A giant tower came into view beyond the forest.
Finally reaching his destination.
He had received a letter sealed in magic.
There was only one person who still contacted him this way.
An old friend.
Entering the tower, he walked up a spiraling staircase, slightly lit up by floating orbs of light.
Reaching the top of the stairs, a single door stood slightly open.
Walking through it, he found a giant room filled with books stacked like towers.
In the center of the room, a short blonde elf sat.
She didn't look up from the paper in her hand.
"You're late, Kraft."
Kraft grinned at those words, she was the same as always.
"You didn't give me enough time."
He stepped even deeper into the room, shrugging his shoulders as he dropped onto a cushion that was on the side.
"You should've arrived sooner regardless."
"It's been a while, Serie. You haven't changed at all."
She kept her gaze on the page in her hands, trying to ignore his comment.
"And you look older," she siad.
"That's because I am."
Kraft slouched down into the cushion, glancing around the room it really seemed like time hadn't affected this place.
The tower of books, and the feeling of Magic this place gave off.
It was all the same.
A moment of silence lingered between the two.
Serie eventually spoke after putting the paper in her hand down.
"Kraft, I didn't call you here for nostalgia,' she said. "I'm sure you must of heard of the rumours currently going around."
His mind immediately recalled the conversation he overheard.
The single mage who was spotted turning demons into dust with his magic.
"You mean about the single mage who has been taking out demons?"
Serie looked at him with a blank stare.
"Yes, but there's stuff not being properly told in those rumours."
Serie pulled a map from beneath her table, signaling Kraft to come closer.
She slipped the map closer to him.
Small ink circles marked several locations scattered across the countryside.
"Villages along the northern trade route have been vanishing," she said.
"Villages?"
"Yes, what the rumours mention were demons being reduced to dust."
Serie continued before Kraft could process her words.
"What those rumours failed to mention was not only demons...but humans and their entire villages also being reduced to dust."
Kraft found her words hard to believe.
Whole villages being reduced to dust?
It sounds crazier the more you think about it.
Kraft traced one of the circles with his finger.
"Humans disappear all the time, are you sure these rumours aren't just being over exaggerated?" he asked. "Maybe it was War, or magical beast? They are fragile creatures."
Serie's eyes narrowed, as if she thought the same thing before realizing it was something more.
Kraft was looking at the expression Serie was making.
"You think the cause is magic?" he asked.
"I know it is."
Serie stood and walked to one of her book towers.
She pulled out a thin book, it was clear how old the book was by all the dust covering it.
"There are ancient spells recorded in time that do not destroy the body...but the essence of life itself."
"That sounds unpleasant," Kraft said.
Serie flipped through pages, blowing at them, making dust fly everywhere.
She stopped at a certain page.
Symbols and diagrams filled the page, circles within circles, annotated in ancient script.
"Long ago, before even you or me were in this world," she said. "There where mages who tried to gain immortality through these methods...none of them succeeded."
Kraft's lazy expression faltered.
"So you think something with this ancient magic is walking around out in the world right now?"
"I think something is replicating their methods."
He leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
"That's a headache I was hoping to avoid for another century or two."
Serie returned to her seat.
"You are free to ignore this."
That alone made him glance back at her.
"You didn't drag me across the continent just to tell me that," he said.
"No," she replied. "I brought you here because you are one of the few beings alive who would recognize the signs if you saw them."
Kraft laughed quietly. "You're saying I'm old."
"I am saying you are experienced."
He looked down at the map again.
The ink circles suddenly felt heavier than they had a moment before.
"If I find this thing," he siad slowly, "what then?"
Serie's gaze was steady, unblinking.
"Then you will confirm whether my theory is correct."
Kraft sat in silence for a long moment.
Finally, he stood and stretched, joints popping softly.
"You always did give me the most troublesome errands."
"You always accepted them."
Kraft stepped out into the stairwell, the floating lights dimming as he descended.
He had something interesting to uncover, and he wasn't planning on taking his time.
He quickly ventured North, to the last reports of the missing villages.
It took him some days of travel, but he evntually made it North.
Following the map Serie had given him, he ventured deeper north.
He followed the path Serie had marked, the path she thought he would have the best chance of finding something.
Walking through the dense forest was troublesome.
But apparently, according to Serie's map, at the end of this forest should be a village waiting for him.
A village where he should have the best chance of finding something.
Making his way through the forest, Kraft felt it in an instant.
He had felt powerful magic before...but nothing like this.
It felt...wrong.
He pushed through the last line of trees.
In the distance, he saw the village Serie had marked for him.
Kraft was left speechless at what he saw.
Above the village, hung a second sun.
It wasn't bright and yellow like the sun.
Instead, its surface churned in slow, hypnotic currents of black and deep, sickly green, like a storm trapped inside a glass orb.
On second thought, it wasn't like the sun at all.
It was more like a black hole.
The wind around it tore violently.
Kraft could see the trees in the distance.
Their leaves started to curl at their edges, the grass closer to the village started to lose its color.
Even from this distance, Kraft could feel the pull tugging at the life around the village.
At the center of the village, barely visible beneath the hovering sphere, stood a lone figure in the open square.
One arm raised in the air, his index finger pointed at the sphere of death above his head.
A cold realization settled in Kraft's stomach.
This wasn't a spell meant to frighten or to display power.
It was meant to erase.
.....
End of Chapter 12