LRAB 1. Things go wrong
1. Things go wrong
Sweat stung Kai’s eyes as he plunged his knife into the floor. He carved runes and Freyac syllables around him, wood splintering as his knife traced the erratic patterns.
He had, maybe, five minutes.
The cold floor of the Sorcerer’s Tower thrummed through him as the ritual circle released magical energy. This had to be the most complicated and convoluted ritual he’d ever attempted.
The symbols were crude and unrecognisable, making him wonder if they were even going to work, but there was no choice. He needed to make it work, to escape this place and turn things around.
He jumped in his seat as throaty and menacing shouts from outside echoed through the corridors.
They had found him.
His head snapped around in fear, taking note of the shaky walls of the library. The wide room, once neatly organised, was now cluttered and disorganised with books scattered everywhere on the floor. Dust and cobwebs only added to the mess.
His breath came out in ragged puffs and he looked down at his scarred hands.
He drew the symbols faster. He needed to finish—now! But panic clawed at his chest, making him clumsy.
Footsteps echoed through the halls of the Sorcerer’s Tower and he flinched.
The mana fiends were just outside.
The creaky, wooden door burst open behind him with a loud thud. Kai was fast on his feet, turning around to face the shadowy figure.
With the face of a bull and bulging muscles, the minotaur-like creature stood at seven feet, crowned by a pair of misshapen curved horns. Black lines ran through its arms and neck, and endless rows of fangs and protrusions stuck out from its back.
Its sharp claws seemed like they’d cut up the floor faster than Kai could with his knife.
It was covered in grey fur, interspersed with patches of dead skin from overexposure to the decayed mana.
Kai’s heart thumped in his ears as he weaved his hand to the left, casting a [Gust] spell while visualising a strong force of wind knocking the corrupted monster down.
It hit its chest, making it screech and stumble back a few steps.
Kai tightened his fingers around the hilt of the knife.
The mana fiend got its feet under it again and lunged forward.
He felt his breath leaving his lungs at the sight. Before it could reach him, he rolled on the floor, dodging the charge while hacking its leg with the knife.
The fiend snarled threateningly as it slashed its claws at him in a swift motion. Kai prepared another spell and slid back, but he was too slow.
The spell structure broke apart and his vision wavered as he was thrown into a bookshelf, his knife skidding away.
Terrible pain hit him as he screamed in pain and touched his face.
Blood dripped on the floor as he stared at his palm. His left eye was bleeding. Was it even there?
"It gouged out... my eye," he muttered, trying to fight through the pain.
He had severely underestimated the power of the mana fiend. Or maybe it was due to him being in this near-crippled state that his spells weren’t as powerful.
Either way, I need to get up.
Kai shook his head and tried to stand.
Even if he couldn’t see, he needed to go through the ritual. That was the only way to survive, but he had to fight off the mana fiend first.
The creature’s dark magic covered its claws, sending out blasts of corrupted energy that rippled and cut through the bookshelves as it got closer to him.
Kai grasped his left eye with one hand and, using his other hand, he cast [Mana Discharge], sending a blast of mana at the creature. It tried to block but was knocked back into a bookshelf, falling and crying out in pain.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have used such a spell with high mana requirements, but he had no time.
He cast the spell [Blinding], making the monster see white.
Making his way through the fallen bookshelves, he searched for his knife and found it right next to a puddle of blood.
He picked it up and looked towards the mana fiend.
As soon as the Blinding spell died down, it picked itself up, flailing its arm around and lunging at Kai, who was anticipating such a move.
Before it could get close to him, Kai yelled, "[Astrum Vosem!]"
The knife glistened with mana, fire crackling within the blade as he surged forward, aiming at the monster’s neck. The mana fiend slashed at him again, but he ducked, barely avoiding the hit.
Casting another [Blinding] spell, he sent the monster stumbling back before plunging the blade into its neck. Flames crackled out as he twisted the blade, aiming for the black lines.
The mana fiend fell to the ground immediately, black liquid spewing everywhere.
It cried out in pain, trying to grab Kai, but he didn’t give it the chance and kept digging deep into its neck until it stopped whimpering.
Blood oozed from Kai’s eye and he suddenly noticed a deep cut on his arm. Pain numbed all his senses, but there was no time to focus on it.
"The ritual," Kai coughed blood, realizing that crashing into the bookshelf had given him internal injuries. He dragged himself until he was in front of his preparation and felt like cursing.
A part of the ritual circle was smeared due to the blood splatter from the fight.
It was ruined.
Quickly deciding on his new move, he started scribbling frantically, drawing up a new ritual circle.
His fingers were cramping and slippery as he tried his best to draw the symbols in his mind. With one eye gone, it was much harder, and every mistake made him swear softly.
He heard more floor-shattering movements through the door. There was more than one mana fiend and the fight had attracted them to his hideout.
He needed to hurry. He only had a minute until they got here if he was lucky.
