Chapter four
The house's bricks were painted with an earthy hue. It gave off the feel that someone practical lived in the house. However, Mark knew better. His orders were to confirm that this guy wanted The One to be destroyed, and then take him out. Mark had been kneeling for the past day, magically feeding himself and drinking from a nearby pond. Today, the man revealed his true nature. He summoned five demons to guard him while he made preparations for a spell to destroy The One.
Mark studied the five identical demons. Each stood upright on two clawed feet. They were approximately eight feet tall and black as coal. Their muscled arms sported a hand on each of them with ten razor sharp nails. However, the strongest feature of the demons was their faces. Five rows of knife shaped teeth barely fit in the mouth and two horns arched out of their forehead. The red eyes scanned the area, always missing Mark due to his invisibility charm.
The demons would be hard, but not impossible to beat, Mark thought. He rose to full height, his metallic hand almost weightless due to a charm. Mark took a step, only to hear a crunch. The five demons flocked to the nearest window to Mark and stared. Standing perfectly still, Mark hoped that his charm would hold. Surprise is always a good tactic in battle, Mark told himself. After a minute, the demons looked at each other and dispersed. Mark lifted his foot and looked down at what lay broken. The item, now in shards, had been a glass doll. The sharp glass debris reflected Mark as he made his way to the door. He opened it and the five demons looked directly at him.
The wizard suddenly stopped. A loud blaring noise rang in his head as his alarm charm went off. His eyes flashed black and five more demons appeared in a puff of ash. "Kill the intruder!" the wizard yelled as he grabbed for a cigarette in his robe. The five demons nodded and stormed down the stairs. They entered the entrance hallway and their collective minds became connected with the first five. There seems to be no intruder! One demon announced.
I smell one. He smells like fresh meat. Another demon replied.
It does not matter, we must make sure. Master must not be disturbed. One demon said.
Kill! Maim! Destroy! Murder! Homicide! Slay! Assassinate! Execute! Slaughter! Massacre! Mutilate! The demon pounced at the air.
Mark quickly dived to the right as the black projectile came towards him. The charm couldn't compensate for the sudden movement and failed. Without the spell, Mark's body was dangerously vulnerable to attack, with the only armor being an enchanted leather cuirass. Gripping tighter on the staff, The One's face carved on the side, and aimed it at the demon. The weapon pulsated a bright white and ethereal shackles bound the demon to the doorway. A horn gutted the bound creature and it exploded in a black, poisonous cloud. The staff began to glow blue and a bubble encased the poison and vanished.
The nine demons flooded out of the door and grouped together, staring at the lone enemy, Mark. He held a staff at ready, but the demons laughed as best as they could with no mouths. With a unanimous agreement, they flung themselves at Mark. His staff exploded with green and a fog encased him. The demons landed in it and hit soft earth. Mark appeared five feet away; his staff now had a green radiance. An emerald summoner's circle enclosed Mark and a faint murmur could be heard. The circle quickly vanished and an earthquake started. At first, it was a dull roar of the Earth, but soon the ground visible shook. Dimnina citizens quickly became interested in the fight, but horrified by the seismic event. A rainbow glow encompassed the staff and walls enveloped the fight, keeping people from watching.
The earthquake stopped and a wurm smashed from the surface, gripping a demon in its teeth. The thing was gigantic, about three times the size of the demons, both wide and high. The wurm looked exactly like a worm, except one major difference. The wurm's teeth could bite through adamantine metal. The five feet wide incisors easily snapped the demon in half, but a poison cloud entered the beast's throat. The monster became quite pale, but with a flash of green from the staff, the wurm regained its dark brown complexion.
The demons, formally stalled by the sudden earthquake and wurm attack, launched at the two opponents. Four fiends scurried up the wurm's flesh, but it dunked back into its tunnel, slamming the four monsters onto the ground. The other four demons pounced on Mark, whose staff flashed red and a bolt of lightning arced from it and electrocuted all four of them. They fell to the ground; smoldering and one violently shook with spasms. All eight spirits regrouped and attacked Mark with a frontal assault. Before Mark could get off a spell, a horn punctured his chest. Dark red blood flooded from the wound, staining the horn as it slid out. The summoned wurm broke the surface again and swallowed the demon that injured Mark.
