The Mage's Limits: Mages of Martir Book #2 (33 page)

None of the soldiers answered. A handful shuffled their feet, while others looked away.

“That's because Jakuuth is indeed
dead
,” Darek said, putting as much emphasis on that last word as he could. “Killed by the Magical Superior, who gave his own life to end Jakuuth's. The battle is
over
. We
won
.”

The teachers and students all looked as shocked as the soldiers to hear that the Magical Superior was dead. Darek wished he could have revealed this to them at a better time, but at the moment, he wanted everyone to know the bare facts of the matter.

Darek lowered the finger he had been pointing at Jakuuth. “Now do you see? Without Jakuuth to lead you, what are you going to do? Do you really want to risk your lives and kill innocent people for no reason?”

His words seemed to have an effect on the Limitless. Half of them looked at their comrades as if searching for guidance, while the other half could not raise their eyes to meet Darek's. Darek was hoping that the Limitless would return to their original criminal instincts, now that they no longer had Jakuuth to bind them together.

What happens when you take away the main reason for the world's worst criminals to work together?
Darek thought.
Hopefully, civil war.

Darek's feelings of triumph—which even seemed to be encouraging the teachers and students, as most of them, even the badly injured ones, looked like they were ready to continue the fight now—evaporated as soon as he saw Jakuuth's bones twitch.

He blinked.
I didn't just see Jakuuth's bones move, did I? Of course not. It must be my eyes getting tired or something, making me see—

Then one charred bone hand rose straight up. The sight of the moving bones caused soldiers, students and teachers alike to shrink back, widening the circle around the crater in the school's courtyard. A handful of the more frightened soldiers even teleported away, though Darek didn't try to stop them, as he was too focused on the surreal sight before him to act.

Like someone waking from a nap, the skeleton of Jakuuth Grinfborn sat up. Its left arm was detached, but it soon popped it back into its socket and swung it back and forth to test its stability. Then it slowly rose to its feet, ash falling off its shoulders as it did so.

“What in the name of the gods is going on here?” Jiku said as the skeleton rose to its full height. “This must be some kind of trick.”

The skeleton then inclined its head upward to look at Darek on the steps. Rather than the empty eye sockets of a skeleton, fire burned within, like the flames of a furnace. Then it pointed at Darek.

“Darek … Takren,” said the skeleton. Its voice was harsh and bony, but there was no mistaking it for the voice of anyone other than Jakuuth. “Surprised?”

“No way,” said Darek as he drew his wand from his belt and aimed it at the skeleton. “No. This can't be. How—”

“I am the Son of Grinf,” said the skeleton that was Jakuuth. “A Limitless, the greatest Limitless of all. How can you expect a simple Divine Burst to kill me? I am not a weakling like the Magical Superior. No mere mortal can kill a half-god like me.”

The glimmer of hope that had shone in the eyes of all of the students and teachers quickly died away. As for the Limitless soldiers, they seemed to be gathering their courage back, because many of them raised their wands and began charging flames, crackling electricity, and light bursts, ready to begin the inevitable slaughter that was to follow.

“Try as you might, you cannot win,” said Jakuuth. His skin was starting to re-grow on his skeleton, making him look more and more like a decaying corpse than a skeleton. “Now, my men, why don't we finish what we started? There is a whole world beyond these Walls that awaits my rule after this place is little more than a graveyard.”

The Limitless soldiers shouted in joy and agreement. The students and teachers, on the other hand, were already retreating toward the sports field, though Darek didn't see what point there was in doing even that. The Limitless would hunt them down anyway.

With the Magical Superior dead, we might as well go down fighting,
Darek thought.
Running away will only delay the inevitable.

“Hunt down the mortals,” Jakuuth snapped at his men. He nodded at Darek. “Kill every last one, teacher, student, or whatever. I will personally exact justice on this pathetic, lying excuse for a mage.”

“Justice?” said another voice, this one seeming to come from everywhere at once. “I may not be Grinf, but even I can see that this is hardly just.”

Jakuuth and the Limitless soldiers began wildly looking around for the source of the voice. So did Darek before feeling a thin, bony hand tap his shoulder, causing him to look to his right.

