The Crimson Magister

Disciples of Mind were humans that with their whole being surrendered themselves to the study of mind under the great Inquisitor.

A society of people rose up, with a desire to emulate and embrace ways of mind as was taught by the great Inquisitor.

Each and every single one of them was aware that their spells and techniques wouldn't be on the level of the great Inquisitor.

As such most disciples of mind would often work in pairs or even larger teams, just for a singular goal, Approach the Majesty of great Inquisitor.

And for that end, there was no greater joy than to serve at the Kingdom's borders, where disciples would get frequent opportunities to practice both mind reading, mind control, and partial mind rewriting.

Occasionally daring nonhumans would attempt to sneak into Red Dawn, which would allow border Disciples to practice without repercussion.

Only greater joy for a disciple of mind would be working as one of the Mind Programmers in the City of Razul, and yet this was unattainable for most.

Mind rewriting was an incredibly taxing technique that required a massive amount of power and expertise to change even one non-human, so only those born with talent could be trained to work at such a prestigious facility.

But partial rewriting was possible for most, even for someone like Gabriel.

He did not possess the mastery of techniques of mind nor the vast power needed for a full rewrite, but he was able to rewrite small parts of memories.

After years of grueling hard work and study, he was finally sent to work at the border checkpoint between the City of Razul and Ebon Forest.

A place where many nonhumans would attempt to pass, accidentally or for some foolish act of heroism.

But recently even that number dwindled which meant Gabriel and his partner weren't getting proper practice over their techniques in a long time.

Heroic nonhumans were growing less and less in number, and so they couldn't not be subjected to Gabriel's experiments.

They were forced to only use their mind-reading techniques to interrogate suspicious humans passing through the checkpoint.

Such as the current suspects, Gabriel did not expect to be called in today as it was his and his partner's day off, but once he saw 3 beautiful young ladies that he was supposed to examine, how would he be able to refuse?

Gazing into the minds of people, especially cute ladies was always a joy for him.

While he did enjoy his work, he also preferred to not work when not necessary, unless the one he would be examining was a young woman.

He knew that his partner thought the same, every time they would examine the minds of young ladies, they would be able to peer into their most intimate moments without them ever knowing.

And if they noticed, women couldn't do anything, as they were all at the mercy of two disciples.

One word to confirm a suspicion would be enough to either execute, enslave if they were nonhumans in disguise, or just throw them into dungeons.

That influenced the duo to have events that would happen at the Ebon Forest Checkpoint.

Their word could influence any decision on who would pass the border and who wouldn't.

And visitors knew that, as such they had no choice but to fully submit their mind to the disciples of mind.

Many would most certainly consider their actions vile but who could blame him, any man in his position would use it to peek at good-looking women.

And the trio before him was a jackpot, 3 beauties, and from what he could tell two of them were sisters.

'They must have some delicious memories together' Gabriel smirked under his hood as he and his partner approached.

The first woman stood up and approached two disciples, letting them begin their preparation.

'She is obedient for a suspicious person, I wonder what we will discover in that pretty head of yours' He chuckled as his and his partner's staves glowed.

Two disciples placed one hand each on the woman's head, letting them feel the silky hair of the lady in front of them.

'This softness, this silkiness, this woman must be quite wealthy' Gabriel thought about not peeking if it was indeed someone powerful, but his desire was stronger.

While the disciples did not need to touch the ones they examined, it was common practice for Gabriel and his partner.

Two disciples closed their eyes as they cast their spell.

Once he and his partner entered the mind, they would be separated which would allow them both to search every corner.

Gabriel was transported into a woman's mindscape, but instead of gazing into the vault of memories as so many times before, he was floating in the middle of the void.

Gabriel couldn't move, cast, or speak as he was stuck in what was supposed to be a mind, with only his thoughts accompanying him 'Did I botch my spell? No that is not possible, I've done this thousands of times.

Direction had no meaning, space did not exist all that existed in this mindscape was… nothing.

The voice never left his mouth, he tried to scream and yet even that never left his throat.

