Inner Discord

Chapter 5

The man before me looked astonished. He had only time to stutter: 'H-h-how...' before his body caught flame. As soon as he had died, silver strings appeared between him and me, making a pulsing movement. I thought they must have been sucking out his life-energy and giving it to me, for I felt no fatigue anymore, and my wounds were healing themselves.

Seconds later the guy was nothing more than ashes. I felt revived, and started to laugh like a villain. I looked behind me, wanting to kill all remaining people, including Psyche. When I had silenced myself, the leader stood up, clapping in his hands. 'Bravo, bravo! I didn't think you'd be able to kill that useless piece of crap. Before I go further, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aphron, third-in-rank of the secret department of the Kallistoi. These two around me are my personal guards, Ophelimos and Eu. The man you just killed was one of the Kratistoi. He was with us because our client thought we wouldn't be able to handle this alone, so he sent this idiot with us. He was an officer of the army before going into dirty business, it seems.'

Aphron walked forward. His calm expression and perfect look irritated me. He picked up a handful of the ashes of his companion and felt to them. 'You did a pretty good job. Fire magic normally doesn't work well against the kinds of magic he used, you see.' He let the ashes fly out of the window. 'When I see you, I have to think of how I was at that age. You remind me of myself, boy.'

I could not stand it anymore. I grabbed my katana and I shot forward, screaming: 'Shut up!' I saw to my surprise that my katana had caught flame, a brilliant, beautiful flame, different from the one that burnt down the man, that was rather ugly. However, as expected from a Kallistos, Aphron dodged my attack with ease. He did not even attempt to strike back, but just continued talking like nothing was happening at all.

'I think you must be pretty confused of what is happening right now. Let me explain it to you.' I was more irritated than before right now, mainly because he kept refusing to attack me. The only thing Aphron did was dodging. 'You are chosen, Phoneus. You are the Wielder of the Five Katana, the Elemental Magics King, the One With the Pentagram-Shaped Scar.'

I replied angrily: 'I have no idea what you mean. True, there happened a few weird things ago, and suddenly I can fight fairly well and am capable of magic somehow, but why should I believe you?' Aphron only grinned and dodged every single one of my attacks easily. 'There are three categories of magic in this world: the Five Primary Magics, Six Secondary Magics, and Seven Tertiary Magics. Each have their own symbol: respectively a pentagram, hexagram and heptagram. The Primary Magics are the Elemental Magics: fire, water, earth, air and soul. The Secondary Magics are the Composed Magics: teleportation, energy, technology, nature, life and force. The Tertiary Magics are the Physical Magics: time, mass, temperature, light, electricity, length and the quantity of substance. Have control over them all and you are God.'

I could not care less. I was still focused on hitting him, and he was still into ignoring me. 'Normal Anthropoi have affinity for only one of these. However, only very few Anthropoi are in fact able to learn them and control them. Kallistoi have affinity for one of the Primary, one of the Secondary and one of the Tertiary magics. They often are able to learn all of them. Exceptionally they have affinity for four, and really seldom five or six. I have affinity for six, two of each category of magic. My guards each have affinity for five. Kratistoi have a maximum affinity of four, of which only the elites have that much. However, they always have an affinity for elements that are in close contrast, mostly in the same category of magic and have physical power. That makes them far stronger than some Kallistoi with five affinities. The one you just killed had an affinity for energy and teleportation. It's not that strong a combination, and he couldn't control it well, but you seemed to have quite some difficulty with it though. The Aristoi aren't capable of any kind of magic, but they have an exceptional eye for politics. That's why they rule this country. Noi and Sophoi each are specialized in one kind of magic: the Sophoi in soul, even only one aspect of it, and the Noi in teleportation, also one aspect of it. The Aischustoi haven't got affinity for any kind of magic.'

'Why would I care?!', I yelled, and shot forward once again. Surprisingly he this time didn't dodge it, but blocked it with a knife. Ignoring me he continued: 'But you, you are special. You are not human, Phoneus. Not since you have been hit by that lightning, and even some time before already. You are capable of controlling all Primary Magics. Control all magics of a certain category, and you are stronger than anybody else. You seem to have the biggest affinity for fire, as that was the first one you summoned.'

'And why would I care?', I screamed. This really began to be annoying. I wanted to kill him but he would not even put up a good fight. He seemed to find that extremely funny, because he started laughing out loud. 'Well, that means you have a certain destiny to fulfill. You see, once in 1500 years the earth faces a great danger. Nobody knows exactly what it is, but all three Magic Kings or Queens have to work together to prevent it from happening. 1500 years ago, that failed, and the Great War had begun. You are just one of them. You will have to choose a side, Phoneus, our side or Psyche's side. The one of killing or the one of saving. The light or dark side. Choose for us, and we will train you thoroughly. You can kill someone every day.'

I stopped attacking. That offer seemed quite acceptable. I would be able to kill someone every day to wit. 'Okay, I'll go with you', was what I said. Even Psyche's shocked face could not stop me. 'Allow me to do this then', Aphron responded. 'This will be your first test.' He cut his fingers and everything went black before my eyes.