The Prophecy

Chapter XV

A gentle breeze swept through the atrium and a calm, welcoming light enveloped the darkness, dispelling it. The fire from the torches went out. As the spirit advanced towards them, no one dared to move for an inch, their faces were almost as pale as the spirit, who smiled at them as if he was playing with them.

"Y-you are...", Madyx tried to mumble. He shivered as he had never shivered before, though the place wasn't all that cold.

"The spirit of Alarik of Scarborough. And also the spirit of Nixon", he replied.

"It's not possible... Nixon is upstairs in the director's office! He is alive."

"Yes he is. As you all are."

"I don't get it...", Kianna muttered. "How can he be alive and his spirit down here?"

"A spirit is the strength of someone's magic. We can all live without our spirits, we just cannot live without a soul. You don't have your spirits either."

"What does that mean?"

"Temples is right. They will have to unite the various variants of the prophecy and unravel it!"

"Prophecy?! I thought it was a legend!", Drayden exclaimed.

"A legend has to be cast by one of the elements of the Orders, as opposed to a prophecy. What I did many hundreds of years ago was to release the Lost Kingdom prophecy."

"But you... I mean... Nixon is an Oracle! He belongs to the Orders!"

"No."

The spirit smiled at them playfully and the five looked at each other confused by what he had just said. The breeze finally stopped and gave way to a sultry, hot atmosphere. The light intensified and the spirit hovered over the transmutation circle.

"Nixon's soul is, in fact, an animal soul. A soul, which gives him Oracle powers, but he is not a true Oracle. Not when he decided to give up his soul for another."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't remember... How could you? I was the last of us all to die. Back then, I made mistakes. I traded my soul to regain what I lost, but when I realized it, it was too late."

The spirit advanced to a fragment of the wall that was empty and stared at it as if contemplating a distant memory. He sighed and, turning back to the group that was watching him intently, continued:

"My real soul is in someone else's body. In the body of someone without spirit or soul."

"Nihiil..." muttered Zabinne. "Níh means no soul and illy means no spirit..."

"Exactly. Nihiil is the one who has no soul or spirit. He is the one who has nothing."

"I thought Nihiil's soul was a lost soul...," recalled June.

"And it is! My soul was lost when I tried to survive the consequences of my mistakes... It was only years later that it was found wandering the valleys of Scarborough, alone and sad...", the spirit stared at the ground as if redeeming itself from its mistakes .

"So how did Nihiil manage to live without a soul or spirit? How did he convince you to give him your soul?"

"I didn't give him my soul", he revealed. "At the time, I was desperate. I didn't want to accept my queen's death. I didn't want to believe I was losing my kingdom, because I was a coward and didn't fight. All I cared about was power, managing to increase Scarborough and create new wealth to make us glorious. But something more was needed. At one point, I felt my body reject my soul. So I looked in the books. I discovered an old scorcerer, who lived in Lumen. It gave me hope to survive the power of greed. It was he who gave me the soul of the fire fox, but the spirit was already cursed. Eventually, my true soul broke free from my body, lost itself in the valleys, and Scarborough eventually succumbed to darkness. When I was reborn, the spirit was forced to return to his grave."