World of Laws and Magic

The magic beast in front of Nick was as big as a one storey house. It had the body and appearance of a lion with a live snake for a tail; it had glowing green eyes, brown fur and a reddish mane. It looked at Nick with its eyes that seemed full of intelligence, breathing heavily. Nick was so frightened by the magical beast's presence that he continuously backed away from it without thinking until he was stopped by a semi-hard rock wall. Nick stood with his back against the wall looking at the creature in trepidation, the creature was also silently looking at him

(This thing is huge and terrifying. The wary dogs and the fire breathing lizard that I met previously had the magical strength about the equivalent of a rank 1 Apprentice Magician. I can't feel any magical energy coming from that 'lion' but it has to be something more powerful, right? What were the academy administrators thinking, sending us students to wander around with something like that living within this realm?)

The magic beast did not immediately move in response to Nick's arrival so Nick took the time to look at his surroundings for a possible escape route. The underground space that he was currently in seemed like a naturally formed cavern with stalactites jutting out from the ceiling and a sparse amount of stone formations positioned seemingly at random on the cave floor. Nick also tried to find the place where he fell from but when he saw that it was only a few meters away from the lion, he was doubtful about using it as an escape route, not to mention that he had slid down at a sloped angle so climbing back up using that passage seemed unlikely as he did not have a magic spell to help him in that regard.

(This situation seems hopeless but I'm definitely not going to go down without a fight. I'll shove all my knives up this creature's ass if I have to in order to kill it.)

[I don't think that that would be a wise course of action for you young man.]

(Huh?)

Nick looked at the lion in surprise, the lion was looking back at him with a plain expression, not uttering a sound, contrary to the circumstances that lured Nick here but Nick had just heard someone's voice.

"Who was that? Was it you mister lion?"

[Hah, mister lion? Kid, do you have a few screws loose or something? Ha, ha...]

The voice appeared again but this time it jeered at Nick. Since Nick was paying attention this time, he realized that the voice was not an audible one, but one that seemed to be coming from his own thoughts.

[This is my spell, will as thoughts, how do you like it? I used to use it as a method to speak with my mistresses back in the day so as not to alert their husbands; I have finally found a proper use for it.]

Nick grew concerned about this voice invading his mind.

(Who are you, what are you doing in my mind?)

[I'm not 'in' your mind kid, I'm just subtly injecting some of my will into your body and converting it into your thoughts. Oh, and I'm also reading your thoughts while I'm at it.]

Nick didn't like the voice's carefree attitude.

(You didn't answer my first question.)

[Hmph, why should I, the great soul hunter Mage, answer your trifling question?]

(Soul hunter Mage? Do you mean Magician? Well...may be you should answer my question because you're the one that's playing around with other peoples thoughts, communicating with me. I assume that you wouldn't do that if you didn't have some kind of purpose behind it, right?)

[Oh, it seems that you're not a dolt, kid. Congratulations.]

Nick became pissed, he didn't like the voice's attitude. That kind of talk sounded all too familiar to Nick and he did not like it one bit.

(I'll ask again. Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want? If you're going to kill me then do so. If not, then fuck off.)

[Hmmm...you're a troubled one aren't you, it seems that you have some traumas that are plaguing you? Well, that might make you even more suitable for my inheritance.]

Nick didn't know what to say so he simply repeated the voice's last word.

(Inheritance?)

[Yes, inheritance. Let me properly introduce myself to you, kid. This daddy here is called...or rather was called Slade Terrence, the soul hunter Mage. You seem to be used to the term Magician; that could be because you are from a different realm that mine or by now, 'Mage' might be an old designation. Anyway, when I was alive I was a Mage that specialized in soul and wisdom magic and I eventually became a rank 8 World Class Mage. In my last days, I had a falling out with a certain group of World Class Mages and we fought until I was near death; in my last moments I created a sentient will and entrusted my remaining magic energy as well as much of my magical knowledge to it and teleported it to a random realm. I suppose that my body died but even I'm not too sure about that.]

(What does all that have to do with me?)

[You see, kid, when I got to this realm, there were a bunch of soul eating lions like this one roaming around so I possessed one of them and because soul eating lions were filled with laws related to soul magic, I ate as much as I could with my new body to make sure that my new host would last long enough for me to find a human host. I don't know how long you have been in this realm but I'm sure that you have seen no other soul eating lions. I believe the predator that competed with the soul eating lions were the impish jackals.]

(Impish jackals? Do you mean the wary dogs.)

Slade Terrence read Nick's thoughts and affirmed:

[Yes, I mean the 'wary dogs'; what a stupid name, mine is way better. Those creatures are fairly weak and have limited potential but the older ones would still pose a significant threat to someone of your strength. Listen, when you arrived here, I noticed that you seemed to have a satisfactory affinity for soul magic so I was going to possess your body in order to recreate my own soul but it seems that your soul has been tampered with so that is not ideal for me.]

(My soul has been tampered with? Fuck, the dean; I knew that bastard might have pulled something. Hey, can you help me deal with whatever was done to my soul? Wait...did you say that you were going to possess me, what the fuck?)

[Calm down, I also implied that that's no longer the plan. As for what I can do for you, I'm getting to that, kid. With your soul being tampered with, it's too troublesome for me to possess you so to save myself another hundreds of years of waiting, I'm going to give you my soul magic inheritance as well as I will accompany you for a while and guide you, taking you on as my disciple. This beast's body is dying and it's feeling so much pain that even with my possession, it wails all day long if I don't actively retrain it; it's strength has also fallen to rock bottom despite its size. Even you could probably beat it if you tried really hard.]

