The Last Mage (Under Revision)

Chapter 9

Note: Most of this chapter is of Xavier's past so if you want to you can skip it. The next chapter is about Cedric's past and I wouldn't recommend skipping that one because it might answer a few questions. Now onto the story.

When Cedric woke up the first thing he thought was 'how long was I out?'

"You were only unconscious for a few minutes, Cedric my boy." Said that voice from before.

This time Cedric readied himself before looking. There, hanging from the wall in chains, was Xavier.

He had cuts all over his body, some still dripping blood, and black and blue bruises. He had a black eye and had some of his teeth knocked out. Plus he had a huge gash across his forehead. But the most painful looking thing was a big x scar across his torso with three parallel cuts in the middle of it.

"What happened to you?" Cedric asked, but then remembered he was evil. "Not that I really care..."

"Cedric," Xavier coughed making a volume of blood come out. "That man who is leading the rebellion is not me.

In fact, he's not even a man. He some sort of shadow beast."

"Shadow beast?"

"Yes. You see, shadow beasts are these types of monsters who have the ability to shape shift into humans or animals or even objects. They are very powerful creatures because when they transform they take the skills of the person they transform. Like say someone's good at swordsmanship and they transform into them, then the shadow beast will be good at swordsmanship."

"Is there any weakness?" Cedric questioned.

"Well, there is one thing. If they transform into say a wizard, then they can't use magic. And they can't use magic in any form even in their shadow form. They're magic less. Oh wait one more thing, they hate light.

"Okay. That's helpful."

'They can't use magic,' I thought. 'But the shadow Xavier said he used dark magic to turn Max evil. How?'

"How do I know I can trust you?" Cedric asked.

"You don't know for sure, you'll just need to do what you think is right." The man answered.

Cedric thought for a moment, and then melted the chain holding Xavier. He then proceeded to heal all of his wounds.

"Thank you my boy." Xavier said."Now lets go get us some weapons and ill get my armor. Then we'll grab the horses and chase after the imposter."

Cedric smiled. "Okay lets do this."

'Now this, this is the Xavier I know.' The boy thought.

A few minutes later the two met outside. Cedric, who was now equipped with a silver short-sword and his two daggers, hopped up on top of Hion.

Xavier then walked out. He was dressed in black leather armor and had a black cowl around his face. A grey cape ran across his back and it had an emblem of a skull and crossbones on it. On his sides were two shortswords, one silver and one ivory. He had four throwing knives on him, two in each boot. He got onto his black horse and looked at Cedric.

"Ready to go?"

"Just a second." Cedric said quietly. "I never appreciated my sword much. I thought of it only as a tool. But now it's gone and I realized, it's saved my life a lot of times and I took it for granted. Now it's gone. It's destroyed.... I'm not making that mistake again," he pulled an apple of out his side-bag. He then walked to the front of Hion.

"Here you go bud. Enjoy."

Hion gratefully ate the apple up and neighed happily. Then he licked the side of Cedric's face. The boy smiled and laughed a good strong laugh.

'Its been a while since he's laughed like that.' Xavier thought and smiled.

Cedric got back on his horse and looked at Xavier.

"Now, lets go."

It was about dawn when the two travelers stopped for a break. They tied their horses to a tree and Cedric made a fire.

"Xavier, can I ask you a question?" Cedric asked.

"Of course you can, what is it?" Xavier said.

"Why did you start the Assassins Guild?"

"Well, do you really want to know?"

"Yes please."

"Then I'll tell you. It's a long story. Back when I was just a mere lad, younger than you actually, my village was attacked by a group of bandits, sort of like you. We were a poor village, so we didn't really have anything to defend ourselves. The bandits they... They killed my family. I managed to escape them but I soon found out, I was the only survivor. They lit all the houses on fire and all I saw was orange and yellow. It soon started to spread to where I was, though, so I ran as fast as I could away. When everything died down I went back even though I knew I wouldn't find anyone. The only thing I found was a little black pony, the same one i ride now, and a... A portrait of my parents and I."

"Xavier..." Cedric whispered.

"I knew from that moment I needed to get revenge on those bandits. After searching dozens of towns and villages I found out that they were called the "Black Shadow." They were one of the most feared organizations ever to exist in that time. I then wandered around and formed an idea. The idea was to recruit people who wanted revenge against the world. So I formed a guild dedicated to killing. Obviously we started off with taking down the Black Shadow. I still don't regret doing it either. I do regret letting the guild grow to become something more than just a group of people. It was a cult set on slaughtering people who got them mad. I should've just shut it down. Nothing good came out of it."

"Well," Cedric said smiling in a way that only a child could smile. "I did."

Xavier stared at him for a while then smiled back.

"Yes, you did. And i think you're ready for something."

"What would that be?"

"The truth about your past, young mage."

Chapter 10 will be following shortly after this.