/Author's Note

I'm officially back! Sorry about the long wait, I've been settling into my new job. I should be back to regular releases for WA, Age of the mad gods, however is still in teaser mode and will not have chapters come out very often.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Chapter 15:

[Serendar Fort, Outside of Eben]

The woman laid on the single bed, staring at the empty wall.

“How long had it been?” she wondered.

When she was first thrown into the cell she spent every moment searching for some weak point, attempting to escape.

But as the days dragged on and hope began to fade time started to blend together.

At times it felt like she had lived her whole life in that cell, many of her memories fading away.

But at other times she recalled her most important memories it felt as if it were only yesterday that she was free and happy.

She wished she could go back to those days, those days when she had adventured across the continent with her partner by her side.

As her thoughts wandered off into her memories there was a change, quiet footsteps approached the door to the cell.

The lock disengaged, the door swung open, and in walked her captor carrying a large burlap sack.

The man roughly said, “Here’s your new roommate.” Then he closed and relocked the door.

After his footsteps faded away the woman approached the sack lying on the floor.

Inside was a young girl bound, and unconscious.

She had long brown hair and a face with average looks.

The woman untied her and laid her on the bed, then sat next to her waiting for her to regain consciousness.

-----Christy’s Pov-----

She opened her eyes slowly and began examining the space around her.

At first glance she could tell that it was not somewhere she was accustomed to sleeping.

The ceiling was a rough, worn stone with the occasional patch of moss adorning its surface.

Taking a deep breath she noticed that the air had a dank and somewhat stale feeling to it.

This led her to conclude that she must be deep underground somewhere.

However, she was currently lying on some form of bed so it wasn’t one of the caves that she would search for alchemy ingredients in.

Sitting up, she noticed two things.

The first was that at the far end of the small cave she was in was a large barred door.

She alluded from this that she had been taken prisoner and was currently in an underground cell.

The second thing she noticed was that at the side of her bed was a woman in her thirties.

The woman had long blonde hair that nearly reached her waist, her skin was smooth and pale, she had pointed elvish ears, and she was wearing a fine robe which was the trademark of a magician.

All in all, she could be called a peerless beauty.

However, her beauty was marred by her time spent in this cell.

Her blonde hair was caked with dirt and dried blood, her skin had been scarred in multiple places, and her robe stained.

How long had this woman been trapped down here she wondered.

Christy reached out her hand and gently shook the woman to wake her.

“Heh?!?” The woman bolted upright in surprise.

After seeing who had woken her the woman calmed down and spoke.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Are you hurt anywhere?”

Christy shook her head, “No I’m not injured. We seem to be imprisoned underground, do you know where we are?”

The woman replied, “Oh, yes, we are in a dungeon beneath Serendar fort.”

Christy’s face showed surprise as she mumbled, “Serendar fort… that’s outside of Eben… What am I doing imprisoned here?

The woman spoke up again and asked, “What is your name?”

Christy turned away from her thoughts and answered, “Its Christy, what’s yours?”

“My name is Lyria Celis, but you can just call me Lyria.” [Note: pronounced Leer-e-uh Sell-iss]

“You have a very beautiful name, it’s fitting for an elf like you.” Christy replied with a smile.

“So you noticed I am an elf? Between that and how you knew we were underground earlier you seem to be a very observant girl.” Lyria replied.

“Well I am an alchemist’s apprentice after all, we tend to be observant people.” Christy replied with a laugh.

A worried look ran across Lyria’s face.

“You said you’re an alchemist’s apprentice? What are you doing imprisoned down here?”

Contemplating, Christy replied, “I have no clue. In the first place, last I remember, I wasn’t even anywhere near Eben. And I don’t remember doing anything that would get me thrown in a cell.”

After pausing to contemplate Christy spoke again, “Thinking about it now, you said we are outside of Eben, right? I heard recently that my master had taken a trip to Eben because of some incident, perhaps this has something to do with it.”