Slade stopped talking so that Nick could process what he had just said. Nick stood in place for a while, thinking. He didn't know whether he could completely trust Slade's words or not but clearly he did not have the strength to refuse this 'opportunity' so he decided to play along for now.

(I thought that you said that you specialized in soul and wisdom magic, why are you only giving me a soul magic inheritance?)

[Kid, I've already examined your soul so I know that you have nearly no affinity for wisdom magic. While you could probably still practice it if you worked really, really, really hard, with your foundation in rule magic, adding soul magic on top of that should be about all you can handle for now. More knowledge at your level may not be such a good thing. Thoroughly learning just one type of magic requires extreme focus, only badasses like me can specialize in two types of magic. If you seem to be able to handle the extra work, in the future I'll pass along the wisdom magic inheritance but not now.]

(You know about rule magic? How do you know that I practice it?)

[Huh, why wouldn't I know about rule magic? It's one of the oldest areas of specialization in the magical arts. As for how I know that you practice it...ignoring your clear affinity for it, I can somewhat sense the kind of magic power that's contained within your mindscape, a skill that World Class Mages tend to have. You definitely have a special grade mindscape that is most suitable for the use of rule magic.]

Nick was glad to finally confirm that he had a special grade mindscape but he still had concerns.

(You still haven't stated your terms for giving me this inheritance and how you will help me with my tampered soul.)

[You know how Mages operate, nothing is for free, it's good that is the case. As long as you promise to help me find out what happened to my real body and help me deal with the Mages that caused my unfortunate circumstance or their descendants, I'll give you my inheritance and help you along your journey. I can tell that whatever was done to your soul should be harmless to you but with magic, you never know for sure how things will work out in the future. The best way to deal with it is by relying on yourself. I'll teach you how to properly command soul magic and you'll be able to deal with the problem yourself eventually.]

(That's it huh? I can live with that, yes, I'll help you with your quest for revenge but let me be clear, my learning magic takes priority over anything else so it will probably take me a long time to become strong enough to deal with your enemies and maybe even longer to travel to wherever you came from. Is that okay with you?)

[Just your word will suffice for now. Brace yourself.]

The pressure in the underground cavern intensified and the soul eating lion began to wail again, seeming as if it was in extreme pain.

RAAAAAAAAWR RAAAAAAAWR RAAAAAAAAWR RAAAAAAAAAAWR

Nick held his hands over his ears in order to cope with the magical beast's outburst. A few minutes into the creature's wailing, an almost blinding purple light emerged from its body. Nick squinted his eyes and watched the light carefully; soon, the visage of an aged man appeared amidst the light and he smiled half-wickedly at Nick.

(God, I hope I don't regret this.)

The purple light concentrated itself at a central point above the soul eating lion and soon the soul eating lion withered into a pile of silver and grey ash. Those events took about twenty minutes to complete. After the soul eating lion was completely turned to ash, the light condensed into a lightly glowing purple ball and moved toward Nick, stopping right in front of him.

[I'm going to house why will in your mind, moving freely among your thoughts. Just so you know, I will be reading your thoughts of my own accord so be prepared for that]

(Sigh, let's just get this over with.)

[Ha, ha. That's the spirit, kid.]

The light approached Nick's forehead and passed through his skull, remaining inside his head.

[I would have requested to enter your mindscape but I'll have to get to know you first before I go in there.]

(Hmph, who told you that I wanted you in there, don't even think about it. The mindscape is a Magician's most important resource point, why would I let an external force inside, stop your dreaming!)

[He, he. I knew you were a sharp one, kid. Fine, now that I'm all settled, let's get down to the business of leaving this place. The presence of my will within that lion was keeping the other magical beasts away from this area. Now that I'm concealing myself within your body, the surrounding magical beasts will come flooding in, fighting for territory. You don't want to be in this area when that happens. Oh, that little device on your arm, it's a spacial storage device right? Well, it seconds as a monitoring device. I deactivated it the minute you entered this cavern but I will reactivate it as soon as you leave here. Do not tell anyone about me or I will renege on our agreement! Loose lips sink ships and if you have the propensity to talk too much, I won't bother helping you.]

(Yeah...I get it. I don't like chatterboxes either.)

[Now, this cavern has a magic formation that conceals its main entrance at the edge of this particular region, you can't sense it at your level so don't even bother trying. I'm going to use some of my strength to have the formation teleport you to that entrance. Just start walking and after a few meters you'll find yourself where you need to be.]

Nick did as Slade wanted and began walking to the other side of the cavern. After a while, a feeling of nausea came over him and the scene in front of him changed from that of a rocky cavern to a woodland filled with well separated pine trees and short green grass that was facing a sloping cliff wall. Nick had his back to the cliff wall and looked back for a moment.

(This is the entrance, it's a cliff wall, what's up with that? Also, you can use magic while inside my body, that doesn't make me feel comfortable?)

[Kid, why would I have the entrance to my lair look like an actual entrance, that would be asking for trouble; any dumb ass could just wander in and cause problems if that was the case. A skilled Mage would be able to see through the trick though and that's what I was counting on in order to find someone worthy of possessing. Instead, I ended up with you, who happened to fall through the roof of the cavern because the surrounding earth had weakened. Sigh.]

(What are you grumbling about. You're the one who asked me to help you with your damn revenge. Show some respect.)

[He, he. Kid, you have a long way to go before earning my respect. Let's focus on your circumstances for now. I used magic to get you out of the cavern but that's because this place was my home for many years and I had the time to carve the necessary laws into the surroundings using the soul eating lion's body. I can't use magic to interfere with the physical world otherwise. Keep that in mind.]

Nick nodded his head in understanding.

"It's time to go."

Slade went silent and Nick walked towards the new area with a heightened level of confidence.