Chapter 20 - Silent Night

Nighttime was always quiet in the Academy. The students had long gone to sleep, only a few staying up, playing card games in the candlelight. Ryan was fast asleep, but it was far from restful. Tossing and turning, he kicked off his covers and opened his eyes.

Although his eyes were open, there was no sign of consciousness in them. Mumbling incoherently, he got out of bed, not making a noise. Benjamin was soundly snoring in his own bed just across from his. Taking slow steps, Ryan tottered across the room, reaching the door and turning the knob.

The hallway was even darker than the previous room. With no windows, the moonlight was blocked from entering. Ryan's body moved on its own, navigating the near total darkness by muscle memory alone. Ryan made no sound as he sleep walked down the hallway, his bare feet on the cold, marble stone floor. Turning down the wide staircase, he made his way down to the first floor.

For better or for worse, there was very little security at The Academy of Magic and the Mysteries, allowing almost anyone to enter, or to leave in this case. Ryan easily opened the thick, wooden doors, leaving the dorm building and exiting into the cold night air. There was a slight breeze, the sharp air blowing straight through his light pajamas. His body naturally reacted to the cold, goosebumps appearing on his skin, but he did not wake, he continued walking into the night.

A new moon hung in the sky, starlight was the only illumination there was. He walked undisturbed over pathways and flowerbeds alike. Soon finding himself in a wide open field, separated into many sections. He walked a little further until a cloaked figure materialized beside him, grabbing him by the arm and guiding him away.

…..

Professor Kal was bored out of his mind. He was sitting on the balcony of his room within the Royal Palace. Looking up at the stars, he let out a sigh. Everything had been prepared for the ritual that was to take place tomorrow, Reginald had already drawn the magic array and gathered the needed materials, so he had nothing to do.

He had asked to visit the Royal library, but had been denied. He was just waiting for most of the palace to fall asleep, then he was going to sneak away and into the heavily guarded library. He had no idea what was inside, but wanted to find out. He was sure, whatever it was, that it would be worth the trouble.

He was preparing a cloaking spell, just deciding on which one was the most suitable for the situation. Deciding on the Silent Phantasm spell, it was a spell that would turn the user ethereal for a period of time. In that state, they were elevated to a higher dimension; meaning that the physical world would have no effect on them and vice versa. This was a perfect spell to bypass any barriers, physical and magical both. After casting the spell, he could phase through the walls of the palace, quickly reaching the restricted library.

"Hmmm, what is that kid up to?" He asked himself, suddenly feeling his connection with the ring he gave his apprentice become severed.

The ring he had given Ryan was not only a storage item, but also had an enchantment on it that allowed Kalcifer to track its whereabouts. Although his student's safety was important, the tracking enchantment was mainly for if it was stolen, then he could easily find it. The signal being cut off completely could only mean one thing, it was behind an array that was meant to block out magical reconnaissance.

Pulling out his staff, Professor Kal then opened a Warp Gate, taking him directly to Ryan's dorm room. Although a Warp Gate might disturb the atmosphere when opened, it was relatively silent. This kept Ben from waking up from his slumber as Professor Kal walked through the portal.

He knew where Ryan's room was since he had been keeping track of his movements. He wanted to make sure he would be able to trust the child with his knowledge of necromancy, and so far he hadn't found any issues with teaching him. That was why him dropping off the map all of a sudden was quite strange.

Although the room was dark, Professor Kal had no trouble seeing at all. His eyes glowed a glimmering green, like a predator's eyes reflecting the moonlight, this allowed him to quickly see the unkempt bed and wide open door. He walked out into the hallway, looking from the left to the right, then scratching his chin.

"Well, I'd better find him. Haaaa, he's already causing me trouble." Kal said to himself, waving his hand in the air.

Out of the ground rose a skeletal dog. Flesh was still hanging from its bones and red flames could be seen flickering in its eye sockets. Its shoulders came up to Kal's waist, its head filled with razor sharp teeth that stuck out in all directions. Kal had summoned a hellhound.

