The room was silent as in the open door, Mattius stood dumbfounded at the sight of Darius and the witch chatting to his sister at one of the tables.

“Oh, Mat! You’re back already!” she exclaimed bringing Darius’ attention to the man.

He kept a straight face as he thought: “This is awkward…”

Darius cleared his throat.

“Ah, yes, well – I think I’m going to go head to bed, I’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow,” Darius said getting off his chair and marching up to his room, it was a two-bed room rented out by the witch since Darius was still broke.

“Yeah, it’s pretty late,” Emily remarked, Mattius always returned from the college late at night.

“E-Emily… who are these people?” asked Mattius trying his best to keep a straight face.

“I ran into them earlier today, no inn let them stay so I offered them a room for two gold!” she explained.

“I see…” Mattius sighed, his eyes focusing on the wolfman heading up the stairs to his room.

“Not to mention they kind of protected the inn earlier!” she added.

Mattius looked to his sister.

“What? What happened?” he asked.

“Some group of thugs came into the inn demanding gold, I thought they’d know we’re not exactly rich, running a business out here,” Emily sighed.

“Anyway, that wolfman absolutely wrecked one of them! You should have seen it!”

“And thus Darius’ fan club grows…” thought the witch.

Mattius breathed a sigh as he entered the inn, closing the door behind him.

“Isn’t that a coincidence…” Mattius remarked suspiciously.

As Darius entered his room he glanced back and saw Mattius looking directly at him with a menacing stare.

When inside, the wolfman headed straight into bed, he always slept with his sword on his side in case the mage tried to make a move at night.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, Darius heard a knock on the door to his room.

“The witch wouldn’t knock…” Darius thought.

“Yes?” he asked.

The door creaked open revealing Mattius, his expression serious.

“We need to talk,”

Darius nodded.

The mage stepped into the room and closed the window, pulling the curtains closed.

“What the hell do you want?” he asked.

Darius got out of bed and cracked his neck.

“You know what I want,” he replied.

Mattius frowned, “You can’t expect me to put my neck out on the line for your suicidal mission!”

Darius gritted his teeth.

“It’s more possible than you think…” he continued.

Not quite convinced, Mattius squinted as he looked at the wolfman for any sigh of magic energy or enchanted equipment.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I can’t say it here, not where they could hear us,” Darius gestured towards the window.

Mattius breathed a sigh.

“Fine, I know where we can speak freely…” he remarked.

With a snap of his fingers he transported Darius and himself into a room of stone bricks, it looked a little like a boiler room.

“Where are we?” asked Darius.

“We’re below the college… an abandoned, walled-off facility, I’ve turned it into a lab of sorts,” he explained.

Mattius clapped his hands as lights came on around the room revealing books and journals

He turned to Darius giving him an expecting look.

“So, what did you mean earlier?” he asked.

Darius breathed a sigh.

“We were offered help,” he explained.

“Help? By who?”

“The god of despair, Thal…” Darius explained causing a chill to run down Mattius’ spine.

“You can’t be serious…” Mattius was in shock, the gods never use such tactics to defeat heretics.

“Of course, I can’t bring myself to trust one of them, so I declined… but he did say I could call for him should I change my mind,” Darius explained.

Mattius was breathing heavily.

“That… might work…” Mattius said under his breath.

Darius looked at him surprised, “What might work?”

Mattius’ expression grew even more serious.

“What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room!” he warned.

Darius nodded.

With a snap of his fingers, the books around the room came to life.

“What the hell!?” Darius jumped back.

“Are you an illusionist?!” he asked.

“It’s no illusion,” he replied.

“I’ve transferred the lives of a few birds into these books,” he explained.

Some of the heavier books lay on the ground, unable to fly.

“This is a new school of magic, I call it world-and-soul magic,” Mattius explained.

“A new school of magic?!” Darius gasped.

“A whole new class, even!”

Mattius nodded.

“With that sort of power, you could-!” Darius was cut off by Mattius.

“Yes, I could trap a god in a rock and then shatter said rock, but I doubt I could get anywhere further than that before all of Arlepia would be wiped off the map in retaliation,” Mattius replied.

“I’ve been planning this for years, perfecting my magic but no matter what I do, it seems to manifest in specific ways…” he sighed.

“I’m no master of the arcane, but creating a new school of magic is incredible enough as it is…”

Mattius breathed a sigh.

“The more I study this new magic, the more I feel like I’m not creating but, but rather uncovering it…”

“Like I’m an explorer finding forbidden treasures,”

Darius wasn’t sure how to reply.

“Wait, you’re planning to kill the gods too?!” Darius demanded.

“Why did you refuse to join us then!?”

Mattius gritted his teeth, “Because I’m not like you or the lich!”

“Lich?” thought Darius.

“Tell me, do either of you have a family?”

“Close friends?”

“A town you call home?”

Darius couldn’t speak for the witch, but he was fairly certain her reply would be the same as his.

“No…”

“Exactly!” he exclaimed.

Mattius walked over to a large book and flipped through the pages, “I’ve been collecting info on the gods, travelling the world under false pretences of teaching magic to collect information on their abilities…”

“Darby, the god of nature,”

“Delirax, the god of raids and dungeons,”

“Tynihart, the god of item-creation,”

“Thal, the god of despair,”

He named off ever one of the twelve gods,

“I’ve been planning every step of my rebellion for years, never letting a single ill thought of the gods slip, only for you two to appear, screaming, asking me in broad daylight for help killing the gods!”

Mattius placed his head in his hands.

“What if we get killed for merely talking about it!? What if this entire city is destroyed?!” he asked.

“I need to take Emily and leave… I’ll take a break for my research and-” this time Darius interrupted Mattius’ ramblings.

“If the gods wanted you dead, leaving a city won’t save you, the paladins will come after you like they came after me and the witch!”

Mattius hung his head low.

“I know…”

“I feel an AOE world-and-soul trap spell is impossible… I thought about going off and taking at least one of those bastards down with me…” Mattius admitted.

Darius breathed a sigh.

“I’ve read the index; you’re going to die within a month…” Darius remarked.

“Still, I only have a week, and you should have seen how I die!” He forced a laugh.

“Congratulations on being on the first page of the index by the way, allegedly you’re the most important essential NPC…” Darius added.

Mattius remained silent.

“A month?”

Darius nodded.

“And what of my town?” he asked in a panicked tone.

“It didn’t say…” Darius replied.

The room went quiet once more.

“If you join me and the witch, perhaps we’ll stand a chance!” Darius explained.

Mattius remained silent as Darius extended a hand towards him.

It took a few seconds but Mattius shook Darius’ hand.

“Alright… If I only have a month left… I can’t afford to waste time…”