'What… what the fuck just happened?' Null thought, frozen in shock.
The crouching figure casually tossed aside the severed head he was holding. The man with glasses adjusted the frames on his nose and said,
"Nice work, Raizen."
He then turned to the massive figure beside him.
"Alright, Valen. Time to get to work."
But Valen lifted one large finger and pointed upward at Null who was still trembling and unable to move properly.
"Yo, that kid is still moving.Is Raizen magic broken or Is he the one boss was talking about?" Valen asked, his deep voice echoing slightly under the frozen stillness.
"Interesting development," Kaelith the one with glasses spoke with joy. "Valen, capture him and bring him too."
Null's heartbeat spiked. At the word capture, his mind frantically scrambled for a plan to escape. But before he could even turn, Valen leaped upward with impossible strength and landed directly in front of him, to Null he felt like he had just bounced up to him.
"C'mon, kid," Valen said, stretching out a glowing hand. "Don't make this hard for both of us. Just surrender and make it easy."
But the glow around his hand flickered, sputtered and then vanished.
Valen stared at his palm, baffled, like something was supposed to happen but didn't, to confirm, he pointed toward the King and released a swirling ball of fire but Null instinctively jumped forward, shielding the King.
The fireball dissipated into nothingness before touching him.
Valen blinked.
"Yoooo, My magic just....How?"
Null stood before the King, chest heaving, sweat trickling down his face. His brief moment to escape was gone.
'Why did I choose to save this gluttonous bastard? Dosen't matter anyway , I don't think this guy is going to let me escape. Got to find a way how of this' he thought to himself
Valen lunged with a single swift punch. It connected cleanly.
Null's vision exploded into static as consciousness slipped away.
Valen caught the unconscious boy by the shirt and hopped down from the platform, landing softly as if the stone floor were made of rubber.
"Yo, Kaelith! You won't believe this, but none of my magical attacks worked on him!" Valen shouted.
Kaelith adjusted his glasses again, smiling with academic delight.
"Yes, indeed. He is, after all, the Devil's Curse… the boy with the ability to erase magic. Grab the rest of the children, and let's get going, shall we?"
☆☆☆
^^
Null's head rang painfully as he regained consciousness.
He groaned and shifted, realizing he was lying on cold stone. His wrists were bound tightly with a rope that burned against his skin.
Slowly, he pushed himself upright, trying to understand where he was.
The room was dim-lit only by a single floating magical lantern overhead. Its flickering light cast long, eerie shadows across the walls.
As the ringing in his ears faded, the sound of crying and shouting reached him.
Children's voices.
"The Royal Knight will soon be here,better let us go now and maybe they will spare you" shouted one of them arrogantly.
He turned his head to the right.
A group of students familiar faces , who were participants in the tournament were trembling inside a glowing cage. The bars weren't physical; they shimmered and pulsed like pure mana.
Null swallowed hard.
'That must be one of the intruder's spell' he thought
He looked around, trying to count everyone in the room.
"Thirteen,fourteen,fifte....."he muttered gently but when he turned to count the last figure, his breath caught, and a cold chill crawled down his spine.
In the far corner sat a tall, muscular, frighteningly calm young man.
He sat perfectly still, elbows resting on his knees, hood from his robe pulled low so his face couldn't be seen.
But his presence…
It felt like a monster pretending to be human.
Suffocating.
Null instinctively knew escaping with this guy here might be impossible.
His eyes darted upward.
A huge magical circle was carved into the wall.
And below him under his body another circle glowed faintly on the ground.
He panicked, breathing quick and sharp.
Were they about to be used in some ritual? He wondered.
Confused, as he struggled to understand, the hooded man finally spoke.
His voice was cold, distant, almost hollow,the kind that made the air feel colder.
"Don't you just hate everything in the world?"