Hellhounds were extremely good trackers, used by demons and summoners to sniff out their prey. They didn't have a nose per se, but could smell the souls of its victims. No matter how far they would run or how deep in the earth they would hide, a hellhound would be able to smell them out.

Kal presented the hellhound with some hair he had found in Ryan's bed. Once the hound had gotten a good base smell, it put its nose to the ground and trotted off down the hall. Kal followed it down the hall, then down the spiral staircase to the first level. Going outside, the hellhound didn't pause at all, taking Kal all the way to the practice field of the Academy.

After following the hellhound a little further, it stopped and started to dig down into the dirt. He patted the hound on the head, telling it to stop, then cast Detect Life. Deep underground, there was an anomaly, a dead spot. An area where his spell couldn't detect, this must be where Ryan was. He looked around, finding nothing but an open field and some practice dummies set up some distance away.

"How did you get all the way down there?" He asked no one in particular as he probed the ground with his foot.

"At least I had already prepared that spell." He added, before turning ethereal and melting into the soil.

Casting Silent Phantasm allowed him to traverse through solid objects, which naturally included the ground as well. Of course when going into the ground, one must be careful not to materialize while within a solid object. If you did, you would be trapped inside it, at least until you could cast the spell again or could dig yourself out. With how much mana it required to cast, casting it twice in a short period of time would be impossible for most people.

Using Detect Life to guide himself on his descent, Kal slowly made his way to the dead spot. After a few minutes, he found himself in what looked like a man made cavern, complete with all the facilities one would need to live. The room he dropped into looked like a bedroom, a simple straw bed was set up with a chamber pot in the corner. It wasn't much really, whoever lived here must not have spent a lot of time in this particular room.

He dispelled Silent Phantasm, becoming material once again. As far as he could tell, there were no magic arrays set up to impede his progress. Either they hadn't set any up, or he couldn't detect them. He highly doubted the latter, thinking it more likely that whoever lived here hadn't taken into consideration that they would have uninvited guests. He prepared some defensive spells before making his way out of the simple bedroom and into a damp and dark corridor.

There wasn't much choice when it came to which direction to choose. The corridor only slopped slightly downwards, curving towards the right. He took his time, he knew better than to rush. When you hurried, you were liable to make mistakes, and he didn't make mistakes. Although he was hoping to come to Ryan's aid before anything happened to him, he wasn't about to put himself in danger for Ryan's sake. Although he wouldn't die, no matter what happened to his physical body, reassembling it once destroyed was a tiring process, one he wished to avoid.

Seeing a faint light at the end of the somewhat long tunnel, Kal slowed his progress further. He could hear a voice from where he was at, only one, but it was talking to itself. He didn't think much of it, there were times that he would have full conversations with himself while deep in his research, sometimes achieving breakthroughs because of it. Blending into the shadows, he pushed on.

Slipping into what could only be described as a ritual chamber, Professor Kal stuck to the shadows on the walls. In the center of the room was a man with long black hair, taking bottles of blood and filling trenches that had been dug into the floor. The trenches were something that he was very familiar with, a summoning array. From the runes placed around the geometric shapes, he could tell that the man was attempting to summon a high level demon. The specific demon he did not know.

Strapped to a table off to the side of the large, circular room, was Ryan. Tubes, filled with blood, were snaking their way down both of his arms, filling glass bottles full to the brim. Ryan was as pale as a sheet, but alive. Empty potion bottles were strewn around him, whoever had captured him needed his blood, not his life, so was keeping him alive by feeding him recovery potions.

Seeing that his student was in no danger of dying, Professor Kal had a moment of conflict within himself. He could rush in and save the boy, defeating the man trying to summon a demon. He would have no problem in killing him, he could do it quickly and easily. The only problem was his curiosity, he wanted to know why he was summoning a demon, and who the man was, he found it interesting.

It had been many many years since he saw a successful demon summoning, most of the time they would fail. He was wondering if the man before him had the skills to pull it off. He was inclined to wait and see if he could do it. Making his decision, he stuck to the earthen wall, and waited to see what would happen.