Stygian Mage

There were three girls and three boys in the group. The boys were wearing a white shirt, gray pants, and black shoes while the girls had a similar color set just with a shirt and a skirt. There was an insignia of the academy on the left side chest of their shirts which looked like a shield with the academy name inside.

………

As the group came closer, they also noticed Soren who was standing in front of the gate with a communicator in his hands. They looked at Soren with condescending eyes and checked him out from head to toe.

They had a really inflated ego right now as they were standing together with the daughter of the Liston Family; combining it with the fact that their own family had many connections to the Listons, it just made that inflated ego even bigger.

Given that, they obviously wouldn’t put a person standing outside the Liston Family’s mansion in their eyes.

Denise, at first, didn’t pay attention to Soren and was just going to enter the main gate but as they got closer, she got a good look at him. Suddenly, a bad memory went through her mind as she looked at Soren’s face. She had recognized him; he was the reason she was ‘humiliated’ in front of so many people at the dinner party. She had even gone to personally invite him but he…..

Rage started building up inside her as she looked at his face and kept remembering how her father had scolded her in front of so many people just because Soren decided to not show up.

Soren also looked at her as he felt her strong stare but the expression he had on his face was of confusion. He could tell that the girl in front of him was very angry at him but he had no idea why. He had completely forgotten the incident with her and was now trying his best to remember who she was.

“Master, please look at this.”

Soren heard Isaac’s voice and was shown the images of what had happened that day and how she had declared a command for him to be present at the dinner party.

“Ah!”

Soren suddenly made a surprised sound as he saw the recording of that day. But this simple ‘Ah’ sound which came from his mouth became the straw that broke Denise’s back.

She gnashed her teeth in rage and looked like she was going to eat the man standing in front of him.

The others also noticed the situation and couldn’t understand what was happening. Marie, the girl who was talking before, looked at Denise’s face which looked like it would burst from anger and then she glanced at the young man standing in front of them.

She quickly made some conjectures as she looked at them and then stepped forward.

“What’s your name?”

She looked at Soren with scornful eyes and asked in an arrogant manner. Soren was still looking at Denise when he heard her voice. He then took a look at Marie who was asking the question. He didn’t have time to get involved in some childish stuff like showing each other down, so he decided to just ignore her and walk away.

“She is asking you something. Are you going to answer by your own or should we get involved?”

One of the boys, Boyd stepped forward and said in a threatening voice. He stared at Soren in a condescending manner and slowly started emanating the pressure of a Layer-4 Initiator.

Soren didn’t even notice him and just tried to sidestep and go on his way but….

“STOP!!”

A loud voice resounded in the air as he had taken his first step. Everyone looked at the source of the voice with some surprise and shock; the owner of the voice was Denise.

She looked at Soren with disdain in her eyes as she saw him walking away.

She sneered and said, “Where do you think you are going?”

Soren furrowed his brows upon her question but didn’t answer back. He tried to ignore her and the group as he started walking away. But as he had taken his third step…..

“DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO LEAVE?”

The moment he heard her voice and understood the meaning in her words….

“Ugh!! Ahhhh!!! ”

He felt a sudden pain as he bent forward clutching at his chest. His heart felt like it would burst out of his chest and he was also having trouble breathing as he gasped for air.

Somehow bearing the pain, he looked at the girl standing in front of him. Currently, she was looking down at him with her eyes filled with mockery and disdain.

Denise scoffed as she looked at the young man who was groaning in pain and gasping for breath but was still standing on his feet. The others also laughed mockingly as they already knew what was going on.

“KNEEL!”

Soren was trying to control his breathing when he suddenly heard Denise’s cold voice. He looked at her again without complying with the stupid order. But suddenly he felt like he was hit on his head by a hammer as he felt severe pain spreading through. His nose started bleeding and his eyes turned red. His vision also became slightly hazy as his heart felt like it was getting torn off by thorns that were lodged in it.

Soon, he couldn’t support himself and fell down on his knees.

He felt his pain suddenly decreasing as he went down. He gasped hard for air and started panting heavily; his forehead covered in sweat.

The others sneered and laughed as they looked down at him from a high position.