The Mysterious One walked past him without so much as glancing at Darek. Except rather than being a plain skeleton, the Mysterious One wore auburn robes, very similar to the ones worn by the Magical Superior prior to his death. He also carried a wand, but it was no normal wand. It appeared to be made out of gold and crystal, shining brilliantly in the sun, and it was at least as long as Darek's arm. A large ruby was attached to his upper arm, like the magic stones used by the aquarian mages, except twice as large as any Darek had seen before.

“What?” said Jakuuth. His face had almost entirely regenerated by now, but it was still only halfway complete. “Who are you?”

“A myth,” said the Mysterious One. His voice was as deadly as a spiked mace. “A legend. A superstition believed by some and denied by others. An interesting topic of discussion for gods and mortal alike. I am many things, yet none of them describe me with one hundred percent accuracy.”

“A legend, hmm?” said Jakuuth. He raised one of his hands, which burst into flame. “Fitting, because once I am done with you, that's all anyone will remember you as.”

Then Jakuuth looked at his men. “Men, raise your wands. We are going to blow this 'legend' into the Void, along with Darek Takren. Use everything you've got.”

Although every Limitless soldier looked put off by the Mysterious One, they nonetheless aimed their wands at the God of Mystery and Magic. Despite that, the Mysterious One kept his pace as leisurely as ever, every step of his bony feet creating a clacking sound against the stone steps under him.

“On the count of three,” said Jakuuth. “One …”

The Limitless soldiers' wands began glowing with charging magical energy. Darek raised his own wand, despite knowing it was useless against so many enemies at once, while the Mysterious One did nothing except begin whistling a tune Darek didn't recognize.

The fire encircling Jakuuth's hand grew hotter and brighter. “Two …”

The Mysterious One's wand glowed briefly, so brief that Darek wasn't even sure it had glowed at all or if it had been the reflection of the sun that he had seen. Whether the wand had activated or not, that didn't stop the Limitless soldiers' charged energy blasts from growing larger.

“Three!” Jakuuth roared.

As soon as that word left Jakuuth's mouth, the Mysterious One acted. He raised his wand and swung it once, the same simple motion a mortal mage used whenever casting a basic fire spell.

A second later, the Limitless soldiers' wands ceased glowing. The soldiers lowered their wands and stared at them in disbelief. One of the soldier shook his wand up and down vigorously, while another tapped his with one finger, and still another threw his to the ground and stomped on it in frustration.

As for Jakuuth, even his flame had died out. He looked at his outstretched hand in shock, saying as he did so, “What was … why did my fire go out?”

Then the Mysterious One—still whistling that odd tune (though how he whistled without lips, Darek didn't know)—swung his wand and pointed it at Jakuuth.

Without warning, Jakuuth vanished into thin air like smoke. Only the burned grass on the courtyard indicated that he had been standing there in the first place.

“Lord Jakuuth!” the female soldier from before shouted. She glared at the Mysterious One, who had reached the bottom of the steps by now and was standing there looking as innocent as a kitten. “What did you do to him? What did you do to us?”

The Mysterious One tapped his chin, as if seriously considering that question. “Well, to answer your second question, I turned off your magic. You mortals may be incapable of killing me, but that doesn't mean I appreciate having your wands pointing at me like that. It makes me uncomfortable.”

Then the Mysterious One gestured at the spot where Jakuuth had been standing. “As for your leader, Jakuuth is back in the Void, where his kind belong. I doubt you will ever see him again.”

“You're lying,” said the female soldier. She pointed her wand at him, even though it was now little more than a glorified piece of wood. “You hid Jakuuth somewhere on Martir.”

“I have no reason to lie,” said the Mysterious One. He shrugged. “But you don't have to believe me if you don't want to. You mortals have free will, so use it as freely as you will, even if in a silly way.”

“I will kill you,” said the female soldier, whose dark eyes reminded Darek of Aorja for some reason. “I will tear you apart bone by god-forsaken bone until you tell me where Jakuuth is.”

