Chapter 6 The Genie of the lamp
There was a World item that could only be used against magic casters. A little innocent golden lamp that could bind the victim's magic so it would only work when the owner of the item gave an order, the victim forced to obey. There were several limits for this:
The one that uses the item must be from the Human race and have a level lower than 20.
Any command given is redeemed void after 24 hours.
The magic caster must have a level greater than 60 and be close to the item by at least 1km during the first use.
If the one that used the item dies, the magic caster is automatically released.
The bound magic caster cannot kill or harm the user directly.
It's not like the bloody item came with instructions though, so it was only very bad, very Potter luck that a human had used it successfully on Harry.
He had been walking along with CZ Delta, having chosen her to parade with him as adventurers since she had a Neutral-Good karma of 100. They were going to be in close proximity with a great quantity of humans in E-Rantel, even working for them, so he needed someone that could actually stand their presence.
It had taken some convincing, but in the end he managed to leave Nazarik in the good hands of Albedo. He had yet to decide a punishment for her, but he figured that having leverage over her could come on handy.
They weren't taking the main road that lead to E-Rantel, traveling instead on a plain covered in high grass. The scenery was calm and he was certainly enjoying the nice view this world offered in comparison with the dark polluted one. He had insisted in taking this route mainly for that, actually.
"I can sense human-shaped forms in that direction" came the sudden voice of CZ Delta. No, Shizu, since that had been the alias she had chosen to use for this mission.
Now that she mentioned it, he thought he could see some smoke rising to the otherwise clear sky. Curious, he decided to go investigate the cause, since he knew the people in this world actually used magic-based inventions to cook and stay warm.
The people in this village (too small to be a city) were being attacked by fire-spitting, low-ranked demons, smoke rising due to some of the houses burning. The Chief of Carne Village hadn't mentioned the existence of this place, but he didn't seem like the kind of man that traveled so he wasn't really surprised.
"Go help them" he instructed to the maid, the female running towards them after a single, expressionless nod. They may as well start to gain popularity as wanna-be adventurers.
He chose to go to the opposite side of the village, were the buildings were still intact, hoping to catch whoever was leading the attack. He never reached his destination however, since he failed to notice that one of the villagers was surrounded by demons, a small golden lamp shakily grasped in his hands.
"To serve and obey, the bounds are here to stay!" came the desperate cry of the youngish male, chanting the words as if expecting a miracle.
-Villager POV-
He had been pointing the lamp towards the closest demon, so he was surprised when the smokish magic turned to the left and covered a petite male warrior that had been leaving the scene. The lamp whistled in a manner similar to a tea pot and glowed for a moment before going back to normal.
"Don't let me die!" he quickly screamed when he noticed the demons were about to attack. The farmer recognized the signals of the lamp that indicated it had worked, even if it hadn't been the target he had pointed at.
The magic of the lamp was little more than a rumor, a legend. No one in his family had ever been able to use it and only knew the chant and supposed function of it because of one book that had been passed down for generations, one that had been used more as a fairy tale book than anything else. He had been desperate though, and the lamp had happened to be nearby when he was forced to leave his home.
He had closed his eyes when he felt death was imminent, but the attack never came. Opening them slowly, he saw the warrior from before standing in front of him, the floor covered with the corpses of the demons that had been about to kill him. His back was carrying two thin swords, and on his hand was a wood stick.
"What the hell?" the warrior seemed as confused as he was when he turned to look at him, his gaze almost immediately falling to the lamp on his hands. "You've got to be kidding me!"
In the blink of an eye, the warrior closed the distance between them and he suddenly saw a sword pointing threateningly against his neck. Moving backwards in fear, the look of rage on the warrior remained unperturbed.
He watched him worriedly for a moment before relaxing, remembering his words from earlier. The man in front of him was bound to guarantee his survival.
"S-stay with me" was his second order. He had tried to say it confidently, but the murdering look of the male made it impossible. He needed him to stay near however, even if his order was not to let him die, the warrior could purposely get away from him so he wouldn't be able to interfere in time to save him again.
Not much time passed before all the demons were killed. Oddly enough, most of them had been exterminated by a short girl with red-gold straight long hair, an eyepatch covering one of her green eyes. She had stayed for a long while after the attack was neutralized, asking each and every survivor if they had seen a warrior with two long, thin swords on his back.
