16 A dangerous encounter

With a grim expression on my face, I contemplated on unleashing the power of my artifacts.

'Why are you just standing there? You know I can feel when someone carrying my mark is close'

-...? What mark?

'As always, I can not hide from you, my mistress'

A hollow voice echoed from the floor above and an Elyan with a weak and lifeless physique descended the stairs.

-To think I almost revealed myself because of that...

After relaxing my fist, I noticed that my fingernails had dug into my skin and blood was now dripping from my palm.

-So there is a limit to how rational one can be in the face of danger...

Averting my thoughts from how rashly I handled the situation, I turned my focus towards the creature that seemed to be one of the witch's servants.

His aura was flickering like a candle flame which is about to extinguish, briefly flaring up as if to alert the world that it was not dead.

The Elyan's sporadic grey fur and wrinkly skin were signs of an elderly.

With the help of a golden cane, he limbed towards the witch.

'P-please bestow upon me your power... I don't think I can last any longer', he fell on his knees and begged the witch.

'Hm? You should have plenty of energy left to sustain yourself, where did you use up all of my magic?'

'I am incredibly sorry, the Phantom Thief infiltrated the palace and the King demanded that I imprison him in order to extract information'

'Alas, the lowly thief's ability could only be countered by spatial magic, which in turn completely drained all the Spatial Authority of the mark that you have granted me'

-Is this the famous magician people glorify? What a ruse...

'You did well then, we can't have him growing suspicious about you now, not after all the time we dedicated to the success of our plan'

'Speaking of which, what is the progress of hypnotizing him?'

'Ah yes, I have successfully taken control of the majority of his subconsciousness and I believe that unless the order causes him any self-harm he will comply with it'

'We will be able to proceed to the next stage of our plan in approximately two days'

'Well done my loyal subject'

'You surely jest my queen, if not for your supply of life force this senile old man would be long dead by now'

'You certainly know your way with words, a fitting reward is in order'

The servant raised his palm revealing a complex tattoo that consisted of circles, triangles, and squares, inscribed in one another.

Afterwards, the woman, using her blood as paint and her nail as a brush, traced the numerous black lines until the original shapes were overlapped with an identical formation made from her blood.

Upon concentrating for a moment, she roused her aura and infused the mark with a small part of her power, reinvigorating the old Elyan's body, making his wrinkles disappear, and straightening his bent back.

'Ahhhh yes, I can never get used to this exhilarating sensation no matter how many times I experience it', the elderly Elyan who now looked 5 years younger exclaimed.

'Then I will be off, preparations are in order for the grand finale'

With that, she performed a waving gesture, and the space in front of her expanded and formed a portal.

To my surprise, the area on the other side of it seemed to be the top of a tall mountain.

And given that I had seen no mountains on the entire duration of my stay, I couldn't help but be amazed at the extent of her magic.

The scenery on the other side was astonishing, with the view of the crystal clear sky, the limitless horizon, and the numerous clouds below it.

With elegant walking and a malicious expression, the witch crossed the threshold that separated here from there, and in an instant, reached the other side.

Some seconds later, the space reverted back to its former state, and the link between the two locations seized to exist.

After drifting in my stream of thoughts, I came back to reality and was now in quite a dilemma.

-What should I do with the fake magician?

Torturing him to make him reveal information about Spirit Magic or immediately killing him before beginning to explore the rest of the Tower.

Those were my only choices.

Of course, sparing him and waiting for him to leave the tower was by no means a logical scenario, since not only would it be time-consuming but it would be similar to wasting the golden opportunity to assassinate a person that could possibly get in my way later on.

But subjugating him also held a lot of risks, since I lacked any information on the limits of his magic, and given Sven's utter defeat, I didn't have the confidence to go against him.

Therefore, with my aura being identical to the room's I waited for the moment the Elyan would turn his back to me and firmly grasped at the hilt of my sword.

Originally the distance between us was approximately 7 meters.

Upon reducing it to 4 meters... I rallied all my magi to further increase my speed and arm strength.

As I reached closer, the noise caused by my quick movements alerted the Elyan of my presence who, in turn, flinched as the blade managed to come in contact with his neck.

At that moment my movements came to a halt before being abruptly flung towards the wall.

The impact forced me to spew out any air I had in my lungs and the pain originating from my spine almost cause me to lose consciousness.

-How fast can he activate his mark!?

-And he only has a portion of the witch's magic!?

Undoubtedly being pushed back by his Spatial Authority, I was now against a not-so-incompetent magician...

'You coward! You dare to sneak up on the future leader of the Elyan Kingdom!?'

'I will make you pay for it with your puny life!'

Immediately healing my wounds with the Talisman of True Faith I quickly got up from the ground only to see his tattoo shining before aiming in my direction and closing his fist.

Without further ado and given how obliterating his previous attack was, I dodged to the side, only to feel the air next to me be compressed to smithereens.

