Guardians Of The Arcane Chronicles

Chapter 11: And Then There Was Light

Gaius spent the whole week poring over the endless tomes in President Benedictus' personal library. Given normal circumstances, he would be completely beside himself with delight to devour the buffet of arcane knowledge displayed so enticingly in front of him.

But not this time.

The Sorcerer visited the library every day with only urgency in his eyes, intent to finish the previous day's book and move on to the next. He was unusually worried for a little girl that he had never met before, even though he had already been assigned a more crucial mission from a much more important person.

Can't believe I'm using True Vision for something like this.

Arcani filled Gaius' eyes as he scanned the library, searching for the book that would most probably help his cause. The magic guided his vision and landed on a thick book that read 'History Of Arcani'.

Confusion flooded the boy. Why would a history book be relevant to his mission? Gaius shrugged, putting common sense aside as usual and flipped the tome open.

He squinted. Not even True Vision could decipher the numerous scrawlings and strikethroughs over the printed text. Whoever vandalised this book clearly did not agree with the author. A familiar name caught his eyes.

"General Theodore Faustus, the first Warlock and... original magi?" Gaius muttered to himself. Social Studies had taught him that General Theodore was merely a heroic figure who led a vastly undersized army to a one-sided battle and still won. But arcani was discovered years before his rise to power. Why did the handwritten scribbles claim that he was the founder of magic?

The boy flipped the pages, hastily reading through an extremely abridged version of history about how the General's betrayal of his meta friend gave rise to magi-kind via a demonic being named 'Abaddon'. Gaius reached the end of the printed text quickly, and found himself reading an entirely handwritten continuation of the story.

"-Abaddon, growing ever more powerful, continued to demand more and more inhumane sacrifices from him. The general knew that he would not be able to meet its demands, and magi-kind would eventually be crushed under the weight of his sins. Working secretly with the most powerful magis in Surone, they inscribed a counter spell drawing on the collective power of the world's magi to seal away the demon permanently. The lengthy spell was embedded in three tomes-"

The word 'three' was underlined.

"-and sealed behind a wall of arcani embedded into the books. Fortunately, General Theodore and his advisors managed to complete the incantation right before Abaddon found out about their contingencies. A fierce battle ensued and the demon was finally banished from the plane of the world, but not before separating the tomes and scattering them. Should the three tomes be united once more, the final spell can be completed and Abaddon's gateway to Earth will be destroyed permanently."

"What?" Gaius sputtered out loud in the empty library. He shook his head in confusion again. Either the vandalizer had an extremely vivid imagination, or social studies class had been one big lie all along. He could not decide which was more implausible.

But this was the President's personal library, which meant only he should have had access to the books in it. Gaius' eyes narrowed in suspicion. What exactly was the President's intentions with the spellcraft? Could the three tomes in that story be the same three tomes that he was seeking? And what have these spellcrafts got to do with Titus?

Gaius slammed the book shut before the multitude of questions building up in his mind crushed him. He checked his phone once more; Benedictus had not yet contacted him. He still had time.