[mystogan]

it has been some time since my last update, college started and suddenly got very busy with everything, lately the only time i get to write is at late nights but i am trying to write as much as possible.

As difficult as this chapter was to write, i am glad i was finally able to complete it because the current arc ends here and as the chapter name suggests the main part as the guild is now over, and here on the story focuses on other main things.

now i will be focusing on story and pick up the plot faster because there is still a lot to cover.

but for now i hope you enjoy this chapter and the next one will be up soon.

"Chapter 29: A Guild No More"

Spoiler for Chapter 29: A Guild No More:

Early morning, arwin went into woods behind the warehouse, to the river. Removed his boots and stepped into the water, he cupped some water in his hands and splashed on his face,

“Oh you look ugly”, arwin quickly turned, but there was nobody, he turned back and right infront close to his face was Zaros hanging upside down in mid air, arwin was startled and fell back on the pebbles.

“what the hell!?”said arwin, he looked up to the spirit, “what are you doing here?”

(Zaros)well i had to show up, there are a lot of things going on in that head of yours.

(Arwin)wait, what!?,i can hear your thoughts, we can talk like this?

(Zaros)yes we can hear each other’s thoughts and don’t call me Zaros, i am bored of that name from now i shall be known as Zeke.

“so we can communicate with our thoughts. Wait how did you come here?, i did not summon you”

“i am always here, the summoning is to summon the spirit in this world, after that the spirit lives inside its master. When you disperse me, i go and stay in here” he said pointing a finger towards arwin.

For a moment arwin was fascinated with the knowledge of this, but suddenly his face turned grim,

“if you stay inside my head, then you look into my memories and thoughts all the time!?”

“ofcourse, its the only entertainment i have around here” said Zeke, arwin sighed and calmed, he did not had any energy after yesterday’s events.

“what do you want?”he asked

“what i want is a huge castle in the spirit world, with beautiful angels caressing to my every needs. But for now, since you have learned the basics of spirit magic, i would like for you to release me so i could go back to the spirit world.”

“and why would i do that?”said arwin

“well since you have no use of me and that black swollen eye tells me you have everything under control. Its good for us that we part ways”

“oh well i have some different plans for you”he said, suddenly Zeke’s humorous face changed into a serious expression.

“do tell”

“spirit magic has too many incantations for commands, it is too lengthy. so i have used a conditioning spell on it. Despite your improper behaviour and invasion of my privacy, you have talents and skills that i could use, the condition is, unless i have achieved my goals, we cannot be separated even if i wanted too. So regardless of what you want, we are stuck with each other for a while now” said arwin

Zeke was furious, horns grew on his forehead and black demon wings opened on his back, “how could you?”he said, “undo that immediately and release me or i’ll spill out all your secrets to others”

“you can, but i am the master. I’ll make you suffer and as a slave you cannot resist me directly. So decide carefully on what you do. Now, it doesn’t has to be that way, we can have a proper working relationship if you cooperate.”

The helpless spirit couldn’t say anything when threatened like that, he glared at arwin,

“i will not forget what you have done to me today, you will pay for this, i promise” said zeke and then disappeared into thin air.

Gilbert arrived at the ruins and remains of the guild, the collapsed building still had the smell of death on it and as he expected to find, there was another person on the other side, came to visit the disastrous site. He walked over to Muriel,

“i knew you would come”he said, “how could you miss a site such as this”

“i am not surprised, the way he handled the guild and the kind of people he let in, it was just a matter of time before the guild came down burning. I believe you not here just to chat” said muriel

Gilbert took out the locket that arystar had handed over to him last night and tossed it to her,

“you are free now, you can go where ever you want. I have no leverage on you now”

“a wise decision” she said, tucked the locket in her dress, “this is the last we meet Flame wizard, good bye” , she turned and walked away.

(Muriel) this is won’t be the end of it. They don’t see the walking talking source of bad luck that they have among them, that boy with the back problem, he will destroy everyone around him.

Gilbert waited until she was out of sight and then went on his way.

.....................................

Lukas jumped out of the window, an explosion erupted behind him. He dropped into the lower balcony, from there to the ground and ran. Rowena came out of the smoke after him, she grabbed the shed and flipped up to the roof, from there saw Lukas and followed him from the rooftops.

Lukas turned the street and saw a man waiting for him, he quickly turned into the alley and came out from the other side into the fields, he ran until he was alone in the grass field and then stopped. He looked around, took out a pouch and checked the black orb. Suddenly a number people landed around him like falling from the sky, among them was Rowena as well. He was surrounded in a circle between them.

“hand it over”she said

(Lukas) So what others thought was right, they are after this black orb.

“so you are Lukas”said Kevin walking among them and came before him, “the apprentice of my old friend”

“you!, i saw you that night, holding my master’s corpse. You are Kevin Flameheart”said lukas

“so you know of me. Then you might have also figured out that i want the Heart of Verloren, that black orb you have”

(Lukas) Heart of Verloren?, this orb, what is he saying?

