Chapter 313: Place of Origin

The light crystal in Frey's hand, an object imbued with mana, did not flicker or dim in the slightest. "What is this place?" he mumbled as he delved deeper into Mage's Shadow.

Lance couldn't tell who Frey was talking to, but responded anyway. "This is Mage's Shadow, the former residence of Maximus Draken." They stopped at a fork in the path. Before he could point the way, Frey went left. Lance cocked his head to the side. "Have you been here before?"

"No." Frey slowed whenever he passed one of many doorways. He would look at the destroyed desks and chairs a thousand yard stare before moving on. "That's impossible," he kept muttering. "No. Couldn't be."

"Is he always like this?" Lance asked Elero and Thomas.

"Huh?" Thomas blinked twice. "Oh sorry I spaced out. What's happening?"

The hilt of Elero's rapier knocked against Thomas's skull. "We're paying attention to our friend, who is currently spacing out in the middle of a deadly battlefield, much like another idiot I know."

"You're telling me you don't feel that?" Thomas pointed into the pitch-black ahead. "It's like something is pulling at me. I kind of want to see it." He smiled and quickened his pace to match Frey's. "I really want to see it."

Frey seemed to walk around invisible barriers, yet Thomas walked in a straight path. Both of them took the same twists and turns. It was the shortest route towards the stairs leading up to the first floor. Lance and Elero could only follow.

"Do you have all your marbles?" Elero asked.

"I have all my faculties, yes," Lance nodded.

"What happened to this place?"

Lance shrugged. "Some say that there was a battle here. The Grand Shaman was angered when Maximus Draken killed the first Demon King and cast a spell so twisted that the area's mana never returned to normal. Some say the hero lived long enough to become a villain, and destroyed himself seeking immortality. No one really knows."

Elero looked into yet another doorway, and kicked at a pile of jagged white stone that Lance had never seen before. "Smells like a load of crap to me."

"Excuse me?" Lance chuckled. "I know you knights aren't exactly bookworms but this is history. What would be the point of school if we don't trust what we're told?"

"School." Elero chuckled. "You sound like a War Monk going on about the Goddess." She forced out a second chuckle.

"Well it's more important than the goddess so of course I'm enthusiastic about it. Your friend was too. He was a prodigy." Elero stopped. Lance did as well. "He soaked up everything I taught him like a sponge. A couple more years and he would be a great mage."

She chuckled for a third time, and sighed. "Is that so?"

Lance puffed his chest out. "I never lie about my students. He was meant for a life with magic. It was lucky we found him, or it was lucky at the time."

"Lucky?" Elero stared into one of the rotten classrooms like the others had done. "For who?" She slowly turned around and Lance felt a sliver of cold metal press up against his neck. "Instructor Lance, you seem to misunderstand something." Thomas and Frey continued onwards, slowly taking the light with them. "You dragged our friend away and stuffed his memories into a jar, a fucking jar. You taught him nothing that he didn't already know. He was going to fix me!" She pointed at her legs, still reinforced with life essence. "Why would you do this to him, to anyone?"

"I-I" Lance swallowed. The demons had pointed a blade at the same spot, but the rapier put him in a cold sweat. "I was just following the rules. I never claimed to be righteous. I facilitated your friend's learning in an efficient manner, the same with all my students." He pointed to the fading light. "Let's catch up. Whatever you wish to do to me, can it wait until after the battle?"

"I want an apology."

"The situation was out of my hands." Lance insisted. Elero stared at him and waited. "I followed the rules to the letter."

"Have you ever questioned the rules?" She drew the rapier back and slapped him with the flat of the blade. "This isn't over." She walked ahead.

Lance rubbed at his neck and cursed. 'Have I questioned the rules?' He thought as he rubbed his ink-stained sleeves. 'Every day. I can never forget.' He could almost hear Sozo's voice - her last words before she bled out.

"Lance, there's another way of helping people. If I can just get the Head Mage to listen to me. If only...If only I hadn't seen her, Maker. If only she hadn't interfered. I entrust my dream to you. Work you way up the ladder. Change this backwards academy. Learn the truth."

Lance slowly pushed his aching body off the wall, leaned on the staff the Head Mage had bestowed him, and moved onwards. It wasn't hard to catch up to the group. They had all stopped at the largest room in Mage's Shadow.

Dozens of skeletons sat at white stone seats that ran along a concave wall. Some of the skeletons simply lay down while others had been shattered. The three disciples' steps echoed as they made their way up to the cracked stage on the other side of the room. Frey's light crystal didn't flicker nor did it dim. It crumbled between his fingers, and left everything in total darkness.

"Thomas," Frey said at a volume just above his mutterings. "I take it that you haven't been able to see those things, have you?"

"Things?" Thomas asked.

"The souls." Frey said. "They're all around this place. I can usually sense people's souls, but I've never seen them outside of the body. They have been twisted and altered. They keep saying the same things over and over again: three gods, punishment, Maximus, and Lich. They are densest here," He lit up a torch and held it close to a dry splotch of grime on the ground. "Do you see anything?"

Thomas shook his head. "I thought it might be Doevm for some reason, but nothing's here."

"Nothing except that," Elero pointed to where the stage met the back wall.

Frey held his torch out and read the words crudely cut into the white stone: "Damn them."