By the time they returned to work, things had just gotten complicated. On the one hand, the war continued to cost lives, while the Kingdom of Orphen continued to make money from bilateral trade, as did other kingdoms that took advantage of the situation. Weapons, equipment, supplies, and raw materials were sold to both sides. On the other hand, the case they were working on had increased the number of victims.
'Another five magicians have disappeared. It's like before: low-reputation magicians, low affinities. Just now, they're one of each element. They're not dual magicians. There's no relationship between them; there's no specific age; they're random magicians. What the hell is going on here?' Maurius complained.
'During our free days, I was doing some incognito work. It's not just these cases; there's more,' Clinton said, giving a long list of people to his colleagues.
'What is this?' asked Astrid.
'Possible suspects. They're people I've been investigating for the last few weeks. Many of them have received large sums of money, must be doing something not very legal, and besides, some of them knew the initial three missing persons. It can't be a coincidence.'
'We should divide ourselves and investigate these people; go after them all at the same time; if words get out, they might get spook' added Maurius.
'Okay, but I'll need your help with something, Maurius. Do you remember the strange reading that the Oculis gave us?'
'Yeah, I remember, the remains of magic energy were very similar in both bodies. Do you have any idea why?'
'Yes, I have an idea, and I will need your help. Your skill as a penta elemental magician could explain the phenomenon,' Clinton replied.
'Well, since you guys will play the experiments again, I will go for those losers,' said Astrid, pointing to the list.
'Start here,' Clinton recommended, pointing to a group of names. 'This one here is my informant; he can make it easier for you to isolate and interrogate others.'
The team split up, Clinton and Maurius descended to the catacombs of the Royal City. There was nothing there; the area had been examined by regulators, and all the evidence was extracted. They had found nothing significant, apart from the bodies.
'Now what?' Maurius couldn't finish the words. Clinton had injected poison with a dart. The poison had a rapid effect, and Maurius lost consciousness. Clinton hit the wall five times with a brick at a set pace. A group of men came out of the miasma from the other end of the catacombs.
During his years as a regulator, Clinton identified several groups of warlocks. Instead of handing them over or arresting them, he shared information with them. Thanks to the material they seized on some of his missions and Van Vatnik's notes he found at the academy, he had learned a lot about arcane magic. He even managed to find a few spells with which the harmful effects of miasma could be reduced.
'Prepare him; we will do it today,' ordered Clinton to the men who had just arrived.
They picked up Maurius from the ground and advanced into the area of the catacombs covered with miasma. The warlocks had cleared the area of monsters. At one end of the catacombs, five magicians of each element were chained to the ground in a circle. On the stone floor, several diagrams formed a five-pointed star. Leech stones kept the magician's magic drained. They were stunned and occasionally coughed. The miasma around them became less dense thanks to Clinton's spell, but they were already sick. They didn't have much time to live, but it was more than enough for Clinton to fulfill his objective. The diagrams on which they were chained were partially active, limiting the effect of the miasma. Maurius was chained to the center of the diagram; his magic was drained with several leech stones.
'What is going on?' asked Maurius, recovering consciousness a few minutes later. 'Dear Maurius. You know, I didn't lie when I said you were important to me. I have been taking care of you for years for this very moment,' said Clinton, holding Maurius by the jaw. 'A penta-elemental magician. I think it's fate that made me discover Van Vatnik's secrets, and the world gave me the perfect catalyst at the same time.' Clinton moved towards the other mages.
'Look at this garbage,' said Clinton, kicking one of the magicians on the ground as the assaulted man whimpered through the gag. 'They are worthless, but these savages who conformed to a life of mediocrity and who did not seek power will be the fuel to create an empire of warlocks.'
The men around Clinton started laughing. They had been promised all kinds of luxuries, power, and wealth in a world dominated by warlocks.