Marie, who had asked his name before, suddenly moved and….slapped his face. Although the slap didn’t have any power behind it, Soren still felt his ear ringing from the impact. He could have easily dodged it as her speed was nothing but very soon, he found himself unable to even move properly.

One of the boys, Hale suddenly moved forward and kicked Soren in the chest making him fall down flat on the ground.

Denise just kept looking at all this with mockery in her eyes.

With the pain still attacking him in waves, Soren tried to get up after getting kicked but as he tried to move.…

“DON’T….MOVE!!”

Soren suddenly stopped in his tracks as he heard the cold voice again. From the feeling he was getting, he could tell that if he tried to move this time, his heart would burst and he would die. He had already rejected her a few times and this seemed to be his limit.

One of the girls, Eve moved forward and came close to Soren who was still lying on the ground. She looked down at him as she put her right shoes on Soren’s chest with her sharp heel digging into his flesh, drawing blood.

Soren groaned from all the pain that was accumulated. He was bleeding from his nose, mouth, and even from his eyes right now. He couldn’t concentrate on the current situation as his body didn’t even listen to him. He could hazily hear Isaac’s worried voice in his mind but couldn’t understand what he was saying.

At last, he somehow focused his mind and looked at the current situation. But instead, all he saw was a shoe getting bigger which hit him hard on his face; his neck jerked to the left from the hard hit.

By this time, everyone from the group had gotten involved.

Denise was still looking down at the interesting scene playing out in front of her eyes. The two girls; Marie and Eve, and the three boys; Boyd, Dane, and Hale, kept ‘playing’ with Soren.

They hit him with whatever they could think of. They didn’t care if Soren was severely injured or even if he died; they were just having ‘fun’ right now.

Soren’s injuries slowly accumulated as they were, after all, Initiators with decent enough cultivation level. The girls and boys divided Soren like a playground; the girls went for Soren’s face as the boys aimed at his body.

Soren was completely immobile as he couldn’t even put up his hand to protect his head. He was already bleeding from different parts of his body and had multiple injuries.

Things escalated very quickly as Marie took out a knife from her bag and stabbed Soren in his stomach. The knife cut Soren’s muscle and flesh as it stabbed in deep. Blood spurted out of the wound but no one seemed to care; they just continued. One of the boys, Dane even went to the side of the path and grabbed a big stone.

Soren looked at him bringing the stone over and knew what was to happen but he was still unable to move; he could only groan in pain and despair.

He felt weak from his core. He realized the despair of someone else controlling your fate. One thought kept going through his mind: Weakness was a Sin. Only if he had enough strength, he could control his own fate as well as others. Although he knew he was still weak, it took this situation to make him see that clearly. He had felt the result of his sin firsthand today.

………

Soren saw the stone getting closer and could only laugh in self-mockery. He was so weak right now that he was unable to dodge what was to come.

“Ugh!!”

He felt the stone come down on his arm hard and breaking the bone. He writhed in pain lying on the ground; he also felt a little numb around his wound on the stomach. He wasn’t completely restricted to move now but he didn’t have enough strength to do so anymore.

The girls laughed in derision as they looked down at him writhing in pain while the boys took another shot at him. Suddenly, Marie readied her knife again. There was clear madness in her eyes as she stared at Soren on the ground.

“No one will complain about this much.” She had recently been scolded for an incident where she went overboard and had killed a subordiante’s family. She still remembered the scolding so she was trying to not go ‘overboard’ this time.

She lunged forward as she had this thought in her mind. She grabbed her knife hard and aimed at Soren’s eyes. Soren could clearly see the knife blade getting bigger and bigger in his eyes as it came closer.

He had regained some control over his body so he used all his strength to dodge this deadly attack as he moved his head to the side to avoid the incoming knife.

Blood spurted as the knife missed his eye but made a deep cut on the side of his forehead. Blood soon covered one side of Soren’s face as more of it flowed out from the deep cut. Half the world became red for him as blood got into his right eye.

“Tch”

Marie clicked her tongue as she saw the knife missing and pulled it back to strike again. Soren knew he was at his end now as he was unable to resist anymore.