Gabriel tried to cancel the spell and yet he was stuck in place, his spell being fuelled by something else.

Panic gripped him for what seemed like months before a speck of light appeared in the distance, he grasped towards the light as it suddenly expanded.

The mindscape that once was nothing was filled with light, once infinite darkness was filled with orange, yellow, black, and red.

He felt his very soul burn as the world before he transformed, the colors coalesced as the scenery before him turned into a land flowing with magma and flame, the sky covered by thick smoke and the ground itself scorching his feet.

A spitting image of hell, not only the scenery but sounds around him were equally terrifying, screams of tortured souls, and the smell of burning flesh was deafening.

His hood disappeared as the scenery was changed into what looked like a palace.

Before him stood a woman he was supposed to investigate, she approached him, and without a word, her form shimmered as the illusion was dispelled.

Before he stood a non-human, in more ways than it was expected, her halo of flame radiating scorching heat to everything around her, angelic wings of pure flame dragging on the ground, leaving a trail of fire after them and her blue eyes leaving a trail of ghost blue as she walked.

'So a nonhuman, she better have a good explanation for this' He smirked as he took a step before the elven woman.

He knew that this was only a mindscape, the worst she could do was to kick him out no matter what kind of illusion she made and if she did, she would be announced as a suspicious person.

"You better have a good explanation for these tricks, woman! Otherwise, both you and your companions will be enslaved!" He shouted at the suspicious elven woman.

"Oh, you will never leave this place, Human" her voice echoed inside the palace walls.

Step after step she slowly approached before stopping mere meters away.

The palace collapsed, revealing a familiar void, but this time it was occupied by two of them.

"I can't have you preventing me from entering this damned kingdom, human" She spoke softly as she placed her hand on Gabriel's face.

Masses of black flame appeared around her and in moments the void was filled with the black fire.

The flames coalesced more and more, forming chains around Gabriel's limbs.

"WHAT IS THIS YOU WITCH" He shouted with a panicked voice.

"Black Fire, Human. Did you think mind and soul weren't connected" Her giggle echoed inside an infinite void.

"Both you and your partner's mind and soul will forever be bound to me, your free will no longer exists" She spoke with a hint of sadism in her voice as she spoke while caressing Gabriel's face.

"No… THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE…" Gabriel screamed before his voice was silenced, and his attempt at screams would never be heard as Aqua continued speaking.

"You will forever live in the world burned in flame as all creatures that stood against me would, as your body serves your mind and soul will exist forevermore inside the hell of my own making." She laughed as the scenery collapsed he was once again transported into the land of flowing lava and scorching earth.

Aqua disappeared, leaving Gabriel, chained in black flame to forever suffer the heat of the world that once was.

******************

Aqua sighted at her cruelty which reminded her of the tyrant's own, if she just used mind control it would have been quicker, and yet, it would have been easy to discover.

But consuming a soul of Disciple using black flame would leave a shell, that would only require a piece of soul that would obey her to inhabit it.

A piece of soul would be able to continue conducting its host body's regular duties and yet it wouldn't contain its former personality, the advantage is that the spell wouldn't exist and by extension would be undiscoverable.

She felt no sadness for the necessary cruelty she committed on the disciple, after all, she had done worse in her quest to destroy the Tyrant of her old world.

Two souls being trapped in the scorched world that was part of her mindscape would not even be in the top 100 atrocities she had to commit.

After all, they were still alive in some form and could be recovered, and yet she had no plans on doing anything to these two souls just yet, so they were left trapped in the scorched world.

'It was necessary…' She repeated to herself.

If she and Azure were discovered it would most certainly attract the attention of Red Dawn, which Aqua wished to avoid, at least until Sheira was safe.

Red Dawn after all seemed quite advanced and worse of all, they were unknown.

Aqua knew nothing about them, and their inner working, and as such they had to be dealt with with great care.

She was pulled by the voices of puppets confirming her identity as one of the Golden Rose shortly followed by the same confirmation for Laura and Azure.

'I hope I won't need to do this again' she thought as the trio returned to the wagons before departing for the City of Razul.