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Chapter 38: The men of the Griffin Guard
Vladimir analyzed the situation from all angles, Katar's plan was good but Vladimir knew how Nexus fought and lead his army. There was so much that could go wrong with this plan and to many lives would be lost carrying it out. The army itself was just as large as when Vladimir last faced Nexus, maybe larger. He knew that Nexus's army's only priority was to protect the tower. The tower was the most deadly thing Vladimir had ever fought. The tower is a living abomination crated by Nexus through slaughtering thousands and dark magic. If it reached the walls of the city the war would be lost, once the tower reached its destination it would sit down on the ground and release some kind of black mist. The mist was a fate worse than death, your body died but your soul was trapped inside it, an eternal prison even after the body was destroyed. Vladimir already told everyone in the room about this and made it absolutely clear that the tower cannot reach the city.
Wiping the sweat from his brow Vladimir spoke, "The army is just a ploy, the only thing that we need to worry about is destroying the tower."
"So how did you destroy it last time?" King Benjamin asked leaning over the table.
"We didn't." Vladimir began, "We infiltrated the tower and then transported Nexus to another world, one of fire. That was not enough though for he could as easily transport between dimensions as we did. It was at that point that we fought and sealed him in the molten rock. Some time after we closed of all inter-planer travel for all dimensions to reassure that he could never be awaken by an outside force." Vladimir paused, "As a result the tower died, or at least stopped moving. That too we sealed in a hidden location, this might be the very same tower."
Vladimir saw King Benjamin stand up straight and stretch, "We aren't making any progress at the moment. Everyone is dismissed we will continue at the same time tomorrow. Maybe after a day of contemplating the information we have gained we can come up with a better plan." Everyone left but Vladimir stayed behind.
Getting down on one knee Vladimir presented the Kings crown, "Your crown your Majesty." King Benjamin took the crown and looked at it with an absent look on his face before placing it on the liquid metal table, that now had a hard surface, without so much as a word. "Your Majesty?" Vladimir asked.
King Benjamin walked over to the window and braced his arm against it. There was a long pause before he spoke, "How can you still be alive?"
"Pardon your Majesty?" Vladimir asked, it seemed like the King was going to continue with this joke. Oh how the Royal Family liked their pranks. "You still press on with this jest your Majesty?"
"Stop calling me that!" Kin Benjamin snapped.
"I beg your pardon, but how am I suppose to address you besides that of which position you hold?" Vladimir asked.
Turning King Benjamin said, "I am not your King. Your King died three millennia ago, I am not even worthy of the title besides the fact."
Vladimir got up from his knee, "I would beg to differ, you are held high among your subordinates and you seem to have raised two fine young men."
"I abandoned my Kingdom." King Benjamin interrupted, "I ran away with my wife and ended up…getting her killed…" King Benjamin walked over to the table, "I then abandoned my friends and children, and all because of this…this stupid heritage." King Benjamin knocked the crown off of the table and it rolled across the floor.
Scratching his head Vladimir looked over at Dawn Star who was sitting in the corner of the room. Dawn Star nodded his head over to King Benjamin. Vladimir threw up his hand and mouthed, 'What can I say?' but Dawn Star stomped his foot and glared at Vladimir. With a sigh Vladimir walked over to King Benjamin and clapped a hand on his shoulder, "A coward runs from his fights but it takes a brave man to face what he fears, even if he has to be called a coward to face it. You are not a coward because you came back to your Kingdom. A coward a King does not make but, like I said, you are not a coward. Therefore you are the King this Kingdom needs."
"Words of wisdom from the great Vladimir Dos' Vallen Captain of the Griffin Guard." King Benjamin paused, "Come with me, there is something you have to see."
Ty made his way to the training ground and saw many of its occupants wounded and bandaged. "What happened to them?" Boe asked.
"I guess that Brad is pushing his trainees more and more, but it looks like he is going to kill them before the war." Ty replied. As he entered the training yard several of the onlookers were whispering but Ty could only pick out only a few words among the chatter such as "fool" and "goner" Ty wondered what that meant. Through the chatter Ty heard the sound of steel through air and quickly ducked back to see a blade pass over him.
"Finally someone who can hopefully put up a fight." Ty turned to see a tall burly man with several scars across his chest and short brown hair. The sword he carried was a good five feet long from the tip of the blade to the pommel. The hit was at an upward tilt and the man carried the blade with ease.
Turning to face the man Ty asked, "Why did you attack me?"
The man rested the two handed sword on his shoulder, "Because none of these louts can put up a good enough fight. Now defend yourself!" The man charged Ty and brought his sword down with one hand.
Reaching into his coat Ty pulled out his dagger and there was a dull blue flash. In his hands Ty held Lupus in it's scimitar form and held it up to block the blade. As the blades locked Ty staggered a bit, "I won't fight you!"
They pushed apart and the man charged for another attack, this time thrusting the blade at Ty. Ty saw this and jumped into the air spinning around and kicked the flat part of the blade with his foot. As Ty landed the man had spun around using the momentum from the kick to hit Ty's sword and knock it out of his hands in an uppercut and managed to cut Ty's coat. Jumping back Ty threw off his coat and landed preparing to fight with one hand. The man was preparing for another attack but stopped mid swing.
Bringing his sword down to his side the man bowed towards Ty, "Forgive me, I did not know that you were injured." The man apologized.
Ty was confused. Who was this man? Why did he attack him? Why was he apologizing now? Ty lowered his stance, "So why did you attack me?"
"I wanted to have someone challenging but all of these other greenhorns can't put up a fight." The man explained, "You at least fended off two of my attacks, and even injured."
"I see." Ty replied, "But who are you?"
