! SHOW ME WHAT YOU'VE GOT, RYZE!" Brand shouted victoriously, as he launched the gigantic fireball at Ryze.
The mage wanted to summon a barrier, but his magic wasn't quick enough and the flame engulfed him, sending repetitive surges of sharp, unbearable pain across his body. He could feel his skin and flesh slowly dissolving, and the wounds then immediately closing due to the heat. Before his vision faded to black, however, the fire vanished, leaving Ryze standing still, unable to move a muscle without feeling the burns.
As he slowly walked past Ryze, Brand said nothing but one word: "Pathetic."
Clenching his teeth and doing his best to ignore the pain, the rune mage could only watch as his enemy approached the pillar with a red rune placed inside. Smiling from ear to ear, he grasped the rune firmly, making it glow even brighter than ever before. Soon, red lines of energy began flowing out of the crystal into Brand's body, making the flames surrounding him glow even brighter.
"Don't touch it... you don't know what you're doing..." Ryze uttered, taking a slow but long step towards the pillar. Unfortunately, his wounds wouldn't let him take another one.
"Stop it..." he continued. Although he wanted to do something, every time he tried to conjure an orb of magic, it evaporated before it even became large enough to hurt Brand.
Knowing that he was powerless, Ryze just stood there and watched as the rune and the flames slowly merged into one, making the fire covering Brand's skin bloody red. As soon as the energy stopped flowing out of the rune, it broke apart into tiny, now powerless, crystals.
"Cease this madness, Brand! If you keep this up, the runes are going to destroy you!"
Brand didn't reply at first. His eyes were focused only on the vast amounts of power surging from his body, and the shattered rune lying in front of him. It wasn't a weapon of mass destruction anymore... only a regular, uninteresting crystal.
The man then quickly shifter his attention to Ryze, stretching out his arm. With a snap of his fingers, a large sword made of fire immediately appeared in his hand. Empowered by the world rune, the sword looked several times as frightening and powerful as the fireball that had previously overpowered the rune mage.
"If I perish, there are others who can take up my torch and continue my journey. But you... you're all alone," Brand said, as he pointed the sword at Ryze's chest, "and that's your weakness, Rune Mage."
"NO!" the rune mage screamed as Brand pushed the blade forward, piercing right through his lungs and heart. Before the mage could do anything, the entire world went black.
"NO!"
Ryze's eyes went wide open as he shot up from the bed, breathing heavily. His body was covered in at least a bucket of sweat, and his limbs were sore and hard to move. His eyes shifted to his chest to look for the stab wound from the sword, and let out a sigh of relief when he couldn't find it.
With a loud groan, Ryze slowly lifted himself up from the bed. As soon as he stood up, he tried summoning a few magic orbs, thinking about the events which had happened in his dream. Usually, he would have assumed it was just a bad dream and forgotten about it. But it wasn't his first time experiencing that exact same nightmare, and oddly enough... it all sounded like a realistic way things could go.
Fortunately, he didn't have the time to bother himself with it too much. Shrugging off all the bad thoughts, he put on his clothes and packed his belongings as fast as he could. But no matter what he did, the nightmare were stuck in his mind, refusing to let him be. He saw Brand slowly engulfing him and the supposedly 'unpenetrable' petricite vault in raging flames, turning everything into dust.
"You're all alone..."
Brand's words echoed in his mind, with warped images of destruction quickly making their way into his memories and ripping apart everything that he'd once considered beautiful. Forests were burning, mountains were falling apart and families were grieving, all because of his failure.
"...and that's your weakness, Rune Mage."
Suddenly, everything stopped. His vision became clear once again as he clenched his fist. No matter how many things the monsters in his head got right, they were wrong about one thing; he hadn't failed yet.
"I'm not letting it happen," he reassured himself, as he lifted up one hand and summoned a large, pulsating pool of magic energy beneath his feet, "never again."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he disappeared into thin air, leaving nothing but a cold, empty room behind.
A/N: Hey there, everyone! First of all, I'd like to thank you for clicking on this story. Knowing that there are people who actually read your stories is an amazing feeling, and I've really missed it (theoretically, this story might not get any views in the end, but I'm just hoping for the better).
I'd also like to thank ADamnGoodName and FicfansEverywhere, because their stories have inspired me to try producing something on my own. So yeah... thanks a lot, folks!
Since the story's only just begun, I don't think there's a lot I need to say. The plot is pretty straightforward so far, but if you have anything you want to tell me, feel free to send me a PM. As someone who isn't the most social being out there, I'm up for a chat anytime.
And that's about it from me. If you enjoyed the prologue, please fave/follow the story and leave a review! Also, don't be afraid to be a bit harsh, I deeply appreciate constructive criticism.
Once again, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next chapter!
Also, I'll try to make the A/Ns shorter and only put them at the end of a chapter, because I know how annoying they can sometimes be.