'We have always been told that miasma is chaotic, degenerated energy, and dangerous magic, but do you know how abundant it is? There is more chaotic energy than elementary energy in the world. All that power. Think about it,' he said, breathing deeply into the miasma. 'All that power will be mine! Clinton looked at the warlocks. I will create a glorious world. A world for those with ambition, desire, and the guts to look for more than what life has offered. No more hiding, no more living in darkness; the magicians will learn to fear and respect those who have the courage to seek power at any price.' Clinton's face wasn't the usual stone mask; it was the face of a madman.
'For heaven's sake, Clinton, listen to yourself; arcane magic requires sacrifice, all those innocent lives,' said Maurius.
'Inocents!' exclaimed Clinton with some repulsion. 'They are livestock; they are cows; no, they're worse; the cows have no choice; the animals don't think; but these people, they are lazy; they do nothing; everyone is born weak. They have the potential to reach greatness; however, they prefer not to do anything and live mediocre livelihoods.' Clinton sighed for a moment, then held Maurius by the jaw again, standing face-to-face and staring into his eyes.
'Weakness is a sin," he said with a smile, letting go of Maurius face and turning around. Maurius was horrified and didn't know what to say.
'But don't worry; everything will change very soon. The world will change, and the warlocks will take control. No more stupid royalty, no more useless nobles. Only the powerful will have the right to decide how the world and society will function. No more blood nobility. Only power and control, my power, my control.'
Clinton put a muzzle in Maurius' mouth and continued his speech.
'As you know, when the magical energies of two opposing elements are combined, they either cancel each other out or explode violently. Besides this, if the energy of one mage is transferred to the body of another with arcane magic, they die immediately. In the worst case, they explode like balloons if the energies are opposite. It is an ordeal to escape from the regulators and make time to experiment; fortunately, there is never a lack of material. The world is full of useless people who call themselves magicians. Dual magicians have better compatibility, but they are scarce. And you, my dear Maurius, you are unique; you are compatible with everything. All the elements are stable in you; you can accumulate the magical and vital energy of all the elements and magicians. The perfect catalyst,' said Clinton, smiling and enjoying the horror in Maurius's face. 'Thank you for your sacrifice. My friend. Let's get started!'
The warlocks approached the chained magicians, teared away their clothes, keeping their chests exposed, removed the lecch stones, placed their hands on the magicians, and began to recite their arcane magic enchantment.
Meanwhile, Astrid had remained at the headquarters of the regulators after Maurius and Clinton went out to the catacombs. She decided to go with trustworthy reinforcements to question the suspects, but Gerald and the others were late.
'Gerald, what happened?' asked Astrid.
Gerald was entering the headquarters door with some wounds.
'We have just returned from Vilnius. Some magicians and mercenaries had been boasting of making a lot of money working for some rich sponsors. Several criminals decided that the money would be better in their hands; a fight broke out, and it scalated into a minor-scale battle among magicians. By the time we arrived, it was already a war between mercenaries, magicians, and warlocks. It was a disaster. We've identified almost a dozen magicians and warlocks in the conflict.
'Vilnius? Do these names sound familiar to you?' said Astrid, giving him the list.
'Yes,' said Gerald. 'Almost everybody's on this list. What...?'
'I don't know, but I have a bad feeling. I'm going to get Maurius and Clinton; they need to know this. Gather a squad and join me at the catacombs. Astrid took a carriage to the center of the royal city. A few minutes later, she entered the catacombs.
'Emla valto ecma, klato ectope esfenus, tla.'
'Emla valto ecma, klato ectope esfenus, tla.'
'Emla valto ecma, klato ectope esfenus, tla.'
Several voices repeated these words inside the catacombs, drowning out the muffled cry of Maurius and the magicians. Five warlocks continually recited this spell while their hands touched the naked chests of their victims. With each repetition of the enchantment, a pulse of smoke of the same color as the affinity of the element of each magician moved towards Maurius, which issued cries extinguished by the gag. His heart and veins were burning, his head was about to explode, and his eyes and ears were bleeding. Large amounts of miasma entered the five prisoners and Maurius.