The gravitational pull in the center of it was dragging me inside this transparent black hole.

With no proper friction to hold my body and no object to grab on to, I pulled out my chains and used their binding ability as a grappling hook to latch on to the nearby pillar.

With the magician concentrating on pulling me inside his force field and me struggling to not let go of the chains, we had arrived at a stalemate.

The question now was who would last longer, my grip strength or the Elyan's magic reserves.

To my knowledge, it would most likely be the latter.

But despite my inability to act, I was left with one means of attacking him, my one and only trump card.

Manipulating my aura, I sent strong waves of killing intent towards his direction, which in turn caused my opponent to disorientate.

His spatial control was hindered and his spell appeared to have broken.

~Bliah

He started vomiting.

Taking advantage of the seconds that it would take him to regain his composure I launched myself onto him and cut off his arm which held the tattoo and source of his power.

'Argh m-my arm!?'

With his supply of spirit energy being cut off, the creature in front of me was only a weak old Elyan.

I grabbed him by the neck and threw him on the ground.

Mounting on top of him I began repeatedly punching his face in an effort to break his spirit.

'S-stop... p-please!'

-About time...my fists began to hurt

Hearing those long-awaited words I stopped my barrage and grabbed him by the neck, applying a medium amount of pressure, as to hinder his breathing but not choke him.

Rousing my murderous aura and making my voice deeper I continued utilizing my makeshift interrogation tactic.

{Speech}"Tell me all about the magic you use and I will let you live"

'Do you take me for a fool!? Why would I believe anything you say?'

{Speech}"You see, I was ordered by my boss to get information on Spirit Magic"

{Speech}"But if I were to kill you the king would send his strongest guards after me"

{Speech}"So give me what I want unless you want to feel the same pain the hanged man experienced"

Visibly shaken by my words and unable to think properly, he yielded to my threats.

'P-please I only know a little about it'

'I will tell you everything I know, just don't k-kill me'

-Quite gullible aren't you?

As he began enumerating everything he knew about Spirit Magic I was left with more questions than answers.

According to him, he didn't know how it is possible to form a contract with a high ranking spirit but informed me that even an ordinary person could utilize spirit magic by borrowing the power of lesser spirits.

There existed two requirements in order to perform such a feat.

Knowledge of the pattern that corresponds to each spirit type and a suitable sacrifice for the ritual.

Then the spirit allows the conjurer to use its authority through a mark placed on him.

"How about the rune formations?"

{Speech}"Draw them for me and I will let you go"

'I a-am afraid up until now I have only used the mark my mistress has provided me so I haven't performed any kind of ritual'

'B-but I know how to create the [Lesser Explosion] rune that is used on the majority of the castle's hidden traps'

'This is the rune, it compresses energy and stores it inside the object you have drawn it. It activates shortly afterwards magi is supplied to it or if broken by an external force'

He scribbled the rune's pattern on a piece of paper and based on the detail of his drawing despite his apparent nervousness, he didn't seem to be fooling me.

'Y-you will let me go right? You promised!'

{Speech}"Yes, of course, let me help you get up"

~Stab

'B-but you!?'

With a sword penetrating his lung the Elyan looked at me with an expression full of agony and regret.

"From what I heard you should be long dead by now. I imagine the sacrifices required for extending your life didn't come cheap"

"You and your queen have the blood of innocents on you"

"And for what? To fulfill your selfish desires."

"You deserve to die!"

Struggling to talk the Elyan coughed blood and soon afterwards took his last breath.

His feeble aura began dispersing to the environment but, upon coming in contact with me, violently entered my body and resonated with my magi.

An intense headache that was incomparable to my usual migraines followed.

A few seconds later, my inner energy had stabilized and my aura slightly changed to a darker shade of blue.

As the crystal on my wrist began vibrating I searched inside it for answers regarding the strange phenomenon that happened to me.

[Similar energy signature to that of the host was absorbed. Related skill potency increased]

-Stats

Vitality: 1.1

Endurance: 1.6

Strength: 1.3

Agility: 2.8

Sense: 4.1

Magi: 2.9

Spiritual Power : 0

??? : 1.2%

-Skills (1/5)

[Devil's Speech (Rank E)]

Able to instill hypnotic suggestions to target's subconscious, effect increased on relaxed individuals.

Your arguments sound more plausible and others are more likely to believe what you say, effect increased on weak-minded individuals.

Able to alter your voice at will.

-Rift authority: Wanderer

[Communication]

...

"Hold on, he did mention that he had the ability to hypnotize people, did I somehow absorb his skill?"

"Hm the crystal said I absorbed his aura but it was clearly trying to dissipate into the environment before it came in contact with me"

"Could it be because we had similar skills?"

"And why has the percentage increased to 1.2% ?"

With unanswered questions filling my mind I chose to temporarily ignore them and focus on the task at hand.

Therefore, after passing by the body of the now-dead human, I headed to get Julius and Sven in order to proceed with our mission.

....