17 Spell Casting

Raphaels lecture now done Dah went and began reviewing the spells that he had learned from Ral'guud.

[Silence] (rank one) when directed towards an individual will silence any noise made that emanates from within their throats.

[Darkness] (rank two) forms a darkness that light can not penetrate in areas selected by the caster.

[Death Shadow] (rank two) a spell that outlines the caster with swirling dark shadows, black feathers, and haunted skulls. Radiates an aura and image that induces fear.

[Teleportation] (rank three) intensive mana cost allows for travel to any location that he has seen.

Xarros and Catera have been helping teach him the concept of magic and how it ties in with soul absorption. Magic was relatively easy to perform, all it took was knowing the name of the spell and an understanding of how the spell worked. The spell didn't even have to be voiced, although verbalizing it could help novice spell casters visualize its impact and performance.

Xarros had explained that species didn't have a set limit for mana and mana use. Because, with practice, both of those could develop and grow. Only demons had the capability of infinite growth through soul submission. When a soul was submitted then the demons realm would become stronger which led to higher stores of mana and stronger magic ability.

A unique advantage that Dah wanted to capitalize on. As other species were mostly stuck with their predetermined magical capabilities Dah had infinite room to grow.

Dah had been practicing all of these spells he already knew, except for teleportation, on a minion that had volunteered for the job by the name of Rufus. When asked why he wanted to volunteer Rufus had simply explained in a guttural voice, "Impress mates, win honor."

Rufus was one of the elites within the minion army and had risen to a high status. He also was supposedly one of the more conversational minions although Dah's short exchanges with him could have been described as anything but.

Today Catera taught him a new spell to practice, Dark Bolt. [Dark Bolt] (rank three) shot a compressed line of darkness at a designated target. Dah had begun practicing at once shooting at multiple wooden dummies from across the courtyard. Despite absorbing the villagers souls and his own daily practice he could still only manage to utilize this spell three times before feeling exhausted.

'I really need to absorb more souls'

Upon examination of the wooden dummies he realized that the dark bolt had entered and exited cleanly. 'This is a piercing type spell'

Curious why he could only cast three of these spells before exhaustion as they didn't seem to be particularly destructive but rather refined and precise. Catera explained it was due to the ranking system.

The higher the rank of the spell the greater its mana cost and difficulty of use is. Spells are ranked from 1-5 with each rank in between getting consistently and exponentially more difficult to cast. Between the Kingdom of Anavier and the Territory of Kilore there were very few known individuals who could cast at rank three or four. Most of their armies would consist of rank one mages with a few rank twos. Those that could cast higher then rank two would typically be counted among the castle staff such as advisors or generals and rarely took to the battlefield unless there was some unprecedented need.

This of course made sense but Dah realized he didn't know any spells rank four or higher. He would have to ask Raphael about why this was later.

With his spell training complete Dah reflected on his day. It had been long and exhausting but the rewards of his training have already begun to show. Dah knew without a shadow of a doubt that next time he would be able to walk right into a village and slaughter everyone with not a single one of them escaping. Whether they split up and ran in separate directions or chose to stand and fight.

'But alas the next closest villages fall in the Kingdom of Anavir" these villages would be under guard by Anavir's armies as they were the closest affiliated villages. Among them would likely be many foot soldiers, cavalrymen, and mages.

Unfortunately Raphael did not have much information on these villages either as their spy network was limited. It seems that very few individuals would work them as they feared superstitious stories of demons taking over their country and stealing their souls.

'Which really isn't all that superstitious really' Dah thought. He would love to get stronger but he knew this physical and mental training could only take him so far.

'Eventually I will need to make more souls submit if I wish to become stronger'

Within the ranks of the Demon Lords army Lucius currently has the most souls submitted into his realm. Raphael when asked how many responded with the rough estimate of 1,600 souls. However when Dah had asked Lucius the young demon had smiled with a confident air and said 1,998 because he only counted in multiples of 666.

When considering to himself how many Dah would like a sinister smile had slowly appeared on his face.

'All of them'

…

Annabelle at peace with her decision had selected a long sword from the castles armory. She knew Dah would be back and headed to his chambers soon exhausted from the days work.

She wanted to catch him before he had gone to sleep. She would feel bad if she had to wake him up for what she was about to do.

Walking to his bed chamber with her weapon she hesitated outside the door. Knocking she waited patiently for his response.

She didn't wait long.

"Hello" Dah said opening the door with squinted eyes.

Annabelle thought sadly, 'I'm truly sorry it had to end this way.'

Her face twisting she raised her sword and took a step closer to Dah.

…