VERGLAS: In The City Of Winds

Chapter 2: Magic

Add slowly woke up in a strange place, he rubbed his head and looked around. He couldn't remember getting into a building before the black stones buried him underneath. And certainly not covering himself up. He stood up slowly, rubbing his hip."Argh..."He felt a terrible pain, which is why he clenched his teeth tightly, he pulled his sweater partially up and saw a partially bloody gash, the surrounding skin turning purple.Add held onto his open wound as he looked around the building. It was beautifully decorated with gold and brown paint with several columns reaching to the ceiling, and in the center a jar of yellow crystals peeking out. Now Add knew where he was. He had somehow ended up in the Temple of Contracts. He slowly limped to the jar, step by step the demon came closer to the strange crystals, it did not take long even for a partially injured Add to get to the crystals and take a closer look at them. Curious, he picked up one of the yellow crystals.On his pale skin, he saw dark clusters forming, blacker than a night without stars or moon in the sky, small tentacles coming out of these clusters of dark mass. This dark mass slowly colored to the colors of a rainbow and then slowly to a golden yellow. It was as if earth magic was flowing through his body...Add dropped the crystal and fell to his knees while holding his right forearm in pain. The red amulet he wore around his neck lit up red, suddenly he felt the ground differently like it was moving. Add's pain slowly faded thanks to his amulet, thereupon he put his right hand on the ground and thought of creating a hole in the ground. Then his forearm shone again with a strong yellow glow. The earth magic shot through his arm into the ground and shifted the stones as if they could read his mind, this surprised Add greatly. Demons rarely get any elemental blessings, and now he had the ability to manipulate the earth.Add stayed in the same position for a moment, he had to process all this first. But just then the ground shifted again, but not by Add. 2 yellow crystals shot out of the ground and wrapped themselves around his arm and fused together. Add didn't have time to tear his hand away, it was so fast. He immediately looked to his left and right, searching for the culprit."I knew you would come.... And sorry about your job, but I had to make sure you got here".Spoke to the same man Add had met in the restaurant, throwing him a friendly smile as he walked towards Add."What do you mean?"Add turned to the stranger as the crystal shackle came off. Add immediately pulled his hand towards him and rubbed his wrist."Why did you HAVE to bring me here, and what did I see in that crystal?!"Add asked snappishly, giving the stranger an angry look. The man stopped and held up his empty hands-.
"Don't worry... I will explain everything to you, you, Add, are a chosen one."He spoke in a low voice, while he put his hands down again. His voice was still very calm but Add could tell he was serious. He felt a little uncomfortable, he just had more questions he wanted to answer."What do you mean?!"Add asked, his violet and red eyes fixed on the stranger."Your father... You saw the recording, didn't you?"He asked as he raised his finger and created a chair out of yellow crystals, Add nodded slowly and looked at him confused."Go ahead and take a seat. My name is Kree, guardian of this temple. Forgive my bad manners. I should have presented myself to you earlier by name."Add looked at Kree in confusion. I wonder why Kree knew so much weird stuff."Okay start explaining. Was Belial really my father and why was he killed?!"Add hissed at Kree, looking him straight in the eye. Kree, however, just looked down at him and grinned."Your father was powerful, and you are becoming more powerful. This man who killed your father was a madman. He thinks he's some kind of prophet of humanity. So I had to get you out of your current life. I want to send you on a journey, Unfortunately, I can't answer any more questions for you, but if you find this psychopath. Then this could change."Kree explained to him as he looked out the door."Can you try to manipulate the Earth?"Kree asked him, seeming to have taken an interest in Add. Add, however, didn't know what to do. He looked at his empty hands for a moment and then back at Kree, clueless"How would I manipulate the earth, I have no magic..."Replied Add, rubbing his face and showing Kree his sleeves."Do you see any elemental tattoos by any chance?!"Add asked him sarcastically. Kree rubbed his chin as he thought and looked at his earth tattoo, 3 mountains, 1 mountain was bigger than the others, but the smaller ones partially covered it. Kree then pointed to his chest after some thinking."It works like a sixth sense, kind of like breathing or seeing, you don't feel this extremely unless you overdo it. Take a deep breath and think about what you want to do with the earth. The rest is up to you. Using magic is a mixture of body and mind, so it will take movement to trigger the magic."Explained Kree with a small smile on his face. Add was funny when he thought of creating a crystal spike. He took a deep breath and