Clinton touched Maurius' burning chest with his right hand. The amount of magic energy in him increased, and at one point his body was about to explode like a balloon, but soon afterward the elements balanced. The miasma from the environment poured into Maurius mouth and nostrils and then came out of the pores of his skin as a dense black tar, to be reabsorved again like if he were a sponge.
'Malai, malai, yell feve afric, bund und acta.'
Clinton repeated the words as his left hand pointed to the ceiling. A pillar of pure white light rose toward the sky from Maurius body; the light passed through the roof of the catacombs and all that interposed in its way. Clinton smiled as he recited the words.
Outside the catacombs, the column of light reached the sky, and for a few seconds, its blue disappeared and was replaced by a crystal white color. All of Telasa had begun to feel the alteration of the elements since Clinton began his spell. Now that it was complete, the elemental energy imbalance could be felt all over the world, and even non-magicians and animals could feel that something was wrong.
'What is this?' Delfin was the first of the masters to react.
The masters of the towers, the royal family, the nobles, the members of the regulators, whom Gerald had recruited to go to the catacombs on Astrid's suggestion, the people of other kingdoms, even the animals, all looked up to the sky. Suddenly, a noise of broken glass resounded all over the world. The white sky crushed and, as it appeared, disappeared, leaving again a blue sky.
Down in the catacombs, Astrid had followed the noise toward the miasma area. The distortion of the elemental energy caused her some discomfort; the concentration of miasma had fallen so much that it seemed like a slight fog. Something terrible was happening there; the idea that his comrades were in danger, facing a pack of warlocks, made her forget all caution. However, she got petrified as she watched Clinton recite his spell. Although there was no doubt about what she saw and heard, her brain failed to assimilate it. Everything happened so fast that he couldn't react in time. The column of light disappeared, leaving behind a Maurius who still accumulated some of the energy of all the elements and a lot of miasma in his body that became more and more unstable.
The bodies of the magicians used as sacrifices dried up and turned into gray mummies. Maurius recovered and lost consciousness with the pulses of pain passing through his body. At one moment, his veins and his heart pulsated and burned like his blood was volcanic lava, but at the next second, his whole body froze, with miasma tar coming out of the pores of his skin. The next second, it re-entered his body, as if re-absorbed.
'What's going on?' asked Clinton after the disappearance of the column of light. 'Where is my power? ...damn it!'
Clinton's fire magic was being absorbed by Maurius; the elements became unstable and fueled the fire even more. Clinton ran away, and a moment later, Maurius's body exploded. A mass of fire filled the space inside the catacombs. Astrid's survival instinct activated, and she jumped behind a column to protect herself from the deflagration. A part of the catacombs collapsed, crushing two of the warlocks. After the fire died out, Astrid abandoned her hiding place. The regulators, led by Gerald, had already reached the catacombs.
'What has happened here?' asked Gerald Astrid, who was still deaf by the blast but understood the question.
'Clinton used arcane magic. He sacrificed Maurius. He's a warlock,' Astrid briefly explained, as she was still struggling with the headache caused by the explosion. A little blood was running out of her ears, but she didn't seem to have any other wounds.
For a few seconds, Gerald had a hard time understanding what was going on, but seeing the remains of magic circles and diagrams on the floor and the walls, feeling the imbalance of the elements and the mummified bodies of the sacrifices, his experience and training as a regulator came into action.
When Clinton and the surviving sorcerers woke up, they were tied up, naked, and covered with leech stones. Arcane magic was powerful, but without a magic circle and without a sacrifice, it was nonexistent. Many warlocks tattooed magic circles on their skin to use themselves as sacrifices in desperate situations. They knew they would execute them if they were caught alive. It was better to fight to death than to suffer the torture of the interrogators of the royal court. That's why the prisoners were naked, and the regulators had cut the tattoos to prevent them from using their magic. Clinton took a few minutes to realize the situation. The pain in his right hand and face made him realize that he had suffered burns.
'What has happened?' he thought. 'Why am I tied up...? Damn.' His plan had been exposed, and he was captured.
'Gerald, why am I bound?' asked Clinton, pretending to be ignorant.