Lyria responded with a look of concern, “That may be so, perhaps your master did something to anger the lord of this fort and he took you to get back at them…”

Lyria trailed off and a venomous look of hatred distorted her beautiful face and she spat out, “Lord Renthar… that bastard… I will make him wish he could die!”

“I’m assuming this Lord Renthar is our captor?” Christy questioned.

“Aye, in terms of political power Lord Renthar is nothing more than a speck to the rest of the kingdom, but unfortunately here in Eben he is a major player because he is in control of the fort we are now incarcerated under, fort Serendar.” Lyria replied.

After taking a few seconds to put together the whole situation in her head Christy inquired, “I understand that I may be here because of my master, but why are you here Lyria?”

Lyria replied, “I’m like you, I’m imprisoned here as a hostage so that my husband will work for Lord Renthar. My husband Fels and I are part of a famous mercenary team. Fels is known as the unyielding swordsman and I am embarrassingly called the maiden of ten thousand spells. Ugh, it’s so frustrating! No matter how many times I told them to stop calling me that they just kept spreading it around! *Cough* getting back to the point. The despicable Lord Renthar “hired” us to take care of a “monster infestation” underneath Fort Serendar. However as we continued deeper and deeper in the passageways under the fort there seemed to be no end to them. Finally we ended up in the deepest room when suddenly from behind us came a swarm of monsters. We fought for a while and seemingly took care of them easily until I realized that I had exhausted all my mana in the fight. I collapsed and suddenly a group of thugs rushed out of a side passage and grabbed me. Just as I had almost lost consciousness I heard Lord Renthar tell Fels to do what he said or else I would die. The next thing I knew I was here in this cell.”

After Lyria finished recounting her story, Christy asked, “You said you are a well-known spellcaster right? How come you can’t use magic to get out of this cell?”

Lyria pointed at the walls and said, “These walls are coated with a substance made with mana crystals, when ambient mana comes near them it gets absorbed. Because of this I haven’t been able to recover any mana during my time spent here.”

“Mana crystals huh?” Christy mumbled and then a wide grin appeared on her face. “I know how we can escape!”

Lyria’s face filled with shock, “Escape?!? How?!?”

Christy unbuttoned her outer robe revealing small inner pockets. “That Lord Renthar is pretty stupid, just because I’m a young girl that knows neither spellcraft nor blade doesn’t mean I am helpless. We alchemists are known for being smart, why would we go around without the tools of our trade?”

In the small inner pockets Lyria could see various alchemical ingredients in small quantities and a small flask.

“With these.” Christy said “I can make you a potion that will restore some mana to you, and Lord Renthar graciously provided the final ingredient, mana crystals!”

[Cabin, outside of Berrik}

Alric sat outside the cabin in deep contemplation.

The battle with Fels and his subsequent defeat kept replaying in his mind.

“Since we’re going to rescue Christy I may have to fight him again.” Alric thought to himself.

“It’s true, in that battle I just charged in without thinking striking as if I was a wild animal. But that wasn’t the only reason for my defeat. Looking back the truth is I was holding back, afraid that if I were to truly go all out I would inevitably end up killing him. This next time will be different, I can’t let those I care about suffer because I hesitate to take a life. This time I will go all out.”

Having gathered his determination Alric called Meredith over.

“Meredith it’s time, please teach me the basic spells for fire, water, earth, and air.”

Meredith taught the spells to Alric and he began to familiarize himself with them.

Using his ability Alric began to analyze the effects of each spell.

In the original form of the fire spell mana is used to directly bring forth a flame.

After analyzing it however Alric was able to use his mana to directly manipulate heat.

This was a large improvement because instead of simply throwing a little bit of fire Alric was now able to heat and cool anything at will.

Basic Water magic simply manipulated water.

Alric was able to expand on its principles to manipulate any matter in a liquid state.

Earth magic was similar to water magic, it manipulated earth and rocks.