“That’s enough!!!”

A loud voice came from inside the gate as it opened. The voice belonged to Faron who quickly walked out of the gate and reached the scene.

As he reached close, he was shocked to see what had happened. He looked down at Soren and was horrified by the extent of the injuries he had received.

Soren was an exceptional Spell Caster but that also meant that physically he was not strong. His stats were more focused towards his spell casting ability while his physical ability was only slightly better than an average human.

Faron knew how this group was. They had no restraint and with the backing of the Liston Family, they were pretty much untouchable; this made them even more audacious. These people were the friends of ‘Young Miss’ and had her at their backs. Their family also had connections with the Liston Family for a long time so they also had that as a support.

Faron had a higher standing in the Family so he could afford to go against the ‘Young miss’ sometimes but others who were weak….

………

Faron made them back off from Soren and then checked his injury properly.

“Call a Healer, NOW!!”

Faron gave orders to the guard standing at the gate. They were there the whole time and had watched the whole process with their own eyes. They had a smile on their faces the whole time as they saw the whole incident playing out. They had seen something similar many times now and couldn’t do anything anyway, so they might as well enjoy it; bearing this thought in mind, they witnessed the whole event.

After hearing Faron shout out the order, one of the guards quickly ran in while another guard came forward to give Faron a hand as he was trying to lift Soren up and move him inside the mansion.

Cough! Cough!

Soren coughed out some blood that had come to his throat and spit it to the side. He pushed aside Faron’s hands and refused his help. He strained himself and slowly got up. He looked quite unstable right now as he struggled to even stand straight.

He then took a deep breath to calm his emotions down. His chest pain and the headache had stopped by now and he was freely able to move his body; bloodied from injuries.

He looked at those people with calm and emotionless eyes. There was no rage in his expression, just cold detachment. He had already buried the rage he was feeling deep within him. He knew he was weak right now and losing himself in rage would be of no use here.

He was also completely powerless in front of them because of the Blood Contract, so getting lost in rage would only get him killed right now.

The law of the jungle prevailed here and he was not so naïve so as to think that he would always be the predator. Today’s events had once again made him realize that being weak was a sin. To control his own fate, he had to get stronger.

After coming to this world, his perception of everything around him was changing. His way of looking at things was shifting as he fought to survive here. His naivety was slowly getting erased and everything inside of him was changing. One day, when he would finish transforming and accept his darkness…..

……..

Soren stood there with numbness all over his body as he tried to stabilize his breath and moved his eyes to look at all those people’s faces: He slowly burnt their images in his mind.

They also looked back at Soren and sneered. They laughed at him mockingly, completely disregarding his cold look. In their eyes, he was just a slave of the Liston Family and they could do anything to him without anyone complaining about it.

The girls laughed at him with disdainful expression while boys gave him threatening looks. Marie gestured with sliding her hand across her neck to imply that she would slash his neck the next time with her knife.

Soren didn’t care for their laughs or their threats right now. He just moved his eyes from one person to another and finally looked at Denise who was standing at the side with a sneer on her face. He could see in her eyes that she saw him as nothing more than an insect; an insect that she could crush anytime.

She had always treated those who had signed the Blood Contract as her slaves. Of course, she couldn’t do as she pleased to those strong Initiators and those who had been in the family for a long time but Soren was just a worthless insect in her eyes; an insect which had dared to defy her orders.

She knew that he had become an Initiator only recently, so in her mind he was just a weak slave that she could control as she wished or crush if she wanted to.

Soren moved his eye away from her and finally looked at Faron who was asking him about his injuries and telling him that he had already called a Healer.

Soren smiled at Faron and said in a mocking manner.

“Liar”

Faron was shocked after suddenly hearing this word. At first, he had no idea what the hell Soren was talking about and thought that he must have hit his head hard. But suddenly, he remembered something and his expression turned ugly.

He remembered when he had contacted Soren and was making him sign the Blood Contract, Soren had made a statement; a statement which he had denied hard and was quite offended at.

‘So basically, become your servant’; this sentence rang in Faron’s mind as he thought back to what he had replied to Soren. He had said that they didn’t treat Initiators as servants and that Soren would have the same status as them when he joins the Family. But now, he didn’t have the courage to repeat those words.