When his turn came, he answered negatively, the man bound by the lamp remaining oddly quiet. She hadn't looked at the warrior, not even once, and even if her face was somewhat expressionless, her tone had been worried.
She leaved before the twilight turned into night, running at a speed so fast that if not for the marks on the ground she had left, he would have assumed she had just disappeared.
Hadrian
Shit. The order was for him to "stay" so his magic had reacted automatically, placing concealing charms on him because he knew the maid would have interfered with that order.
He cursed when he saw her leave in the general direction of Nazarik, probably going back to report he was "missing". He hoped the NPC's wouldn't panic.
He might as well hope money would start falling from the sky.
Sighing, he followed the man to a house that was slightly destroyed, his eyes glaring at the lamp that was currently hanging in the farmer's belt. The third order had been not to steal that lamp from him.
Looking back at Nazarik's direction, he could only pray he would be released soon from the gold bands that now adorned his arms.
He had been ordered not to steal it, but he could convince another to do it for him. The lamp blocked his magic, but he knew which words to whisper to tempt something as gullible as a human, and was the first thing he did the moment his "Master" went to sleep. The villager that tried to steal it had been way too clumsy though, and had been caught by the owner. After hearing what Harry had done, the farmer had ordered him to erase from the thief's memory everything that happened from the tempting and forwards. Once the intruder leaved, he had been ordered to "stay in the lamp unless I say otherwise".
A genie trapped in a lamp, ha bloody ha.
Demiurge
Nazarik was an absolute chaos.
It didn't seem to matter, what kind of magic or item they used to search for Hadrian-sama, nothing came out. Not even Nigredo, with her specialized surveillance abilities could find him. They knew that he was alive, the divination magic had said that much at least, and that was the only thing stopping them from completely crumbling down.
The fact that they couldn't find him made him think his Master may be in another world. Cocytus had warned them about their Lord's words, but he had thought they still had time. Time to prove this world was worth staying in.
If Hadrian-sama vanished like the other Supreme Beings, who shall we be loyal to?
We were created to be loyal to them, but once we lose that value, what reason is there for us to exist?
He had managed to convince the others to fulfill their roles inside Nazarik, saying that their home should be in perfect condition for when Hadrian-sama returned. No one could hide their fear, worry, sadness, and all the emotions he was feeling and couldn't show because the moment he slipped it would be Nazarik's end.
Albedo hadn't come out of her room since receiving the news. He thought he had seen guilt in her eyes, but wasn't sure because his analytical mind had been refusing to work properly in that moment.
CZ Delta had been the last one to see him, but she hadn't noticed anything that could explain his sudden disappearance. He regretted his lack of knowledge regarding memories, if he knew how to take them from the pleiade, he would be able to analyze his Lord's actions himself.
Going back to his floor, he hoped Hadrian-sama would return soon, he knew Nazarik wouldn't survive united otherwise.
Albedo
Had her Lord leaved because of her inappropriate actions? That had been the question resounding on her head after the news of his disappearance. She wanted to apologize, to beg, to give up her life, to do whatever necessary so long he stayed.
No, not even her life would be enough punishment, if her Master had really leaved because of her. She had trapped herself in her room, unable to look at the depressed faces of the others knowing she may be at fault.
Please! Please come back!
Hadrian
Bored inside the lamp, he had summoned Death to at least have some company.
And immediately regretted it, since all the entity did was laugh at his current predicament. Yes, I know I was foolish to let my guard down, thank you very much.
Harry didn't ask Death to help him and the entity didn't offer its help either. Life would become boring very fast if he escaped from every problematic situation using his friend's help, really.
"You do know they won't last, right?"
"Nazarik? It's only been a day"
"…a week actually"
Had he really been trapped for that long? Inside the lamp he could only see golden walls so it was hard to tell. The owner of the lamp had called for him a few times, asking easy things like "repair my home" and "Give me gold". The reparo and transfiguration had been made without much effort from his part, so they would go back to their original state in a month or so.
"Wait, a week?" realization came. Any orders had a time limit, so unless he had repeated that order today, he should be able to leave.
And…no, still trapped.
He needed a watch. But it seemed that opening his inventory was out of question, since he found out he could only use the magic needed to fulfill the orders of the stupid human. He was glad he had his bag.