The man smiled, "I am Tear of the Griffin Guard."
"Nice to meet you." Ty said awkwardly, "Now please leave me out of your… training." Ty walked over to Lupus and sheathed it.
"Your to stiff and ridged with your blade." Tear said, "When your arm heals come to me and I will show you how to really fight with a sword."
Ty turned to pick up his discarded coat, "I will keep that in mind." Ty walked over to the where he was first heading to, a tree that stood at the far end of the courtyard. He sat down against the tree and cringed, his shoulder had been lucky enough to not be hit but it still pained him.
"That was a good fight, to bad that Tear stopped." Boe said.
"If he didn't I would be worse for wear." Ty replied.
"So are you going to take his offer?" Boe asked.
Ty sighed, "I don't know, I have to think on it."
As they were walking down Lan felt a strong presence that he had not felt since entering the labyrinth, "Do you feel that?" Lan asked. Alexis nodded, "Feels close."
"Yes." Alexis agreed quietly.
Lan was crossing back and forth from one door to the other while moving down the hall, "I has to be in one of these rooms."
"Yes." Alexis said again.
"You don't have to be quiet all the time Alexis." Lan said darting from room to room, "In fact I wouldn't mind if you stated your opinion once and a while."
There was a pause the Alexis said softly, "Try that door."
Lan saw her pointing three doors down and smiled, "Thank you Alexis." Moving quickly to the door Lan noticed that the door was magically locked, "Interesting." Lan said to himself. Placing both hands on the door Lan uttered, "Patefacio" and the door clicked and opened. Sticking his head through the door Lan saw a man sitting in an armed chair reading a book.
The man had long black hair and a seven o'clock shadow. He was wearing a black coat with blue runes on it and the same for the rest of his outfit; pants, shirt, boots. Without looking up the man said calmly in a slightly deep voice, "It is very rude to barge into someone's room unannounced."
Lan hesitated for a moment, "Quite right, let me try this again." Closing the door Lan placed his hands on the door and uttered, "Obfirmo." Lan waited a couple of seconds then knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" the man asked.
Lan looked at Alexis who had an uncertain look on her face, Lan shrugged his shoulder. "Lan and Alexis of the Blue mages." Lan replied.
"Well don't just stand there, come in." The man said invitingly. The door clicked and opened.
The room was larger than Lan first realized and had torches around the perimeter of the room that emitted a dark blue light. Lan noticed a blue magi circle in the center of the room surrounded by candles with the same dark blue flame. The man sat not far from the door in a corner lined with two bookcases.
"Don't mind Noctus, he usually keeps to himself." The man said waving a hand to the black and blue Griffin lying next to him. Closing his book the man looked up, "Greetings my name is Martin of the Sword Mages."
"I never heard of a Sword Mage before." Alexis said timidly.
Standing up Martin walked over to the center of the magi circle, book in hand, "I would suppose not, according to your times records they vanished some fifteen hundred years ago. Probably holed up in some remote place." Martin sighed, "I told the Order that this would happen if they didn't grab a place in the world like the other Magi Orders. Bunch of hypocritical bastards if you ask me, trading our staff for a sword but promised never to fight. Excuse me a minute." Martin held his book in front of him and let go, the book was now hovering in the air. Martin spoke in the language of magic, although the words were flying off of Martin's tongue so fast Lan couldn't catch what any of it meant. There was a shimmer in the air in front of Martin and blue streaks of lightning cascading around him. The shimmer became solid in a burst of lightning and Martin closed the book and snatched the thing out of the air. As Martin turned to Lan he could see that Martin held a scabbard blade attached to a belt.
The scabbard was all black with the exception of a band dark blue steal that ran down it's length. The hilt was dark blue and black, the guard was turned up towards the blade then made a right angle away from the blade. The guard was decorated in dark blue wire that encircled the black core, upon closer inspection the wire was not attached to the blade but was floating around it. The pommel was in the shape of a dark blue dragons head with lighter blue crystal eyes. Finally there was a large blue crystal in the center of the guard.
Martin held the sword in front of himself with a smile, "Isn't she a beauty?"
"So what was with the spell?" Lan asked.
Martin belted the sword to his hip, "To retrieve my sword of course. It probably got destroyed or taken years ago." Martin chuckled, "In the case of the later I think the one who had it last might not be to happy right now." Placing the book on the nightstand Martin asked, "So why did you come hear in the first place anyways?"
Lan shrugged his shoulders, "Curiosity, we sensed a strong flux in magic and thought we should investigate."
"Speaking of a strong flux in magic," Martin began, walking over to Lan, "you seem to have a strong magical aura." Martin waved his hand through the air, "But is seems to be dampened by something…ah here." Martin touched a finger to Lan's chest where his seal was and Lan felt a chill run up his spine. "I see, a level five manna seal. The seal seems to be intact but then why are you giving off such a strong aura?"
Lan brushed away Martin's hand, "Because if it wasn't there the I would be torn apart, along with everything around me."
Martin did not seem all surprised but he had a questioning look on his face, "Tell me, how long did it take you from the time you first entered the University to your Shaping?"
"Little over a month, why?" Lan asked.
"You can see the flows of magic more easily than others can't you?" Martin questioned, "The small things others miss in a spell or other magic you can see. It is as if you can see what the energy of magic will do before it will happen. Am I right?"
Lan was gaping, a thing he never does, "Yes, it is like I see how the energy of magic flows through the world."
Martin clapped his hand on Lan's shoulder, "My boy you are a once in ten or more life time occurrence, although I have been blessed to see one twice. You my boy have the power of Immanence."
Once again sorry for the delay, Finals and all of that fun stuff. Hopefully I will be releasing regularly once classes are done.