That one word of Soren hit him hard, such that he could not retort it in anyway.

Soren walked away with unstable steps, completely covered in his own blood. He kept walking with no particular destination in his mind; just one step after another. He had already recovered from the backlash of the Blood Contract, so he casted his spell and froze the stab wound on his stomach to make it stop bleeding. It would slowly heal with time and even after the ice melts, it would at least not bleed. He also used his right arm to fix his left arm bone in place and froze it; he knew his arm would not heal like this but at least by doing this he could get some mobility back for now.

People stared at him on the streets and some pointed at him while talking amongst each other. Some had pity in their eyes; some had sympathy; some had scorn, while some were indifferent. He created a deep contrast with them as his body was full of injuries and was covered in his own blood.

………

Soren somehow walked back to his hotel and went inside. It had taken him quite a long time to walk back because of his unstable steps.

He went in but didn’t find Leah at the reception desk. The guy sitting at the desk was shocked as he had recognized Soren. He got up from his seat in a hurry and came forward to help Soren.

Soren rejected his help and just went up to his room. He locked the door as he went in and fell flat on the floor with his face down.

It had taken his all just to reach here. He had no strength left in him anymore. Even then, he used his only hand that was not broken to slowly drag himself towards the bed. He flipped over on the bed with his arms spread around as he looked at the familiar ceiling.

Isaac….what’s the extent of my injuries?

Isaac didn’t say anything and just opened Soren’s status for him to see for himself.

Light Soul Damage?

Although he had already expected it, he was still surprised to see that his soul was also damaged.

The reason for the damage to his soul was because he had gone against the Blood Contract; he had resisted the command given to him by someone who was blood related to the Liston Family. He had somewhat expected this when signing the Blood Contract but he didn’t think that he would be totally powerless against it.

Blood…Contract….

He stared at his status screen for a while and then closed it. He stared at the ceiling for some time with different thoughts going through his but soon, he closed his eyes and slept just like that. He was very tired and didn’t want to do anything right now, so he just slept. He decided to deal with the injuries the next day as they were not life threatening and he really wanted to sleep right now.

..………..

SLAP!!

A hard slapping sound resounded in the hall of the Liston Family Mansion. Denise stood there with shock in her eyes as she felt the burning sensation on her cheek.

A tall and burly man stood in front of her and looked at her with anger and disappointment in his eyes.

This man was none other than her father—Ervin Liston. He had heard the reports about what had happened outside the gate a while ago. He was already aware of the things that his daughter and her friends did but he never really cared. He let them do whatever they wanted as it never really affected his family in a big way but now….

Now, she had done something that could very well hinder the development of his family. He had paid a lot to the City-Guard Captain for the information about this ‘Traveler’. It had cost him much more than the others because he paid the Captain not only for the information itself but also to make him delay in selling it to the other Families and Organizations.

But now, all of his plans were on the verge of getting destroyed by his own daughter.

He slowly calmed himself down after hitting her and gently touched her face where the skin had turned red from the slap. He casted a simple spell which quickly removed her pain and soon, the skin again went back to perfect white.

“How was the damage?” Ervin asked.

“Mostly external wounds but should have some Soul damage.”

Faron replied to Ervin’s question.

Ervin nodded as he heard Faron’s answer. He turned around and sat on the big chair which was covered in red soft fur.

He then rubbed his forehead while thinking of a way to solve this problem.

“How far have you gone?”

He suddenly asked a question but it was neither aimed at Faron nor at Denise.

“I-It will take some more time, a-at least a few d-days.” Another person who was standing in the hall, answered back in a nervous manner.

“Keep it up. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, as long as it happens.”

“Y-Yes, Lord”

That person then bowed politely and stepped out of the hall with quick steps.

“What do you think, Faron?”

“…..It might be a little harder to gain his trust now, Sir”

“Ho…! And what makes you say that?”

Faron remembered the word that Soren had said before departing. Soren had only said one word and that too in a mocking manner but that had explained many things to Faron.

“Instinct….Sir”