Supreme Magus

g its contents.

This version seemed to be more complicated and dangerous, it would explode instead of imploding. Arjîn stored all of them in his dimensional amulet, hoping to be able to find a way to break into them later.

He also took the unlocked box, and after moving some of the furniture to get as much space as possible, he placed it on the ground, pushing the opening button.

The box grew to the size of a big closet, containing beckers, glass rods, vials and several burners.

It was also full of gears connected to mechanical arms that seemed to have been designed to hold and handle the laboratory glassware that had yet to be arranged.

It was a marvel of magic and science like Arjîn had never even dreamt about.

– ”Whatever this is, it must be the unassembled version of what lies in the other boxes. If only the glassware was already at least filled with the ingredients, my mission would be as good as done. As it is, the question remains. What the heck is this for? ”

He compressed it again, storing it away too.

The lounge lead to another small corridor, identical to the previous one. After checking with earth magic and Life Vision for traps or hidden guards, Arjîn moved forward, determined to find the last piece of the puzzle.

His steps didn ’t produce any sound, allowing him to keep an ear out for incoming enemies, yet he encountered no one.

At his left, he found another door, unlike any other in the building. It was thick and padded, made to prevent something from coming out, yet it had no lock whatsoever. This piqued his curiosity, so after changing back to his enchanted suit and preparing for the worst, he slowly opened the door.

What he saw was so creepy that even a hardened veteran like him could not help but feel cold shivers running down his spine.

The room inside was small, five meters (16 ’) large and ten meters (33 ’) long, with chains coming out from the walls and floor. At first glance it could look like a prison, but everything was wrong.

There were no prisoners hanging, just corpses. One seemed to have exploded from the inside, its chest cut open in two by a single huge wound, that no known weapon or beast should have been able to inflict.

Another was burnt to death, while its neighbour was frozen solid, and despite the room was far from cold, it didn ’t show any sign of thawing. After checking them both, Arjîn understood that their death made no sense.

It wasn ’t the result of any spell or natural event, fire and ice respectively had devoured them from the inside. The last corpse was even stranger than the others.

What he supposed had once been an old man had now his face disfigured by agony. The eyes rolled back showing only the white.

The corpse had its veins turned of a bright blue, and they were bulging out, like they were going to burst open at any second.

When Arjîn touched the body to better examine it, the old man regained his senses, whimpering an almost silent prayer.

”Please… kill… me. ”

Arjîn jumped back from the surprise, instinctively activating Life Vision. Not only the old man was alive, but all the chained bodies, even in death, kept emitting a mana signature. Whatever had killed them was still active.

– ”What in the gods ’ names has that madwoman done? ” –

Arjîn stored the bodies, the royal mages would have a lot of explaining to do.

Then, he checked the old man again. He was clearly in a lot of pain, in no condition to be moved and Arjîn was no healer. He had only recently become an Awakened one, developing with true magic only the spells he was already apt to.

”I ’m sorry, old man, but your body or those of your companions may hold the key to prevent a great disaster. The Kingdom honours your sacrifice. ”

Arjîn snapped his neck, giving him a painless death, but as soon as he did, the chains started blinking with magical energies.

Even without understanding how, he knew to have triggered some kind of alarm. Arjîn assessed that between the bodies and the boxes, he had gained enough. It was time to get out of there.

Unbeknownst to him, it wasn ’t an alarm, just like the room wasn ’t a prison. It was just another lab, with a different kind of guinea pigs. The chains had simply alerted the assistants that was time to collect the data.

Arjîn rushed all the way back using air fusion, slowing down only to avoid the traps. Suddenly, a man with a wizard attire and a couple of guards popped out of a corner, managing to sound the alarm the moment they spotted the intruder.

Cursing his bad luck, Arjîn darted forward, his stilettos made short work of the guards and the mage, that died before having the time to cast a single spell. More and more guards flooded the corridors, dying like ants under Arjîn ’s stilettos, their corpses piled up as fast as they arrived.

The alarm kept resounding in the building, forcing an assistant to alert his mistress.

”Mistress Hatorne, there is an intruder in the Kandria ’s lab. ” Her voice was full of panic.

”How far has he gone? What has he taken? ” The old, hoarse voice was more annoyed than worried. They had disturbed her during a crucial point in her latest experiment.

”We don ’t know. He ’s about to come out from the underground lab. I don ’t know how long we will be able to stop him. Please, help us! ”

”Help you? A bunch of incompetent, ungrateful idiots? You are all fired! ”

Coirn Hatorne took out a glass pearl from her dimensional amulet, crushing it under her heel. A second later, a powerful but controlled explosion erupted from the underground lab, turning everything and everyone in a radius of five meters (16 ’) from the shop into ashes.

Then she took her communicator amulet, informing her client.

”Lukart, old fart, I have good new and I have bad news. The bad news is that an intruder screwed up your little master plan. I had to destroy everything to prevent him from escaping. ”

”What ’s the good news? ”

”I ’m still not finished, you idiot. My old student, Professor Reflaar, had come to collect his order, and he is probably dead too. If I ’m right, and I usually am, the intruder was sent here from the Queen.

The death of the Professor is ill timed, they will probably think he was one of your lapdogs. Also, I don ’t know if there was more than one intruder or what they have found out.

The last batch is either lost or in the enemy ’s hand, if I were you, I would make haste. If they find out their content, you ’ll fail even before you start. ”

Archmage Lukart ’s voice was full of anger and impatience, he would have buried alive that old hag years ago, if only he had the chance. But Hatorne was too smart and knew too much.

”I am still waiting for the good news. ” He roared.

”The lab was insured. ”