“i am running out of patience boy, hand it over and i promise your demise will be quick”said Kevin

“you killed my master, destroyed my home and killed my fellow mages.” said Lukas, took off his coat and threw it aside and was ready to battle, “before i send you to afterlife, i need to know just one thing, did the council or someone personally from there, sent you to kill us?”

Kevin laughed, “huh, since you won’t live long, yes i made a secret deal with the head of the council. He said he will make way for me to destroy you and in return i will retrieve that black orb for him. Though it’s him behind it not the council. Everybody get back!”he commanded, “come now apprentice of my old friend, let’s see how good of a teacher Marco really was” and he took a battle stance as well.

In an instant Lukas was standing beside him light shining around him, his fist struck into Kevin’s chest twisting with the blow breaking several bones. Kevin went flying with a blast of aura crashing into a pile of rocks. He got up slowly coughing and spitting blood, his ribs were sticking out of his top from his previous injury.

“oh look now, you got me messed up again” said Kevin with a trail of blood pouring down his mouth as he spoke, he pushed the broken ribs back into his torso, screaming in pain.

Lukas moved with blinding speed for another attack, Kevin moved similarly and caught his head in the path, due to the speed Lukas was turned upwards. Kevin pushed him down and smashed his head into the ground. Lukas’s body shined intensely, momentarily blinding Kevin’s eyesight. He fell back holding his eyes, Lukas quickly fired an arc but the light but got refracted. Kevin opened his eyes and placed his palms on the ground, chains made of aura emerged from the ground and struck Lukas piercing his flesh and binding him.

Lukas spiked up his power and broke off the chains and was now bleeding from various cuts on his body. He formed a magic circle and fired many projectiles of light energy, Kevin formed big magic circles in each of his hand, with one hand he covered himself from the shower of light particles. When the attack stopped he pointed the other magic circle at Lukas and released all the power from Lukas’s attack in the form of a thunder bolt that hit him with a big explosion.

When the smoke cleared, Lukas was still standing injured and breathing heavily, his clothes burnt at several places, both the sides of his face were covered in blood. Kevin made a hand sign and several magic circles appeared in mid air between him and Lukas and started a wave of aura blasts towards Lukas. Lukas placed a wall of force field infront of him, the magic circles blasted on the invisible wall.

Kevin could see nothing but smoke everywhere, from within Lukas jumped upwards with trail of smoke behind him, he cast more spells and placed glass like invisible force fields around Kevin. Kevin was immobilized inside it and was unable to move. Lukas landed and took a few steps back and got Kevin exactly at the focal point of the lens formed by the placement of the force fields around him. Lukas then fired a single ray of light, it split and diverged at the first force field then at the next the rays of lights turned their path and converged at the place where Kevin was standing with maximum intensity. The beam of light hit him at his right shoulder, incinerating and melting his shoulder, the right side of his chest and the area around his neck was blown off.

His right arm hung by a little flesh and then fell down lifelessly, a splash of blood came out like a fountain from the damaged right side of his body.

(Lukas) Damn Fuck it! i missed!

Kevin screamed at the top of his voice, suddenly he was covered in aura and waves of energy came out of him breaking all the spells around him. giant bat like wings opened from his back, each the size of his body, grey in colour and covered with scales and blood. In an instant he moved and went past Lukas waving his left hand. A red line appeared on Lukas’s neck and his head popped upwards a few feet in the air and fell aside with a spray of blood coming from his severed neck, then the headless body fell to the ground.

The next moment his wings dispersed into aura, almost half of his torso destroyed and unconscious he fell to the ground and blood spattered on the grass under him. Quickly Rowena and the other wizards came to him and wrapped him up in a cloak, the healer surrounded him with his magic and they got ready to depart.

“Rowena, what do we do with him?”asked one of them pointing towards Lukas’s body

“Burn it and leave no trace behind” she said

At the warehouse, everyone was waiting restlessly. When the darkness of the night fell and there was no sign of Lukas, they grew impatient with a shocking realization.

Irena was focusing her magic essence as hard as she could, “i cannot sense his magic presence” she said

Arystar got up, “that’s it then, they got to him. He is dead and they have the black orb now”

“No!” yelled Fiora, “he cannot be dead”

“this is fucked up” said Erica, “he was the best of us, what are we suppose to do now!?”

“Damn, it!” cursed gus banging his fist on the table

“he would have been our leader” said arystar. The sadness grew in the room and their eyes were tearing up, for the next few moments they all fell silent.

Arwin sat in silence as the sadness filled him when he saw others mourning. Suddenly he noticed not all of them were there,

“where is emily?”he asked

“i don’t know, i haven’t seen her since this noon” said Fiora. It caught everyone’s attention.

“we must immediately look for her” said Gilbert, “we’ll go in groups”

Quickly they divided themselves and went off on the search. Arwin, Gilbert and Erica were going together on the streets of the city. All the while arwin was lost in thoughts.

Arwin stopped and was simply staring at the ground.