filled his lungs as much as he could, closing his eyes to better imagine his creation from the element of stones and mountains. He then opened his eyes and felt a tingling sensation in his hands before he bent down and aggressively slapped his hands on the ground, the tingling quickly disappeared and the ground beneath them shook briefly before a whole row of golden crystal spikes shot out, all pointing wildly in different directions and one overlapping or even hitting the other. Kree eyed the crystals from his position before turning back to Add."Vine bent..."Fluttered Kree to himself."Say Add, can I ask you a question?""What?"Wondered Add as his arms returned, and he assumed a more relaxed, neutral appearance. He could partially trust Kree, after all, he'd just shown him how to manipulate Earth."Do you want to travel the world?"Add thought a bit, but nodded shortly after."Well, a boat to Alharih leaves from the harbor at sunset".Add searched for a window and looked up The ceiling was pure glassy crystal, Add could see the orange sky, the clouds slowly turning a dark purple that resembled his eye As the sun lies down to sleep, handing the spotlight to the moon. Add knew one thing right away. He didn't have much time. He jumped at Kree and grabbed at his top with both hands."Quick!!! TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHERE IS THE FASTEST WAY TO GET TO THE PORT!"Add demanded of him in a loud tone. Kree only gave an amused laugh and pointed his index finger to Add's right, where the wall magically formed a passage and steps directly down to the young demons.formed. Kree gave another amused laugh."Hahaha, you're welcome. Now hurry up. That's all I can do for you."Spoke to the temple guard. Add was so stressed at the moment that he didn't notice Kree limping down a flight of stairs all the way down the hill without any effort or extra movement stimulation. Add let go and took off running. He quickly pocketed his card as he exited the temple and the wall closed behind him again. He hurried as much as he could, focusing only on the golden-glowing stairs he was hurrying down. He looked out at the horizon and spotted a huge wooden ship in the far distance. It didn't seem to be moving, but he was sure that would change soon. He tried to hurry even more. Losing the rhythm now would be dangerous for Add and just thought of this made Add lose the rhythm and catch, fall, but the stairs disappeared and merged into a kind of giant slide. Add fell on this slide with his butt and got to the bottom of the mountain much faster now, where he could also catch the ships. He couldn't help but allow a wide grin.Kree had eased his way and saved his butt. He closed his eyes and let his smile disappear rather quickly. He gritted his teeth and thought of using the earth to speed himself up, holding his left hand back and thinking hard. But Add didn't think about exactly how it was going to work. The first thing that came to his mind was a shock wave of some kind that would give him a push.Add got his answer, however, not from the earth magic he had accidentally stolen, but from his other power. Turquoise power formed around his hand. Add stretched out his hand in fear. A ball of wind formed in his palm. Before he knew it, the ball shot to the ground just before Add hit the ground. A huge gust of wind suddenly pushed against Add and broke his fall. He was slightly thrown up again to a height of about two meters. He slammed his back on a sandy floor, he felt a numbing pain in his left arm and strong pressure in his chest from the explosion, but he was alive. He breathed in and out heavily and tried to recover a bit before trying to stand up. But his left arm simply buckled. It had taken too much damage. Add growled in anger and pain and managed to squat down without his arm, slowly making himself stand up. When the boy was back on his feet he looked around. He was not far from the ship. New motivation and strength flowed through him as he began to run towards the ship, gritting his teeth and running as fast as he could through the sand that shifted uncomfortably under his feet. The ship was already starting to leave when he made it to the deck and passed a guard who didn't even have time to react to him. The distance between Add and the cargo ship was already far too great for him to arrive, but he had to try. He tensed his legs and jumped at the last moment. Driven by his instincts, night-black tentacles formed around his left leg, pushing him even more off the ground and into the air, giving him the final push of jumping power he needed to get to the ship and grab onto the boards. Slowly Add climbed the fenced wooden planks onto the deck, but he only let part of his head peek out as the deck was still full of people. He had to duck almost immediately as one looked in his direction."Did you see that?" asked the crew member who had been looking in Add's direction."What now?! Are you seeing demons again like the last 5 times?" another deep voice sounded, it seemed to come from the captain. Add dared another look, but the crew member still had his gaze fixed on him. Add cursed softly before ducking again. He had alerted the others.