He was forced to manually search for a watch, since he couldn't use accio, so he was entertained for a long while before he finally took out one. Placing it on his wrist, he blinked when he saw Death was nowhere to be seen.
"Thanks for the idea, old friend" he said to the empty space, knowing Death could hear it anyways.
There should be a little lapse of time when the old order reached the time limit and the human gave it again. So he now passed the time trying to get out every five minutes or so until-
Yes!
Finally out of the lamp, he tried to kill the sleeping farmer, but found himself unable to. So he took the item with him before running at top speed in Nazarik's direction. When he finally arrived at the entrance, he looked at the watch on his wrist and saw it was 2:14am.
Harry couldn't apparate or send a [Message] with his magic blocked, so he entered by foot and towards the first floor. There was supposed to be a surveillance team at all hours, so they should be aware of his presence.
"Hadrian-sama!" was the chorus of voices that received him in the entrance to the first floor, relief practically dripping from them. The guardians, the pleyades, the maids and other NPCs had filled the spacious area, looking at him tearfully.
He raised a hand before they could say anything, requesting silence.
"I don't know how much time I have, so listen carefully. This item" he said showing the lamp "was used by a villager in my last location. I'm bound to follow the user's orders and had been trapped inside for the most part of the last week. Although I've stolen it, I don't think I'm free yet since these golden bands are still in my arms. Therefore, I want you to immediately kill this person". He had been hoping stealing the object would be enough to break the curse, but it obviously wasn't the case.
Looking at the furious gazes of his subjects, he quickly added "Do not torture him. He needs to die quickly in his sleep, before he can order me to protect him. If you fail at this you'll probably end up facing me in battle. Are we clear?"
Reluctant nods followed his words, no one seemed very happy with this condition. After a quick discussion, he had ended up going back to the still partially destroyed village, a group of 20 Eight Edge Assassins following him invisibly.
Demiurge was also preparing a little group of low ranked, automatically generated, demons to destroy the village. There were a few people that knew about the lamp, and how it had successfully captured him. He didn't want any rumors about that in case a stronger enemy got wind of it.
This was the reason he had decided to destroy them. It was a little sad since he knew there were innocent people too, but they would have been killed by demons anyway if he hadn't interfered, so it was probably their fated death or something.
He had been in a world like that once, where the cause of death was actually carved in stone, so it didn't matter what the people did or how many times you managed to postpone it, there was no escaping it. Damn Death had chosen "falls down the stairs" for him, and by Merlin it had been humiliating. After surviving so many battles, he was fated to die by bloody stairs!
Being the Master of Death didn't mean he couldn't die. He just didn't stay dead for long before coming back, either to the same world or to a new one depending on his choice. He had gone back to that same one, hoping his cause of death would change to something more dignified but no, he hadn't been that lucky.
Finally arriving at the village, he entered the house he had repaired and let 2 assassins take the lead. The reason he hadn't chosen a NPC was so, in the odd chance he was ordered to kill them, he wouldn't be forced to fight with the precious children his comrades had made. The NPCs really had reminded him of the small children that got lost on the supermarkets, sadden and worried that they had lost their parents forever, not knowing they were simply down the hall. It had only been a week, really…
It was over in a matter of seconds, and he was happy to see the golden bands of his arms disappear. He had given the lamp to Sebas with instructions to leave it in his room; he wanted to check the item's description before putting it in the treasury.
Going outside, he ordered the two assassins to join the ones surrounding the village; since their purpose was to make sure no one escaped. After that he apparatead to Nazarik's entrance, not wanting to see the destruction that was going to happen.
He knew it was necessary, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
AUTHOR NOTE:
EDIT* Yes guys I know, not my best chapter most definitely. I like to think my writing has improved comparing this chapter to the last I've written tho.
Looking back I don't really like this chapter either. The reason I wrote it in the first place was because it was meant to fall on Renner's hands. It was an interesting story since she's described to be as intelligent as Demiurge.
Sooo~ She was the reason the Lamp was introduced to begin with, but in the end I discarded the idea due to its complexity. (I'm not knowledgeable enough to write overly-intelligent characters I guess. I didn't want to disappoint or leave mid-plot) now I don't know what to do with it tho .-. next chapter looks weird if I delete this one, but I don't feel like re-writing either. At this point all I can do is say this is the worst of the lot, so you don't have to fear the rest of the story (?)
Anyways, thanks for reading
See you around!