April 16,
"We are expecting you , Julian Raymond.
-Cult of Zarathustra."
The moment Julian read the words aloud, the letter ignited. The sharp stench of burning paper filled the room as it crumbled to ash.
'If they can do something like this.....is it even worth it to fight against them? If they are this cruel to normal people, what would they do to me?...but...if I don't go there, who knows how many more 'innocent people willdie at the hands of these people. Yes, I will have to stop them.'
While staring at the throne of corpses he failed to notice the spark of the burning paper reaching the corpses which are covered in a special variant of gasoline that isn't visible to the eye. This was all it need to create a huge fire which started burning down the hotel with the corpses.
'Shit. I need to escape from here. I promise, I will take revenge for all of you.'
Julian promised to them in his mind as he ran outside the hotel door from the back exit to avoid confrontation with normal people.
'I need to be quick if I actually want to stop this ruthless cult.'
Julian thought as he starting making his way towards the shore with the help of his shadow magic and the little amount of shadows in broad daylight.
After an hour of carefully traversing like this while carefully avoiding police blocks. He made his way towards the shore, finally coming out of the shadows he let his body breath the smell of freshness around the sea and the sensation of heat on his foot due to the warm sand.
'I want to enjoy spending time here....but this isn't the moment to do that....I have to hurry.'
He started concentrating his mana in his feet causing him to levitate. He moved forward but due to his lack of experience henwent too fast and nearly avoided crashing into a military ship. He was trying his best to not get caught in the radar of police or military so all this magic isn't exposed to them
After taking a moment to breath and gather his thoughts, he started moving towards the Swiss Alps not without crashing into objects, birds, barely avoiding fighter jets. He finally made his way to the Alps but he looked like he was a pig who had just rolled in mud. His newly worn clothes looked dirty and were torn in several places thanks to Julian's aviation control of his body.
'Now that I'm here I need to find their whereabouts.'
He saw two people wearing the same cult cloak as Ethan drinking a cup of coffee in a cafe, they had their goods removed. The coffee shop owner looked nervous and anxious as they were eating.
"What type of coffee is this!"
One of the member spat out the coffee on the owner's face who was trembling by now, his two small children were looking at him with an innocent expression.
"This is what you offers when we protect you from the threats of the other world, despicable. You all deserved to die!"
Both of the cult followers pulled out a long sword, it shoned brightly in the sunlight. They both started moving towards the father and the children.
I was seeing the entire thing while hiding behind a tree. One part of my body was saying to move forward and protect them but one part of my body overwhelming the voice of the other part told me to stop and wait.
The cult followers sliced the head of the coffee shop owner from his. His head rolled towards the feet of his two innocent children who were were crying and screaming for help. The cult followers killed them too and wiped their blood from their sword with a cloth.
The overwhelming part of my body told me to attack them and so I did, I charged forward with my full speed and slashed at them. They got surprised but were still able to block some damage. One of them had his fingers of left hand cut off while the other one experienced a deep cut on his stomach.
"Pale skin, brown hair, brown eyes, average height and slender build...you must be Julian Raymond, we were ordered to bring you the cult but since you attacked us first and the boss didn't exactly said to bring you alive so..."
Both of them charged at me with their swords, they were fast but I managed to block them, but due to my lack of fighting experience I still got slashed by them on many parts of my torso.
One of them who I had given a deep cut rushed to the man's body who he had decapitated earlier, he touched the man's stomach and concentrated his mana, Suddenly the wound I had given him began to heal completely, like it was never there.
'These two are troublesome to defeat without using magic'
Julian concentrated his mana oon his knife reinforcing it with magic. One of them charged at him with a the sword in a stabbing position. Julian slashed at him and he tried to block the hit but the slash went through the sword, and cutted his body in half, even the ground and the trees behind him were slashed in half as an after effect.
Julian quickly rushed forward to other guy cutting of his arms. He grabbed him from his neck but the other guy kicked Julian in his groin causing him to stumble back. The other guy began conjuring up a spell:
"O mater terra, praesta mihi vites tuas atque potestatem eas regendi."
Suddenly vines popped out from the ground and tangled around julian's arms and legs.
"This is the earth magic, be careful"
Astorath who had been silent for a long time finally spoke up.
'Don't i have a spell like him?'
"Yes, you do. Do you know any other language rather than english?"
'Yes a handful of latin'
"Very well create a spell where you ask me to cast a shadow on your opponent's head."
I nodded and began concentrating my mana in my eyes.
"O Dux inferni, iace velum umbrae super caput hostis mei."
As I chanted the spell and opened my eyes, the sky turned red and the ground turned black, the cult follower turned white with wide eyes as an illusion was casted on him where his worst memories will be on repeat. Suddenly his memories were pouring into my head but something like a glitch happened, a black hand made of shadow carassed my head. Just it's touch sent shiver down my spines and I felt like vomiting.
"The illusion also makes you exchange memories with him, but his memories were too much for you to bear so I only allowed important ones to pass like the location of the cult base"
Astorath was right, these were way too many memories for me to bear, same could be said for the guy in front me, blood was coming out of his every pore and suddenly his head exploded like a water balloon sending his brain matter and eyes in different directions.
The sky turned blue again and everything was back to normal as the duration of illusion had finally ended. The vines holding me in place were gone. My body dropped to ground in exhaustion.
'the illusion consumes way too much mana'
I thought as I panted heavily. I thought of all the people I had killed without a second thought. It was like a parasite was taking control of me and my body, making me a cold blooded killer. I felt nauseous and vomited on the ground, the vomit was filled with blood but I didn't have the time left to think about it as the evening hour was approaching.
I took a deep breath and stood up from the ground, I grabbed one of the cloaks from the guy I had split in half earlier. I now knew where the base was, all I needed to do is infiltrate it. I wore the cloak which seemed a size big for me but then it suddenly adjusted my size. The coat had two pockets but those didn't seem to have an end. I grinned realising the usefulness of the cloak.
'it seems these cloak represents standing in the cult too. The otherguy had a bronze star inside his cloak but this guy has a silver one, maybe this will allow me more unrestricted access.'
I thought as I started walking towards the base, I didn't had the energy left to fly, not to mention I was gonna crash in a tree regardless of that, I now needed a good plan to infiltrate and derive information from the cult. Suddenly two other cult member came up to me and bowed down as they realised the cloak belonged to a higher ranked official of the cult. They began escorting me towards their hideout.
I grinned, 'this party is about to get crazy let's hope they prepared the necessary gift for the arrival of a guest from a foreign land.'