Chapter 312: Green Gemstone

"We're all the reinforcements you are getting."

Lance expected as much, going by how bad a day it had been. There were no academy rules left to guide his actions, no more people to help, and nowhere to hide. He was finally free to act on his own.

He gazed at bunches of brown, straw-like leaves that hung from dead branches overhead. 'I'm pathetic,' he thought. 'How long has it been since I've acted without the rules in mind, as a person with thoughts?'

Slowly, and with pain flaring across his body, he pushed himself up from his slumped position. The tree he had blindly leaned against for support had dug into the ordered fabric of his soggy robe, and ripped pieces away as he stood on his own two feet. With a wave of his hand a magic circle formed, and a column of air swept the frigid swamp water away off his body.

"Are you going to be ok walking?" Frey asked. "We just saw that the demons are looking for instructors, so you shouldn't try to overestimate yourself."

Lance nodded. "I know. Luckily I have this." He pulled a long staff out of his spatial ring, tapped it on the dirt, and smiled. The wood, dyed to a dark brown, still held its luster even though it had been more than a decade since the Head Mage had bestowed it to him. He could still see his own reflection in the green gemstone atop the staff. 'Oh crap.'

The moment he displayed the gem, a nearby bush went flat, but nothing came into view. The group could, however, hear the flapping of wings. They could feel a shift in the air as something darted skywards. "We were being watched!" Elero yelled. Thomas cursed and switched his light crossbow out for a longbow.

"Catch it before it reports back!" Lance yelled. "At any cost!"

Before Thomas could blindly fire, Frey held out a hand. "Wait." The giant dug a rock from the mud and flung it. While it merely bounced off the invisible target, drops of blue blood sprinkled down from a slight shimmer in the air.

Thomas stood steady amidst the frantic group. His eyes flashed black. He sniffed the air like a hunting dog. With the aid of life essence, Thomas pulled the tightened string back to its limit, and released a single arrow. It whistled through the air for two dozen feet, three dozen, four, ten, twenty, and stopped at the apex of its flight.

Thomas smirked and walked behind a tree as the lone arrow began to descend. Then Lance saw the shadow, which was much bigger than just an arrow. The invisible creature slammed into the water. Lance shielded himself as the impossibly large splash nearly drenched him. The area around the arrow shimmered, and finally its victim became opaque. Blood bubbled out of the hole in the demon's neck as it flailed around in desperate death throes. Its mouth opened and closed wordlessly. Thomas walked over, and pushed the arrow deeper - until the demon finally went limp.

Lance sighed in relief, and looked over to Frey. 'When someone casts an invisibility spell, I should sense mana in the air. That demon used its mutation to become invisible - like chameleons do. It should not have been possible to see it. These three...with their help I could do more than help my students.' He glanced up at the green gemstone atop his staff. 'After all, the demons can only be after one thing. If they somehow manage to open the vault...' he shuddered at the thought. "Frey, can you break this gemstone off my staff?"

"Sure," Frey gripped the staff with both hands and snapped it on his knee. He handed the crystal back to Lance, who swallowed it.

"Sorry for the strange action," Lance said as the three disciples raised their eyebrows. "But there is something within the academy I'd rather not let the demons get a hold of."

"Is that what they're after?" Elero asked. "All of this for that little gemstone?"

Lance nodded. "You're partially right. Eric Guildri, the first Head Mage of the academy, searched the building for anything Draken may have left behind. He locked up everything he found in a vault and made the key into a green gemstone. Only the Head Mages have been privy to the vault's contents, or at least it was supposed to be that way."

"So why do you have the staff?" Thomas asked. "You're not the Head Mage, are you?"

"No," Lance replied as he stared at the shattered tip. 'If the Head Mages didn't leak the vault, then it must have been one of their disciples.' He cursed under his breath and tugged at his left sleeve. "I'd rather not get into it now. Let's go."

Finally, the four made their way towards the battleground in a diamond-shaped formation. Frey took to the front with his shield and mace at the ready. Elero and Thomas covered his left and right flanks. Lance limped at the back.

They sludged through muck and circled around unstable rubble. It wasn't hard to get into the Magic Academy, at least not anymore. There was a massive hole in the initiation chamber's wall.

At least half of the jars along the concave wall were either crushed, shattered, or cracked. The elegant magic circle on the ground, which many assumed to be one of the goddess' creations, was cracked down the middle.

Lance stopped at the obsidian door on the opposite side of the chamber. He rolled up his sleeve, put his Allpass into the keyhole, and paused.

"What's wrong?" Thomas asked.

"You three," Lance said. "This is the last chance if you wish to turn back. You will stand against an army. We most likely won't make it out alive, especially if we encounter any high-tier demons. You said you were here for Doevm, who died, but you're still coming with me."

"Of course," the three said without hesitation.

"It's not that easy to kill him," Frey said.

"I have to try," Elero said.

"I'm pretty sure we would know if he was dead," Thomas shrugged. The boy stood furthest from the goddess's circle, and was still as pale as a corpse.

Lance chuckled. 'I was sure these people would hate me for what I did to Cerlius. These three don't look angry, but happy. It's as if they never thought he would be gone for good. Cerlius, I assumed you were just a dark mage.' His grip on the staff tightened. 'You're so much like Sozo it's scary.'

The Allpass twisted and the door folded in half, then again, then again, until it was a small cube. Stretching ahead of them was a maze of long-rotted hallways - Mage's Shadow. Lance pulled a torch out of a spatial ring but before he could light it, Frey's shoulder knocked it from his hands. It was almost as if he didn't see Lance anymore. He walked ahead with a light crystal in his hands.

"Frey..." Lance called out, rubbing his shoulder. "Artifacts and magic won't really work in...there?" He cocked his head to the side as the giant walked ahead. The light crystal in Frey's hand didn't flicker once. "Frey?"

Frey kept walking.