Eleanor felt a whole range of different emotions at the same time. He was still afraid, still felt the terror of the pain he had endured. He felt weak, and yet at the same time unbelievably strong. He felt young, and yet as if he had aged decades. His body felt stronger than ever before. He felt joy and admiration for the magic; he felt astonishment and shock. He was a mage. He had magic.
At the same time, he was surrounded by five beings with such overwhelmingly threatening auras that they seemed to suffocate him, as if he were sinking into a deep swamp.
Slowly, he pushed himself up. Nero watched this display with curious fascination. He himself had no idea what Eleanor was perceiving, but he knew all too well what it felt like to suddenly possess magic. It was a sensational feeling.
He nodded to Eleanor. "Come with me," he ordered in a voice that was used to being obeyed without hesitation.
The cold voice immediately tore Eleanor out of his trance. "Of course."
He stood up and followed Nero, who was already walking ahead, closely followed by Xersies through the remains of the entrance. Along the way, Ester still hovered around him, examining his body. He stabbed a claw into Eleanor's arm. Eleanor barely felt the pain as Ester took a small drop of his blood onto his claw. He activated his magic to examine the drop.
"Amazing… simply amazing," he repeated excitedly for what felt like the hundredth time. This was his triumph. They had achieved small successes before, but the magic they had given to mortals had always been weak or only temporary. Once the heart had pumped out the Polykenas' blood, the magical heart would fail and with it their life. But Eleanor not only seemed to be in perfect health, he possessed incredible power. Ester felt an overwhelming urge to cut him open and look inside, but he knew he was not allowed to.
"Describe to me how you feel," Ester commanded eagerly. "Do you feel the light around you calling to you, or do you feel the heartbeat and the blood in our veins pulsing? Do you feel the darkness, the stone, the water in the air?"
Eleanor shook his head. "I don't feel any of that…"
Ester clicked his tongue in disappointment, but then Eleanor continued, "But I can feel your magic. I can see your aura, how it shines… is that normal?"
Nero, who had been listening to the conversation, stopped abruptly. "You can see our aura?" he asked as he turned around.
Eleanor nodded. "His is like a giant beating heart," he said, pointing at Ester. "His is like a second sun radiating outward. His seems to be trapped inside him. And yours is… very hard to describe."
Nero pointed at the small healer Polykenas. "What about his?"
"His aura feels like a sea of life, but in the center, there is something like a disease."
Nero nodded thoughtfully, but said nothing more. Eleanor shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other, when suddenly something new caught his attention. On the wall was a beautiful glowing symbol, pulsing softly. He focused on it, and suddenly, like a clear night sky, he saw thousands of these glowing symbols across the walls. He could even see shimmering lines extending from them, connecting to others of their kind.
Suddenly, Eleanor felt like he was caught in a web, trapped in a sea of stars. One of these symbols had far more connections than the others. Fascinated, he reached out his hand toward it.
Nero observed this with curiosity. He saw Eleanor reaching toward the symbol. Suddenly, his magic activated. The symbol on the wall began to glow brightly, as if resisting Eleanor's power. Like a massive chain reaction, all symbols around it began to light up, spreading like a wave. A slight tremor ran through the entire fortress as Ramor shouted in fury, "NO!"
Eleanor pulled his hand back in shock, but it was already too late. The symbol shattered.
Cursing, Ramor rushed to the wall. "This symbol is one of the central symbols of the entire network. If it is destroyed…"
But then Ramor frowned, because nothing happened. He looked at Eleanor in confusion, who stared in amazement at his own hand. His prism colored magic had recreated the symbol directly on his palm, from which the strands connected to the surrounding symbols.
Ramor quickly redrew the symbol, having to work around several others and construct a new small network, but he managed it. Eleanor saw how the symbol on his hand grew weaker with every second until it finally disappeared. The strands connected themselves to the newly drawn symbol. Ramor turned around, covered in sweat. Cracks were already spreading across his hand. Changing this symbol was like replacing a load-bearing wall while holding up the entire house. It had almost drained all of his magic instantly.