“By yourself?” said the Mysterious One. “An impressive boast, but sadly one you won't get a chance to put into action. I think you 'soldiers,' as you fancy yourselves, have caused these innocent mages enough trouble for one day. Why don't you go back to the prison and complete the life sentences that your peoples gave you?”

With that, the Mysterious One waved his wand at them. Just like with Jakuuth, all of the Limitless soldiers vanished like mist in a gust of wind.

Then the Mysterious One lowered his wand and turned to look up at Darek. “There you go. North Academy is now safe, at least for the foreseeable future.”

“But …” Darek could hardly comprehend how easily Jakuuth and the Limitless soldiers had been beaten. “What was with Jakuuth?”

“What do you mean?” said the Mysterious One. “He was nothing more than a power-hungry upstart who thought he was the son of a god.”

“But what was he,
exactly
?” Darek asked, even though he wasn't sure if this was the most important question to ask right now. “You said you banished him beyond the Void, where his 'kind' belongs, but what is his kind? I thought he was human.”

The Mysterious One shook his head. “Jakuuth was what you might call a 'half-god.' He wasn't half human and half divine. It simply means that he was one of the many, many failed creations of the Powers, a prototype, you might say, of Grinf, which is why he looked like Grinf so much.”

Darek rubbed his forehead, trying to wrap his head around that idea. “I … what?”

“You don't need to understand anything except that the half-gods have always lived beyond the Void,” said the Mysterious One. “Well, until just recently, anyway, but that's where they belong and it is where Jakuuth will spend the rest of his days.”

“Jakuuth told me about his mother, though,” said Darek. “How can he have a mother if he wasn't actually human?”

“He was delusional,” said the Mysterious One, spinning a finger at the side of his head. “He looks more human than most half-gods. I imagine he must have lost his memory of his true nature when he left the Void the first time all those years ago, perhaps was adopted by his 'mother,' if she ever really existed at all. Who knows?”

The explanation that Jakuuth had not been human made some sense to Darek, though he still found it hard to believe.

But how else can you explain him surviving a Divine Burst?
Darek thought.

“We probably should have returned him to the Void after he was first defeated all those years ago,” said the Mysterious One, stroking his chin. “I should have spoken up when the Katabans Council decided to imprison him beneath World's End, but I've never really been one to offer my opinion when it wasn't wanted … or even known to exist, for that matter.”

Decided he wanted to move on—the idea of Jakuuth being some kind of 'half-god' was too hard to understand, if it was true—Darek asked, “But why? Why did you—”

“Why did I help?” said the Mysterious One. “Is that what you're asking?”

Darek nodded. “Yes. I thought you were going to do something else.”

“I've done what I need to do,” said the Mysterious One, as vaguely as ever. “Besides, you might not realize it, but North Academy matters to me just as much as it does to you, maybe even more so. I couldn't stand to see Jakuuth and his cronies burn this place to the ground.”

Now that actually made some sense to Darek. He smiled and said, “Because you're the God of Magic, right? Since this is one of the best magic schools in the world, it's only logical you would defend it.”

The Mysterious One chuckled. “Oh, my connection to this school is far deeper than that, much more personal, you might say. But I won't, because that's not information you need to know right now.”

“Personal?” said Darek. “What does that—”

He stopped himself mid-sentence when he realized that the Mysterious One was no longer present, leaving him all alone on the steps of the Arcanium, looking at the crater where Jakuuth had been standing mere moments ago.

Guess he's not called the
Mysterious
One for nothing,
Darek thought.
Oh well. I should go tell the students and teachers that the school is safe. Then we can begin the long, hard work of putting everything back to the way it was … or as close to the way it was as we can, anyway.

Chapter Twenty-Three

T
he hardest part of any plan was the last step. As Durima climbed up the side of the building that Uron and Skimif currently stood upon, she had to tell herself that in order to get her in the right mindset to tackle Uron and trap him in the ethereal.

It will be hard because you will be scared,
Durima thought, her eyes on the roof's edge, which she drew closer and closer to with each reach of her arms.
Scared of dying, scared of getting trapped in there with Uron, but don't worry because Gujak will distract him for you. And Skimif is there, too, so all you need to focus on is your part of the plan.