Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Chapter 172 - An Unknown Device.

Evin got back to what he was doing and randomly cast at something two more times, chasing after the enemy. Both of them seemed to hit, but like previously, the victim was invisible to all. Ssatsko was struggling to understand what spells Evin and his opponent were using, and also wondered why this enemy wasn't retreating. 

But the next bang was followed by a loud thud on the ground, and Ssatsko could see the outline of a man bleeding on the ground, the air shimmering around him and a distorted groan coming from him. Ssatsko found that he found it hard to focus on the man for more than a few seconds. Even the distorted groan started to sound off, as if it was something Ssatsko was hearing in a dream.

'Illusions…' Ssatsko thought, and was reminded of Evin's story about Lyudvik taunting him. He didn't believe the boy then, but now, he was certainly willing to. 'Does that mean we're against a High-mage like Evin mentioned?' 

The thought worried Ssatsko, but it didn't put him in a panic. He fought alongside and against High-mages before, so he knew they weren't something from the myths like some people made them out to be. They were deadly, sure, but there were limits to their power. 

'And since this one specializes in invisibility, his biggest danger would be his surprise attacks and not his offensive spells,' Ssatsko decided. 'It could also be that the High-mage simply applied their spell to the man. It seemed very likely, considering how helpless the invisible man was acting.

Ssatsko looked at Evin, who was confidently running towards the fallen man, who Ssatsko was having trouble seeing. Ssatsko wondered if that was the spell's effect, to make someone invisible by forcing others to ignore them. 

Evin then pulled out some device from the man's body and to Ssatsko's surprise, the air started shimmering around Evin, turning him partially invisible. This also revealed the man's sorry figure on the ground, bleeding from very messy five wounds. Four spells, four wounds, all lethal. The last one seemed to have hit the man's strange device. 

Ssatsko realized why the man was not running away. He tried, but he simply couldn't. 

"A magical device that eludes World Energy Detectors?" Melayn breathed out from next to him.

Ssatsko knew the implications of what that meant. So did Evin. The boy immediately started checking the man's wounds and judging from the Irratas energy, decided to cauterize them, "Come help me!" 

Melayn and Rith rushed over to help. The Cosmic was calm since everything began, and Melayn was also gathering her wits. 

Ssatsko looked at Lora. His daughter was hugging Sasha close to her chest, her hands covering her ears, so the little girl didn't witness what was happening. 

"I'm sorry you had to see this side of your son," Ssatsko whispered. "It's something common for a mage, I guess… so don't let it bother you too much."

Lora nodded back, but honestly, she didn't look that affected. Theor, on the other hand, was staring at the scene, shocked out of his mind. He was acting the same as last time, when he let Evin walk all over him so they could win the trial.

Ssatsko didn't dislike Lora's husband. He was a good man, with good principles and good intentions. 

He was simply way too naïve. Theor wholeheartedly believed that he could achieve anything if he simply worked hard for it. It was an admirable trait, and sure, it could apply to some things, but sadly, there were simply way too many things that were out of the control of an honest, simple man.

'I guess he's something exclusive to the common worker class,' Ssatsko thought. 'It was simply impossible to find such ideals among soldiers, merchants, and the least of all, mages.'

Evin, pulling out a piece of stone out of the man's body and then burning the wound a few steps away, was the prime example of that. 

Ssatsko couldn't blame the boy. Mages in general, were an unfeeling bunch and the kingdom's education did not help in bringing some heat into their already cold cores. A mage could feel reluctance, remorse or guilt when killing a man, but they rarely failed in the killing part when things came down to it.

And Ssatsko observed, that Evin was much more ruthless than any other mage he saw.

"Shit, he killed himself," the boy was saying. The man was frothing from the teeth, eyes wide open. 

The trio then searched the man's body.

This wide dissonance between the Evin that loved his family and the Evin that ruthlessly killed his enemies worried Ssatsko a lot. It didn't feel natural.

Ssatsko noticed this side of Evin's during the trial day, when the boy was acting like a completely different person. If Ssatsko could call the current Evin a child, unusually mature for his age, then the Evin that cleared Ssatsko's name was an adult, no doubt about it. A completely different person. They even spoke differently. 

'He's definitely some kind of crazy…' Ssatsko thought as the trio came back. 

"It doesn't use a smidgeon of mana," Rith said in a distorted voice. 

"You're right!" Evin replied. "I felt like something was off when I was holding it, but that's it!"

"And it automatically casts an illusion around whoever's wearing it, one that makes you invisible and also distorts any noise you make," Melayn noted. "How is it possible?"

"But where to people even get this? Are they built somewhere? Or something new from Tower City?"

"Who knows…" the Cosmic replied.

Rith was definitely too calm. 'Damn Cosmics, always a mystery.'

Ssatsko helped his daughter and his granddaughter up. He offered the same to Theor, but the man's pride did not allow it. But these small details weren't important at all to the three mages in the group.

"Are we going to have to worry about these invisible enemies from now on?" Melayn asked. 

"I guess. But we can at least be happy we're not against High-mages or something like that…" Evin said. 

"We must take this back to the kingdom, so they can analyze it further," Melayn continued. "This is something beyond our control."