If his assumption was correct, the ritual had only sent his soul back in time which had found a compatible body for him to control. It didn’t make a lot of sense to him, but then again, the soul was a part of magical theory that had barely progressed in years.
It was too mysterious.
He decided to gather information first and took a look around the room.
There was a four-poster bed draped with heavy velvet right behind him. The bed was extremely lavish apart from the poor draping skills. The rest of the bedside decorations were canopy hangings and ornate wood furniture, including storage chests and cabinets for personal belongings.
Whoever used to own this body was rich. Maybe a lord or a wealthy merchant, Kai contemplated, looking over the room.
He walked towards the bed and touched it. It had gone stone cold. Nobody had used the bed for hours.
The fireplace caught his attention. It was the main focus of the room, with the hearth having heraldic symbols carved above it. This time, he recognised the language as Manakrit.
His fingertips followed them as he contemplated the meaning of it. It was a common tongue that had spanned centuries, so it was hard to say which era he was in. His ritual was supposed to bring him to the past, but he hadn’t gotten time to specify a date.
His wish was simply to go back as far as possible. However, he assumed 500 years was the limit for the ritual, so he must be around that period.
In the first place, it had been a suicidal attempt with a variable chance of success. Yet things had somehow worked out.
Looking around, he saw a picture frame stuck on the wall from the corner of his eye.
Kai turned and walked towards the picture. It was an old man. His bald head and his stern gaze were pointed to his left, as he sat in a seat comfortably. It was weird that the picture was just sitting there, in the corner of a room like this.
He guessed that it was either some important individual Kai didn’t recognise or the owner of the place.
With the ritual, everything seemed odd.
The former body owner had wounds that were fresh in two or three places, including his hands and feet. The clothes were covered with slightly dried-up blood.
"What was the guy even doing? He wasn’t trying a similar ritual to go back in time, right?"
His voice was strange. Hoarse, and deeper than he remembered.
Closing his eyes, he remembered his last few minutes in the tower. It was infested with bloodthirsty creatures. Every moment was tense, but in this room, there was a weird sense of serenity that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
He was alive, at least.
He sighed in content and opened his eyes. breathing mana with a wide smile.
The mana in the air tempted him to extend his hand. He needed more light to see around the symbols.
His index finger swirled a little into a circle while he envisioned lighting up the central fireplace. Normally, this spell would’ve ignited a small fireball, but nothing came.
Immediately, Kai took a few steps forward. He inhaled the air, feeling the energy in his bones, and tried the spell again, his hand moving attempting a simple spell even a 1st circle mage could’ve done in a blink.
He even muttered an incantation for added effect, normally reserved for harder spells.
"[Astrum Octavia]."
Once again, he successfully failed.
He’d normally cast something so simple with just intent, but it wasn’t working.
Something clouded his mind. He looked down on his new body and concentrated internally. He could sense mana and could feel his Mana Veins, even his Mana Heart seemed intact, but focusing on it, he realised that the body he was in was a Non-Mage.
He hadn’t even started his magical journey and couldn’t cast a single spell.
All the mana organs were intact, but he hadn’t awakened as a mage. The realisation of it made him wince. Not only had he lost his body, he had also lost his strength. He used to be a 5th Circle Magus. Now, he was a mere mortal. Ordinary.
If he had really awakened in a cave or a forest, he might have been killed by wild beasts.
"This... can’t be true." Kai’s refusal to believe the reality of his situation overwhelmed his thoughts for a few more seconds as he closed his eyes to feel his insides. Seconds stretch to minutes as he contemplated his new reality.
He slowly took in the fact that he was no longer Kai. He was in someone else’s body and had taken over him. He didn’t know who that person was, but he had been killed by whatever ritual he had been attempting.
That was the best summarisation.
A few possibilities of what could have happened flashed by him. Some were worth contemplating. Others were too bizarre.
He decided to investigate first.
"What’s that?"
His eyes followed the trail of the bloody ritual on the floor to find a piece of parchment.
Kai bent down to swiftly pick it up. The torn page lay between his fingertips, the words written on it were with blood.
Whoever had written it had poor penmanship, to say the least. He slowly read out the words.
"I will die and be reborn. Everyone will fear my might and the dawn of blood will arrive again."
He dropped the parchment on the floor, wondering if he had come back in the past and inside the body of a cultist. But even if it was a cultist, the surroundings including the room didn’t sum up, and if he was somehow in the body of a noble who was a ritualistic devotee, things would only get worse from here.
He didn’t want to deal with a cult. At least not when he was basically powerless.
Kai let the weight of the situation settle in, but the door sprung open.
He immediately looked to the side and saw a woman with widened eyes. Her eyes were on the floor seeing the symbols, syllables, lines, and curves; all of it. Then they fell on the owner of the room, bloodied and in the middle of this encounter, with his hands at his side.
That was him and he noticed the woman looked like a maid.
"I-" The maid opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Kai stared at her, again feeling like he was simply going from one problem to another.
Ah shit! How do I get out of this one?