Stunned and blinded by the fireball of pain in his chest, Mark barely conjured another cloud of fog. Precious life flooded onto the ground as the demons wandered aimlessly through the mist. Mark's eyes flashed white and a milky, foul smelling cream formed in his palm. Applying the balm directly to the wound, sweet relief quickly flooded his senses. The wound quickly sucked in the ointment and healed quickly. The fog disappeared and Mark caught the image of his wurm gulping down yet another demon. The gas entered the beast's throat and the wurm fell limply on its side, defeated. Fully recovered, Mark stood on his feet and his eyes shined a fiery red. Another bolt of lightning arced from the staff and hit the four previously shocked creatures. They all exploded into a huge storm of poison.
Mark funneled white magic into his staff and changed the poison into a healing vapor. Some of the fog entered the wurm, bringing it back to life. Most of the haze of life-infused poison entered the lungs of the two remaining demons. They grabbed their throats, but the healing magic couldn't be stopped. They began to shine pure white and they burst with a flash of light. Mark entered the house.
Cautiously, Mark walked through the hallway, looking around every corner and amplifying his vision with magic. Besides the primitive alarm charm on the door, no traps or creatures lurked in the house. Step by step, Mark went up the stairs and pushed open the door. He was greeted with a blasted of lightning, sending him flying down the steps. His muscles contorted with the electricity. His skin sizzled and his hair smoldered. Eventually, the energy faded and Mark returned to the second floor. This time, he conjured a floating shield that absorbed the fiery projectile that went flying for him. Rushing into the room, he switched his staff to his left, metallic hand. A blow from that hand would crack any bone easily, Mark thought as he rolled in.
The wizard inside exhaled a cloud a smoke and dropped his cigarette. He stamped it out. "Hello, I've been enjoying the battle you gave my pets." A laugh escaped his lips. "You won't be able to beat me if you fight like you did down there!" His mouth expanded exposing a cavernous mouth as a laugh like an animal dying boomed throughout the room. Mark shook his head and tossed a fireball at the wizard. With a flick of his wrist, the spell circled around him and hit Mark. The fiery bullet melted his armor in a split second, but the magic died before it did anything else. Mark fired a beam of electricity at the wizard, but his eyes flashed blue and the spell faded.
"What the?" Mark asked before he could stop himself. The wizard let another laugh come out of his mouth. Mark's ears started to bleed.
"I have been training in secret. For years, I have practiced all forms of magic. For decades, I have honed my countermagic. Now, they send a weakling to take me on? Is that The One's plan?" A blood-curling laugh boomed through the room. "Its time to die!" the wizard's eyes flashed black and a shadow covered Mark's body. His whole body started to tingle. His fingers became black with rot and started to shrivel up. The shiny metal of his left hand began to become visible.
Mark quickly accessed The One's magic boon and his body flashed white, expelling all black magic from it. Then, he jumped at the wizard, staff held above his head. The man jumped aside and kicked Mark in the head. Suddenly, the house rumbled as if the foundation was breaking. The wurm popped up from the ground underneath the wizard, grabbing him in his mouth. The mage grabbed a vial from his belt and tossed it at the beast's eyes. Black fluid coated the creature's face and the flesh melted off. Rain of molten flesh splashed onto Mark, who immediately wiped it off. The wurm vanished, completely destroyed.
The wizard magically fell slowly to the ground and pressed his hands together. An aura of darkness surrounded him. Mark channeled The One's energy and it flowed into the staff. With a flash of the rainbow, a sphere appeared around Mark. The wizard finished his spell and fired a beam of pure death. The sphere attempted to absorb the spell, but some of it leaked through. The magic entered Mark's body and every part of him started to rapidly die. He fell to the floor, dripping with death. Before he lost consciousness, his eyes flashed white and then closed.
"Did you see that, you God? The One, supposedly all-powerful, sends weak minions to kill me? No one shall defeat Jiren, never!" With a puff of blue smoke, Jiren vanished.