Furious, he looked at Eleanor. "How did you do that? This symbol is protected by almost two thousand others. It should be impossible to destroy. I personally made sure of that."
Eleanor could see that Ramor's aura had weakened significantly. He simply shrugged. "I don't really know. It felt like I just took the symbol out of the wall… I can't really explain it."
Ramor narrowed his yellow eyes in anger. "If I hadn't been here, this could have ended very badly." He wanted to kill Eleanor on the spot, but restrained himself. "Never do that again," he hissed.
The group continued forward. Nero walked ahead at a fast pace. They left the core of the fortress and stepped into the inner courtyard. From there, they followed a long path. Dozens of Polykenas moved about, talking, arguing, fighting, playing games of chance for money that held no real value.
Over the past decades, a kind of society had formed out of the chaotic mass, with rich and poor, strong and weak, friends and enemies. It was still nothing compared to a real society, but for the Polykenas, it was an astonishing development. Some had even begun building houses outside the fortress.
Xersies strongly encouraged this behavior, as it made them easier to control.
He had even considered introducing some form of currency they could work for, but their entire race was genetically driven to destroy everything around them. Their entire existence served one purpose: chaos. And Xersies knew that all too well, as he carried the same urges as his kind.
Eleanor watched the Polykenas with wide eyes, because he saw not only their different forms, but also their different auras. He quickly realized that the most common aura was the same as Shire's. Polykenas with that aura always had a gray-black skin tone.
But here and there, he saw Polykenas with paper-white skin, whose auras came in all kinds of colors, shapes, and sizes. Some had a silent storm raging around them with constant bright blue lightning. Others had a star like Xersies, though none even close to his strength. Some had the heart, others had simple winds swirling around them. Those often flew through the air.
Only one aura he did not see a second time. Nero's.
It was as if he were the only one with that kind of magic.
'But it makes sense,' Eleanor thought to himself. 'He is the monster of chaos. There is only one of him.'
Finally, they reached their destination. It was a massive hall at the edge of the fortress. The gates were closed, but Eleanor immediately sensed the clash of different auras inside. It felt like a raging storm, giving him instant goosebumps.
Nero opened the large gates and stepped inside, followed closely by his generals and Eleanor. They entered a large chamber whose ground was covered in sand. Eleanor had to narrow his eyes, because the auras of the Polykenas inside, combined with the countless symbols on the walls that lit up whenever stray attacks hit them, blinded him.
He knew he could turn it off. He focused on it, on dimming the light. And he succeeded. The auras became more transparent until they were barely visible, while the symbols that were not active disappeared entirely.
Finally, he opened his eyes again and saw that they were in something like a training hall. Dozens of weapons hung on the walls. Some were missing, taken by the black Polykenas who trained here in combat.
They had formed around a dozen separate rings where they fought each other without mercy.
There were only two Polykenas with white skin at the outer edge, launching magical attacks at each other with intensity.
One of them was a small, bulky Polykenas with pale skin. He had countless small yellow eyes like Shire, but the strange thing was that instead of one arm, there was a burnt stump on his shoulder. Despite that, he still had two arms, because another one grew directly from his back. A mark in the shape of a tear had been burned into his forehead.
He hurled bright spears of light at his opponent, a tall Polykenas who tried desperately to block the attack with lightning, but failed. He was struck in the shoulder. The light pierced through him and exited his back.
The Polykenas growled in anger and prepared to counterattack when Nero suddenly clapped his hands sharply.
"Leave," he commanded coldly.
Immediately, every Polykenas stopped fighting. For a brief moment, they all looked at Nero, then they streamed out of the hall like startled birds. Each of them bowed to Nero as they silently left.
"Good," Nero said with a nod once the hall was empty.
He stepped further away, facing Eleanor.
"Now, show me what you can do."
He raised his hand, and all the shadows of the hall obeyed him.