Alric turned it into the ability to manipulate materials in a solid state

Air magic was actually the opposite it simply grabbed the myriad gasses in the atmosphere and pushed them around.

Alric used it to learn how to manipulate individual gasses such as oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor.

Solids, liquids, gasses, and heat.

Using these four principles Alric began to design suitable magic.

Using the manipulation of heat and gasses Alric created a magic that would produce a blade of superheated air which he called Furnace Blades.

This would be used as a close combat spell.

Using gasses and solids he created a magic to tie down and disorient an enemy, a small tornado filled with flying sand called Erosion Vortex

Using heat and liquids he made a spell that would use heat to generate magma and manipulate the magma into a wave to attack multiple enemies.

He called that spell Mantle Tsunami.

The final spell he created used liquids, gasses, heat, and tier 1 magic to create an explosion.

First water vapor, liquid water, oxygen, and hydrogen would all be gathered together.

Then using tier 1 magic the molecular bonds would be broken.

Finally it would be heated, causing a hydrogen explosion.

This magic was designed as an anti-material, anti-armor spell and it was named Hydrogen Detonation.

After finishing the development of his magic Alric called over Meredith and Catherine.

“I’ve finished creating the spells I will be using when I go to rescue Christy, would you like to see a demonstration?” Alric said to the pair.

Surprised Meredith said, “You really created your own spells? If so how could I miss seeing them!”

Alric laughed and got some meat from the cabin.

“This is my first spell, it’s called Furnace Blades.”

Alric released his mana and the air in front of his hand began shimmering in a vague sword shape.

He tossed the meat into the air and swung his arm.

With a loud noise the meat was instantly bisected.

The two halves fell on the ground and the place where it was cut was cooked and steaming.

From behind him Alric heard two small gasps, but he continued on.

“My second spell is called Erosion Vortex.”

He activated his mana and a small tornado filled with sand flew out of his hand and sped across the field flinging up anything in its path.

After activating this spell Alric heard Catherine let out a faint woah.

“The third spell is called Mantle Tsunami, for this one you’ll want to take a step back.” Alric warned.

He released a large amount of mana and a ten foot by four foot section of ground quickly heated up until it became lava then rose up and surged forward in a wave leaving destruction in its wake.

Alric quickly used heat magic to cool down the lava and surroundings to prevent a fire from being started.

This time after he finished he didn’t hear anything.

“I saved the best for last, this is called Hydrogen Detonation.”

Alric released his mana and for a split second an orb appeared at the edge of the forest then suddenly there was a massive explosion knocking down all the trees in a twenty foot radius.

Finished showing off all his spells Alric turned to look at his two companions for the first time.

Catherine and Meredith were standing there staring blankly at him, slack jawed.

Meredith was the first to come out of it and began to struggle to speak, “W-ww-what was that?? This morning I gave you four beginner level spells and by this afternoon you actually created two master level and two forbidden level spells?!?!?”

“Ah, I guess so I just used my knowledge of chemistry and physics with the spells you gave me to create these more powerful spells.” Alric explained.

“Chemistry… Physics…” Meredith mumbled “Alright I’ve decided! Please make me your disciple and teach me these chemistry and physics!!”

Alric thought to himself for a moment then replied, “That actually isn’t a bad idea, but first let’s go save Christy!”

[Fort Serendar Dungeon]

Lyria drank the potion and a small amount of mana flooded into her body.

“It’s not much but I should be able to open the door and knock out any guards.” Lyria said to Christy.

“Let’s do this!” Christy exclaimed.

Lyria walked to the cell door and put her hand on the locking mechanism.

Chanting a spell under her breath the cell door unlocked.

The duo left the cell and began to carefully head down the hallway.

After walking for a while however they began to feel something was up.

“Why are there no guards?” Lyria wondered out loud.

Just then they turned the corner and her question was answered for her.

The passageway opened up into a large cavern and sitting in the middle was an enormous armored beast.