"DA! THERE! I SEE HIM!! I swear. If I'm lying, you can throw me off the boat!"He shouted as he saw Add for the second time now."Damn you-!"Hissed Add quietly who was holding onto the edge of the deck with only his fingertips so no one would see his hands."Alright, let's see."Sounded the captain slowly walking towards Add. He approached the end of the deck more and more and bent over. To the captain's surprise, he saw.... Nothing. Add had managed to quickly move away to the front of the ship, where he then quickly pulled himself onto the ship's deck. The commotion the crewman created drew all the workers away from their well-distributed posts. As soon as Add pulled himself onto the ship he took cover and rounded the corner to see the captain kick his crewman's butt and kick him off the deck just as he had promised."Pfft- moron."Add commented amusedly before backing away, the show was over which meant soon his chances of hiding in the ship would be zero. He looked to his left where he spotted a wooden staircase. He could already hear footsteps coming in his direction, so he ran down the stairs. There he reached a wooden corridor full of doors with various inscriptions. Add looked at the signs, but he could not read it. He was illiterate, Baalor had no schools and almost no one on this godforsaken island could read. Add let out an annoyed sigh, he was running out of time, he turned around once and decided to go into the door to his right. He ran inside and slammed the door shut and locked it, to check that it was closed he tried to open it again. But it did not open.Add: "Good..."he said to himself and held both of his hands on his hips. But suddenly he felt a blow against the back of his head, Add hissed in pain before he slumped to the ground and sat on his knees supporting himself with his hands, he slowly turned around and saw the figure of a man before his vision was obscured by the foot he was kicked in the face with right after.The blow hit him directly on the nose and Add took his left hand and covered his nose and mouth, he felt a sharp pain in his head, part of the blood dripped between his fingers on his clothes, he looked up and made out the appearance of the man, he was very broad and muscular build, compared to Add's pale skin he was very tanned. The attacker gritted his dirty yellow teeth and clenched his fists. His facial expression was not at all pleased, with his bushy eyebrows and bared teeth he formed a very angry look. Add saw him lunge and was about to punch him again, but Add took his hand off his face and pushed himself off the wooden wall with both hands while pulling his head in. He only managed to dodge his punch by a hair's breadth. It hit part of the wooden wall and damaged it, sending large splinters of wood into his hand. This gave Add time to stand up. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He imagined exactly how he will pierce this man with a crystal point before dropping his hand on the wooden floor and nothing happened. He just looked dumbfounded at his attacker who now already turned around and punched him with his healed hand, that's why Add cashed one on his mouth, he staggered back slightly from daze and leaned on the wall on the other side of the room, he grabbed his lip as he felt a burning pain, he looked at his left hand and saw a small amount of blood.Add: "Tch-...Enough!"Add hissed in fury, he clenched his fists and gave his attacker a cold look before running at him and trying to hit him with his right hand. As Add was already hoping to throw a good punch he felt his whole movement interrupted, his fist was caught, his attacker grinned at him stupidly as Add looked up, but he wasn't surprised. He's not going to take another punch and gritted his teeth and clenched his left fist, lunging and giving his attacker one right on his right eye."ARGH! TEMPEST SHALL CURSE YOU!"Add's attacker shouted angrily, but Add was not satisfied with that, his attacker was bleeding from the eyes, but Add did not notice it, neither did he notice the dark mass that had formed around his hand as he continued to thrash his face with his left, with just one blow the man fell to the floor unconscious. Add took his hand back as he began to breathe heavily, leaning towards the wall Add slowly plopped down on the floor with his butt, his white coat now stained red, in front of him was the unconscious body of his attacker, it looked like Add had broken his nose. Add grabbed the amulet without taking his eyes off the Man, he felt over the red stoneAdd: "No damage..."Murmured the demon in relief, he let out a big sigh before immediately falling silent, foot steps. He heard footsteps, and lots of them too. They got louder and louder. Someone was coming to his cabin! Add was out of breath and could barely move from exhaustion and pain. He could only stare at the door and wait.