'Seriously, are you going to play the fool?' Astrid was choleric.
'I don't know what you're talking about,' replied Clinton. 'Maurius used arcane magic. I tried...'
A kick interrupted his speech.
'I was there when you did your spell; I saw everything, you fucking maniac.' Astrid kept kicking Clinton until Gerald contained her. Clinton would have been dead a long time ago if it weren't for Gerald's intervention and the fact that, in this disbalanced energy environment, using magic was nearly impossible.
'You've always been inopportune and annoying.' Clinton was spitting blood as he smiled at Astrid. He knew he was lost. There was no way to get out of this, but he didn't worry too much. He had other plans; besides, it was refreshing to finally take the mask off.
'Gerald, let me go. I will give you a great reward when I ascend as God,' Clinton ordered in a loud voice.
'You really have gone mad,' replied Gerald.
'No, I'm not crazy. I can feel the change in my chest.' Clinton had been feeling an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. The feeling that something was sweeling inside him and was coming up. He thought that the effects of his spell were finally working, and he was right. A cough attack began to affect him, and black smoke came out of his lungs.
'what?'
'What an irony,' said Astrid, approaching Clinton, still with tears in her eyes. 'All you've achieved is miasma disease and an execution sentence. Astrid pulled Clinton's healthy ear with force. 'I'll make sure I look you in the eyes while you're beheaded.'
Clinton and his warlocks were captured and taken out of the catacombs. A long investigation was carried out. After much torture, the warlocks confessed everything they had done.
'This has been a surprise,' said Celent.
Astrid had been placed in custody at first for her association with the perpetrators, but it was determined that she had nothing to do with Clinton's plans. Astrid, Gerald, and Delfin were in Celent's office. Delfin had recommended them as a unit for regulators, so the current situation was a disgrace to him.
'Clinton had planned everything from the beginning, since his training at the Liev's tower. There he used arcana magic for the first time.'
'So, the shadow magicians, these boys were innocent?' asked Astrid.
Celent had already been informed of the events of the past.
'I am afraid so,' replied Celent, staring at Delfin. ′ Clinton framed them, got away with it, and joined the regulators to learn more arcane magic. We don't know how much power he has. We probably couldn't have stopped him if it weren't for your quick performance and Geralt's timely arrival. They caught Clinton and his warlocks unconscious, so there was no need for a fight. The kidnappings were his work, too. He paid mercenaries to kidnap weak dual magicians, and with his allies within the Warlocks community, they experimented with them. He had been gathering fans of Van Vatnik among the warlocks for months. Having a spy among the regulators was too much of a good offer to reject. His plan was to distract Astrid so that he could do her spell without any hassle. The fight between the mercenaries in the bar ruined his plans and began prematurely. Maurius was the cornerstone of his evil plans. As a penta-elemental magician, he could unite the magic energy of all the sacrifices at once and stabilize the opposite elements.
'What did he do? What was that spell?' asked Delfin.
'We don't know for sure, but whatever it is, it affected everyone. According to Clinton, it should have turned him into a god, connected him with all the chaotic magic energy, and given him the ability to use it for himself,' Celent explained. 'However, the only things he has achieved are severe burns and miasma disease.'
'Where is she?' asked Astrid furiously, with her hands covered in frost.
'He is dead,' replied Celent. 'Between burns and torture, he reached its limit. The torturers of the royal city are ruthless, and I can assure you that his end was miserable.'
This delighted Astrid for a few seconds, but shortly thereafter, she felt that feeling of discomfort and emptiness in her chest again. The anger over not being able to kill him with her own hands made her miserable. She lost a supposed friend and the man who she believed would be her husband the same day. The image of Maurius bursting into pieces was repeated in her nightmares. Astrid returned to work as a regulator a few weeks later. She couldn't stay without doing anything; she would go crazy. She knew that her servants feared her, that her brothers and her mother hated her; Clinton and Maurius were the only friends she had ever had, and now they were both dead. She drowned her discomfort in her work, was given a promotion, and was given the leadership of a team of new recruits. Gerald also received a promotion, and now he leads his own team.