(Arwin) the vault was ransacked, secrets of the guild, they knew where to find the pieces of the dragon soul, they ambushed Lukas at his apartment. We never heard of them till now and they knew so much of us already even though they never came in contact with us. Master killed, his apprentice the next possible leader of the guild, killed.

“what are you doing!?, you idiot we have to move”said gilbert

“No!, i know where she is!” he said

At the far west corner of the city where the water canals of the city meet with the main river body, boats of fishermen and other waterway travel and business were docked, but it was a late hour of night and the place was empty save for a dark figure that moved about in stealth.

The figure was completely covered and hooded, it approached the river bank and suddenly a stream of blue flame crossed it’s path. The figure turned around and saw Arwin, Gilbert and Erica.

“i know it’s you” said arwin, “ take off the hood, no use hiding your face now.”

The figure took off the hood and as he said, it was emily.

“took you long enough” she said. Arwin quickly moved towards her,

“Arwin wait!”said gilbert. Zeke appeared behind arwin and placed a barrier between them so that emily and arwin were inside and others were blocked outside of the barrier.

“what the hell do you think you are doing!?”said erica

“i am sorry, but this is my master’s wish” said Zeke

“arwin, i thought you would be the last person to ever figure it out” said emily, “a naive fool like you, still you somehow did it, how?”

“Arystar told us about Marco and Kevin, they were friends before and everyone in despair thought that is how Kevin knew so much” he said, “but Kevin killed Marco, their friendship had died long ago. Kevin knew about the vault, knew how to attack our guild and where to trap Marco in a one on one fight. The only way he would have known so much was through an informer among us.

First my doubt went towards the mages who left the guild after marco’s death. But when Lukas mentioned he had the black orb and we concluded that Kevin was after that as well, it gave me another chance to confirm my theory. When Lukas was ambushed and killed, it confirmed that the informer was not among them, but was among us, those who still remained in the guild.

And then you went missing, because your work here was done and you wanted to escape as quickly as possible”

“Bravo, Bravo”she said in a mocking way, “so are you expecting a candy now?”

Ariwn in a blink of an eye got close to her, hold her neck and lifted her up,

(Arwin) Zeke i want you to look in her mind and see if she has any relevant information.

“yes”, Emily screamed in pain as Zeke entered her mind and went through her memories and in a few moments it was over.

“she has no information about Kevin and his guild, she never even saw them, just one person Rowena, whom she fed the information” he said

“now i don’t need you alive anymore” said arwin and squeezed her neck

“No please, don’t” she spoke in low voice and she started to choke

“do you think i am killing you because of what happened to the guild......... you used me!”

“i helped you with your magic, i taught you....”she said

“you helped me to make a cover for yourself, so that i could be a witness that you were not involved in this. That night at the library, you took unusually long to bring food, i should have known then.......”

“yes!, i used you!, that night i went to signal the attack. I used you as a witness if it came to that. I used my charm magic on you, so that you could be easily persuaded by a pretty little girl, you were the perfect easy target for everyone to blame”

He loosed his grip and was silent for a moment.

“everyone blamed me........, everyone said that it was my fault that they died, that
i was responsible for destruction of the guild and even i started to believe it.” tears went down his eyes, “Every one held me responsible for it, while you were the one who was plotting this attack the whole time”, black lightning sparks appeared on his other hand covered in black lightning.

She grabbed on his hand, “no please, you don’t want to hurt me, stop!” she looked at him with mercy

“charm magic only works if the victim has any compassion in them, your charm and pretty face won’t save you”

“you insane!, you monster!”she yelled

“i lost my sanity a long time ago”he said, his eyes were filled with rage, she could sense the bloodlust in his aura.

He thrust his hand covered in lightning into her chest, blood sprayed on his face, he pierced her deeper, a puddle of red formed below her, his hand came out from her back with splash of blood. He saw her take a last breath cursing him. He pulled out his hand with another splash of red on his face, he threw the body in the river. The body floated up and the current carried her away and the water around her turned red.

Zeke took the barrier down, gilbert and Erica came storming to him,

“have you got shit filled in you skull!, we could have interrogated her and got information” said gilbert

“no use, i already looked in her mind, she held nothing useful us”said arwin
The three watched as the water current washed her body out of the city.

Later all were gathered at the warehouse and told what happened with emily,

“so what do we do now?” asked Fiora,

Arystar got up and walked toward the window gazing outside then he turned around and faced others, “now everything is finished, this guild is over” he said, he took out a metal made guild’s insignia and tossed it on the table.

“you are all free to go and do whatever you want”said arystar

“what of you?”asked Irena

“i am going to find Kevin and i am going to kill him, Marco entrusted me with a task and i am going to finish it” he said

One by one everyone tossed their guild’s insignia ornament on the table,

“you guys have no obligation to stick to this matter anymore, you don’t have to do this” he said

“He was our friend as much as he was yours” said Irena

“and you are going to need a team” said Gus

Arystar paused for moment to consider, “alright then, but we do this as individuals for our own reasons, this guild is no more”

“where do we start?” said Erica

“there is a place we need to go first and get some answers” said Arystar