Chapter 180: Visit To The Wizard
Chapter 180: Visit To The Wizard
Jin was walking down a dark staircase. There was a mossy stone ceiling, from which water dripped and fell down to his head. There were sporadic torches on the cracked, rough stone walls; crafted almost exactly like those from the Middle Ages. And then there was the temperature.
Even with flames of the torches at both sides; Jin found the temperature extremely cold—almost unbearable. He felt as though he was in a refrigerator. He wasn’t. But he was in a powerful Wizard’s house.
As soon as Jin took the last step down. He felt something. He quickly stopped, not walking another step forward. Kai, however, continued walking. It looked as though he walked through a clear, shifting wall, and disappeared. He was supposed to be right there in the same room as Jin, but he was not.
Jin furrowed his brows. He had already seen to the bizarreness of this Wizard. There was something much like a portal in front of him. But he could not see it. When he drew a hand forward, the space in front of him shifted, undulating like invisible water, and leaving waves in this said area. Part of his hand disappeared.
He quickly retracted his hand, yanking it toward him again as if he had touched fire. Quickly, he looked down at it. He looked at his palm, and then the dorsal part of his hand. It was fine, no pain was inflicted and he hadn’t lost a drop of blood. He sighed, almost in relief.
“Quite fancy of this Wizard,” he said, “when he could’ve just placed a damn door.” His voice trailed off as he walked through the portal.
On the other side of the portal, he met Kai and a strange man with an immense aura. This man possessed a bulbous, reddish nose, and completely white eyes, no pupils. His head was bald, and his feet were long. He stared mortally at Jin from the time he walked through the portal.
Jin stared right back at him, with serious eyes.
“Hello, good sir,” the man said, now oddly smiling, “I’m the Wizard Kai had told you about. And Welcome to my little headquarters.” His tone was a bit husky for a middle-aged man but flooded with energy.
Jin looked at him, cringing. “You’re the Wizard?”
The Wizard cackled. “What? Haven’t seen a Wizard before? Or do I have to wear a pointy hat, and have an arched back to be considered one?”
Jin blinked several times. “No …. I guess?”
“Funny kid,” the Wizard said, walking toward the desk in the room, “I didn’t even expect you to be this young. Sure, Kai here told me you were young. But younger than both him and his sister? You’ve already made a great impression. I’m really glad to have you here. I’m sure the Mayor will warmly welcome you to this village as well. We don’t get many children survivors.” He stopped in front of the desk.
“Is that so?” Jin folded his arms. “Why is that?” He obviously knew the answer already but put on pretentious curiosity on his countenance.
“Apparently kids don’t bode well against the apocalypse,” The Wizard looked down at the desk, “It’s a tad too hard for them to survive it. We’ve had like what,” he paused, “one or two kids who walked in here alone? They didn’t even come here; we found them outside these walls and decided we’d take them in. The two kids are a huge help to us today. We’re building a colony, you see, and their superhuman strength comes in handy all the time.
“The safest places to be in these such times are those domes,” He licked a finger and started flipping through the pages of a document, “but we simply cannot go there. This entire village—back when there were about fifty of us—had given our all to get to those gates. We lost many great people. Sadly, they did not let us in. As you would have guessed, young lad,” he stopped flicking through the pages, picking up the document with both his hands, “we lost half our men getting back here, to this village.
“Sadly, the village wasn’t enough. We had no other choice but to upgrade. So I sought my brother. We had to battle each other. The winner would get whatever he pleased rom the loser, as long as it was one thing. My brother wanted my life, whereas I wanted him to help build us a safe place. I barely won that battle, and I still bleed today from it. My brother and I illegally had our abilities from a young age. We were both always fascinated by them. I’ve been cultivating magic, many different magical powers at my disposal.
“Whereas my brother—too lazy to study sorcery like me—settled for Earth, air, and fire. That battle we had was building up for decades. Extreme development. We had resent for each other. This battle was bound to happen at some point. And when it did, it reached the climax and erupted … it was glorious. Sadly, up ’til this very day, the battle still makes Khan bleed too … but much worse than I do,” he frowned, “It was a battle in which our sibling rivalry was killed. And that is how those walls came to be. The remnants of Khan’s strength. Walls almost touching the sky.”
Jin was intrigued. “That’s really cool. Where’s this Khan now? Is he dead or something?”
The Wizard giggled. “No, you silly boy. He’s still alive. I just wish I could have said ‘alive and well’. I sacrificed a lot. A lot of lives were lost so that this wall can be. So, I’ll do anything to make sure nothing gets past it. And nothing harms the people it protects. Do you understand, boy?”
Jin kept his eyelids drooped. Stark apathy. “Of course, I do. You’re trying to reap rich benefits from the current purgatory the world’s in, aren’t you? Maybe sell the remains of the Voids? Use it as some new power? Turn the Voids into your soldiers? Mutate people … or maybe even build an empire.”
The Wizard cackled. “You are funny indeed. I do have things I’d like to gain from this, young man, but those things aren’t bad at all. No one does anything out of kindness; there is always something selfish wanting to be claimed. I like you already. What is your name? All candidates are recorded here in the Archives.”
“Oh,” Jin uttered, “well my name’s Jin. Jin Pierce. And I’m not much of a Harry Potter fan so cut me some Wizardry, and let’s get down to business. I’m starving.”
The Wizard smiled. “A memorable name,” he said, “I like it. Jin, Jin. As you now know, we here put the safety of our citizens first …”
“O,” Jin said, “I must’ve used Deceptive Delusion on myself because it appears to me that you care about that wall more than anything else.”
Unbothered, the Wizard continued, “So we’re very skeptical of newcomers. I’m sure you want a place to stay here—and I can ascertain that it’s one of the safest places you can be when outside of the domes. We have but rather simples rules here to which you must abide. The first rule is testing: frequent tests given to villagers to make sure they aren’t potentially cursed. It turns out one test wouldn’t be enough, so we give one to all every Friday.
“You, good young sir, will undergo three background tests: a morality test, a background test, and a black magic test. After the first two, should you prove positive in the third test, you will be subjected to death immediately since that would mean that you are a demon, Void, cursed one, or revenger. Should we proceed now, sir? Are you ready?”
Jin smirked again. He was ready. Perhaps even ready to fail the test and be considered one of those monsters. He looked at his health and saw that it was plummeting slowly because of his long-kept hunger. But not many points were lost. He could still fight. Perhaps he could abuse his teleportation to win the fight against the potentially stronger Wizard. He was pugnacious. And so, nodded. “Yeah, I’m ready to take the test.”
Kai looked at Jin, and could not help but notice his demeanor and the look in his eyes. He clenched his fists. He didn’t want Jin to prove positive in the test. He wanted to believe Jin wasn’t one of those monsters. Was he truly one of those monsters? He clenched his teeth. There was only one way to find out.
The Wizard walked up to Jin and stopped, looking down at him with a smile on his face. Unlike Kai, this middle-aged man opted for the more barbaric turn of events. He wanted Jin to test positive in the test. He was dying to see his ability in action. He put out a hand for Jin to grab. “Take my hand, I shall take you to the testing area.”
Jin took the Wizard’s hand and suddenly, the background of the room warped and changed.