To protect the integrity and reputation of Delfin and the masters of the Liev Tower, no mention was made about what happened to Aleum and Xavier. A dead shadow magician and a worthless and fugitive dual magician were not valuable to the crown. Although it was proposed to remove the charges against Xavier, it was not worth it. Besides, they did not know if he was still alive; his whereabouts were unknown since his escape from Humol. If the case were made public, it could affect the reputation of the masters; it was better to keep silent.
When the Van Feldings heard what had happened to their son, they wept.
'No, it must be a mistake. He was here a few weeks ago,' cried Ultria.
Astrid acted as a messenger and brought the news directly to them. With tears in her eyes, she had to repeat the same words several times until Ultria accepted the message. Cliford was standing in the office without reacting to anything. Nadial was as confused as his parents.
'How is it possible? My brother was the only known penta elemental magician, a skilled wind magician, and was always surrounded by powerful mages, Clinton, other regulators, and yourself,' asked Nadial, partially shocking his parents.
Astrid took on the freedom to disclose some of the classified information. Maurius' parents had been soldiers and were still active as reserves; they knew how the organizations and forces of the kingdom functioned. She told them in detail what had happened: Clinton's betrayal, his actions at Liev's Tower, and how he had been captured and tortured to death. When she felt that her presence was unnecessary, she decided to leave the mansion. Astrid and Maurius were lovers, but they were at the beginning of the relationship; she had not yet had much intimacy with his family, and she felt in part responsible for his death, although she knew that it was not her fault.
Ultria stopped her and hugged her before she left. She thanked her for bringing them the news. The affectionate gesture made Astrid feel even more guilty. Without being able to say anything else, she left the mansion with tears in her eyes. She left behind a broken family and weeping, desolate parents.
The Van Ferra family received the news in a very different way. Instead of sending them a messenger, they received a squadron of regulators armed to the teeth with all the magic equipment and weapons they could have.
'What is the meaning of this? How dare you defile the honor of the house of Van Ferra?' cried Sven to the regulators who were assaulting his house.
The regulators disregarded their demands and captured the whole family. 'All members of the Van Ferra family are under immediate arrest and investigation for their links with the known warlock Clinton van Ferra. The charges are: practice of arcane magic in the royal city; kidnapping and murder of several magicians; and another member of the Magic Regulation Unit. Conspiracy, betrayal of the crown, and insurgency. I advise you to surrender. Leader Sven' The charges were announced by a fire mage of the regulators, who acted as the leader of the assault unit. The man had his hands and eyes burning, ready to attack. Gerald and Astrid were forbidden from participating in the assault, given their personal involvement in the case.
The members of the Van Ferra House and the servants were taken to detention cells, interrogated, and, in the case of Sven, his wife, and Emer, subjected to mild torture. It didn't take much for them to talk about anything. Sven confessed to all the dubious legitimacy business in which his family was involved. A few days later, only two things were clear: the Van Ferra had nothing to do with Clinton's plans, and they hated each other. It was a family of possible fratricides.
After the visit of the regulators, the Van Ferra family found themselves in straits. Although regulators were sure they had nothing to do with Clinton's plans, they needed to set an example. The family's properties were confiscated, and they became a decaying noble family. The family was only able to sustain itself by the fact that Sven was a magician and that he had some talent for business, but now he had been relegated to do mercenary jobs to survive. Still, it was difficult to get jobs; nobody wanted to do business with them. Emer was miserable, just like the others. No more servants, no more mansions or fine clothes. The family had resorted to selling the scarce personal belongings they had left to pay for their expenses, but now they wore the cheapest clothes they could have bought. They rented a small stone house on one of the villas on the outskirts of Farpas, and just eating was an ordeal. The food was very expensive and of poor quality, and no one knew how to cook or do the household tasks except Sven, who complained of how useless his wife and children were. Everyone cursed Clinton's name and wished that he would suffer forever for what he had done to them.