The Mage Paradox [BOOK THREE]

Chapter 5: A Venom situation

Harley stepped out of the portal, ready to see the beautiful city before him-

His jaw dropped. Then fear flooded him. Because the city looked exactly like the one in his visions! He stumbled back and landed on the pavement. Harley got up and looked around for any sign of the others.

But the city was empty and lifeless. He saw the city's condition and realized it was about to fall apart anytime now. Harley took his wand out of his top hat and held it like a sword, he didn't trust himself to use magic with his hands at this state.

Harley heard the sound of footsteps, he swiveled to the sound, fear taking hold of him until his wand emitted sparks. He heard a creak and looked up, the signboard was on its hinges and it fell, right for Harley.

The mage summoned a shield immediately. The signboard fell on the shield, but it was too heavy for Harley to keep himself from getting crushed.

Harley saw whirls of magic surround him as something stood on his head, something soft. he didn't know what it was, but it set up another shield for him. He couldn't hold up his own shield much longer and fell unconscious.

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Harith was pacing back and forth while biting his nails. "What are we gonna do?"

"Looks like those visions came true for Harley." Cyclops sighed. "All we need to do is wait for Diggie, maybe he can help."

"Will that take long?"

"No, because he's coming." Cyclops pointed in the direction where a big silver bird wearing an astrologist costume was skipping right towards their way.

"Hello. Cyclops," Diggie greeted. "I'm glad to see you all here, where's the fire?" Diggie's voice was high-pitched and he sounded like a girl.

"So, we took a portal using that bird of yours," Cyclops held up a mechanical bird. "And only one of us didn't end up here."

Diggie gave it a thought. "Maybe he didn't go inside?"

"That's not the thing, we wanted to go to Zlatan in the first place because Harley keeps having visions of Zlatan in a bad shape and somebody murdering people," Harith said anxiously. "And now he's gone."

Diggie didn't respond but sat on a cafe table and a waitress came by.

"Your order?" she asked.

Diggie shook his head. "I'm sitting here for a bit, something is quite urgent right now,"

"Well, if you're not ordering, you shouldn't sit here."

"Didn't I say there is a crisis?"

"I'm sorry, sir. But you must leave."

Diggie opened his beak to argue further but Cyclops stopped him. "Maybe you should just sit on this one," Cyclops took out a metal suitcase and it transformed into a metal chair with a metal table.

The owl got out of the cafe seat and shot a dirty look to the waitress then sat on the metal chair. He took out a special mechanical bird and sat it on the table. "Alastor, show me the coordinates on where is Harley Vance of the Vance household, royal, blah blah blah."

The bird squeaked and chimed a little, before showing a hologram of all the possible dimensions. "The person who mentioned just now is in Zlatan."

Diggie was perplexed. "Coordinated of where I am now?"

The bird named Alastor squeaked and chimed then showed a hologram of where Diggie's face popped up. "You are in Zlatan."

Now Diggie was baffled. "Coordinates...?"