Tales of Astora: Legacy

Chapter 4: Magnus

Chapter 4: Magnus

"Let us pray.... Let us sing in communion and feast upon the wretched fiends.

Blasphemous murderers. Accursed savages.

Atonement for the wretches.

By the wrath of the Great Mother.

Listen to the baleful chant.

Let us pray.... Let us weep for their sins, for their transgression.

Let us weep for us, for our salvation.

For with blood it began and it shall end with blood on our hands.

We are the sword of the Ragna.

For we shall give judgement to the wicked.

Let us free them of their villainous ways.

Mercy for the poor, guiltless children."

A tall man was kneeling down in front of a stone monolith. The man was in his forties, at least in appearance. He had a humanoid figure but with oddly elongated limbs. Wearing a noble attire, he could be confused for someone of royalty if not for his arms, when extended, practically reached his knees with their sharp nails, almost like claws. Yet the most striking feature of this man was the pair of huge bat-like wings on his backs. It was natural. After all the man was a demon. A demon who was praying.

With his head down and his hands grasping each other in a praying gesture, he was muttering an unusual chant. It was difficult to distinct whether he was praying for himself or instead cursing someone else. The chant itself was quite eerie. It was unusual to curse and at the same time weep for our enemies.

"How odd! You didn't quite strike me as a religious man, Mephisto." A voice spoke from the corner of the room. But Mephisto did not turn back to see who it was. In fact he already knew the answer.

"Let's just say that's a good luck chant." The man looked at the stone monument and whispered "And a reminder of what happened" he stood up and fixed his clothes. He then turned towards the figure speaking from the corner, who now has revealed itself to be a skeleton in a black robe. The skeleton was holding a creepy staff surrounded in a green glow.

"How goes the preparation, Noroeth?" Mephisto asked the lich.

"The Portal is almost ready. Amelia is on the task. I am still surprised she is capable to open one all by herself without a catalyst. I remember how I used to have at least ten acolytes and a mana stone just to maintain one opened. And so small.." Before Noroeth could finish , Mephisto cut him off with a silence gesture.

"Ah don't even say that word in front of her. She is twice your age you know."

"I know that but she is smal... I mean humble in term of size, it's difficult to admit defeat in front of a girl barely five foots you know." The lich was disappointed in himself for losing against a little girl.

"Anyway are you sure we could trust that ? We spent ten years looking and we found nothing. That doll found it the moment it woke up. It just seems a bit sketchy to me." Mephisto was talking about the doll Noroeth found in the Vault yesterday.

When Noroeth came to him with the doll, he was suspicious. All of this seemed just too convenient for him. Noroeth insisted that the doll was telling the truth but when Mephisto interrogated her on how she knew it, she simply answered "I just know it". Aside from that, Mephisto could not gather any other info from the doll. Going blindly without proper intelligence was against Mephisto's thinking. It was not that he did not trust Noroeth but Mephisto has made a clear stand to view everything with suspicion.