Chapter 717: Infamous (Ch.718)
narx strode into the audience hall, Adrienne not far behind, his eyes scanned the small group, anxiously seeking out his nephew.
"Zephyr is unhard. All thanks to Neveah, Kaliana took him away...it will be difficult for her to part with the boy for a while." Kirgan brought narx up to speed.
"The sorcerer?" Imagor enquired impatiently, he was seated, his satin shirt lifted as Everon tended to his injury.
Angry red burns lined his sides, worriso for a dragon lord who had great resistance to fire,
But what had scalded Imagor so badly had not been fire, Neveah had also gotten a taste of the red mist for herself though she healed much quicker and her burns were not nearly as bad as Imagor’s.
It had taken a lot of convincing for Kaliana to leave her dragon’s side in his state, but Imagor had insisted firmly.
"We lost him." narx admitted, his tone ashad.
"One mont he was there and the next he was just...gone. Like he disappeared into thin hair. I cannot understand it, Addie sealed off all portal gateways during the chase, he should not have been able to escape us." narx related with a furious shake of his head.
"It is either he truly vanished..." narx said, tilting his head in suspicion.
"Or he was never truly there." Adrienne completed, exchanging a look with narx.
"What happened exactly?" Neveah asked, glancing around in confusion.
"The sorcerer perford a split-soul retreat when Xenon’s attack overwheld him. I recognised the spell because I have faced it before." Imagor explained, his tone was strained as Everon disinfected the burn.
"A split-soul retreat? What is that?" Neveah asked.
"Split-soul retreat is a dark magic art where a sorcerer splits his soul to possess the body of another to preserve his life. The original piece of his soul is still within his original body elsewhere, determining the actions of the form he possessed." Kirgan explained, his tone laced with disdain.
"Like...a decoy." Neveah said in understanding.
"Exactly. But a decoy every bit as powerful and deadly as the original sorcerer. If anything happens to the decoy, it just disappears. While the sorcerer gets to live on with only an impact to his magic abilities." Kirgan explained further.
"Sorcerers who have mastered the soul arts can cast various disturbing spells with it. Split-soul retreat is a level of sorcery that is too advanced for the Black Network." Imagor added.
"Azkar, the leader of the Signe tribe... the Black Network, mastered the soul arts, did he not?" narx asked, his gaze moving to Xenon.
"That was not Azkar. I have faced him once before to know... Azkar uses an array of dark magic arts, his strongest ability is beast summoning and necromancy but he dabbles in many other dark arts."
"Azkar possesses multiple powerful abilities but no mastery, an effect of self learning." Xenon murmured, shaking his head slightly.
"Azkar’s soul arts can pull off soul extraction, but nothing beyond that. This is a true master of the soul arts...a level of excellence that would earn one a place on the dark lord’s council." Xenon continued grimly.
"Since when did the Black Network have another powerful sorcerer besides Azkar? We killed off the entire dark lord’s council!" Imagor hissed through gritted teeth.
"If he could split his soul now... would it not be within reason that he prepared a failsafe back in the day? In case? That would account for why he has kept a low profile this long...to recover." Neveah reasoned.
Imagor passed Neveah a look before he slamd a fist down on the arm rest of his seat, a hiss of pain followed soon after, and Imagor threw a glare at Everon who rely rolled his eyes.
"Stay in place." Everon snapped.
Imagor grumbled beneath his breath but complied.
"Soul arts require certain magical artifacts put in place to set up a formation. Even sealing off the entire mountain required prior preparations... soone already visited Mount Edar and set the stage, luring my boy too." Imagor contemplated.
"The sorcerer had help...but who? It couldn’t be Celeste." Kirgan agreed.
"I do not know if this answers the question, but the sorcerer was not the only threat on that mountain... I sensed sothing else... sothing familiar..." Xenon said, unconsciously pulling Neveah closer to his side as he spoke.
Neveah’s eyes widened slightly and she clutched Xenon’s robes.
"I saw him..." Neveah admitted,
All eyes moved to Neveah, and Neveah suppressed the chill of terror that ran down her spine.
"The sorcerer...he did sothing weird to ..." Neveah began, her words interrupted by a low growl from Xenon.
Neveah interlaced their fingers, her thumb rubbing a soothing circle over his.
"I was on my way to Zephyroth and suddenly... I was no longer here but elsewhere, so kind of nightmarish reality. I do not know exactly what happened but when I woke up, I saw soone...a man...or so kind of man."
"He told
I had survived a soul mirage..." Neveah revealed.
"Scales! A soul mirage and a split soul retreat confirms that this is certainly one of the sorcerers of old." Imagor hissed.
"What else did he say?" Xenon asked, his tone dark.
"That...he would kill
in the future, but not yet." Neveah said hesitantly.
Xenon’s hold on Neveah tightened once again.
"He will not get the chance." Imagor stated firmly.
"Not even close." narx agreed.
"Did you see what he looked like?" Everon asked this ti.
"Not clearly. It was so dark, but there were many strange things about his appearance. He was a man...but not a man. He also possessed scales, like a dragon but not exactly a dragon..." Neveah murmured, recalling the baffling sight.
"Curved horns... scaly wings, he looked like...a dragon in partial shift." Neveah finally said.
The already silent audience hall descended into pin drop silence, even Everon halted what he was doing.
"Did you just say...a dragon in a partial shift?" Kirgan asked, his eyes wide.
"Did you get a glimpse of the color of his scales?" Everon pressed, equally alard.
"I... I think it was so dark shade of red, two tones darker than narx’s." Neveah said, passing a look around in confusion at the sudden tension.
"It couldn’t be him..." Kirgan said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Who else?! The description is exact!" Imagor snapped.
"Who exactly are we speaking of?" Neveah asked.
"Veah... the man you have just described is... Mykael, the Lord of Garnet Scales." Xenon revealed, his tone grim.
"Lord of Garnet Scales? Isn’t this title only granted to the King’s guard?" Neveah asked in confusion.
"Indeed. Mykael of Garnet Scales was the most fad King’s guard in the service of King Asrig, and also his most trusted confidant and executioner." narx explained.
"He bore another infamous title...’dragon killer’." Xenon added, his tone laced with disdain.
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