Legend of the Inferno Scythe. Part One. The Academy

I was dumbfounded. The only thing I could come up with:       - Get back into the statue!       - I’m sorry, my Overlord, but I’m not able to do it, — the Fallen Angel said with sincere sadness in his voice, — this form is for long-term meditation. I have been meditating for eight thousand years and waiting for you to come, and here you are.       - But how did you even know where to wait for me? — I asked, putting my hand on the hilt of my sword just in case. I began to suspect that this was some kind of magical trap, so I mentally prepared for an unequal battle.       - Overlord, I had a vision that thou would appear here, — the angel explained. — And thou can take your hand off the sword. I pose no threat to you. Moreover, I bow to thine will.        — You’re blind, how could you see that? — I was surprised.       - All Fallen Angels see not the objects themselves, but their magical auras, — Daniel replied.       Suddenly, a stone flew into his back. The Fallen Angel whirled around and hissed loudly:       - Thou, apparently, decided to make the most fascinating suicide, meatbag?!       - Go to hell, you eyeless creature! — shouted a man in the crowd. — Get out of our city!       Dozens of stones have already been thrown towards the angel. Daniel hit the Scythe on the ground, thus stopping the stones in the air. Then purple smoke billowed from under his blindfold, and the stones flew back at the people who had thrown them.       - Enough! — I helled.       - As thou desire, — Daniel said sadly, stopping the flight of stones.       After what had happened, I thought it best to hastily make my way out of the city walls. Having saddled my ram, Daniel and I rushed at a gallop towards the Academy. As soon as the sun went down, I stopped for a halt. Setting up a makeshift camp, I suddenly realized one thing: I only have one bedroll.       - Daniel, such a thing… I only have one bedroll with me, — I admitted awkwardly, to which Daniel only laughed.       - Overlord, I am an angel, I don’t need to sleep, — he said laughing, — and as an experienced magician, I don’t need to eat. I feed on the energy of the sun, world mana and the souls of pathetic mortals.       - Do you know about Inferno Magic? — I asked hopefully.       - Just a little, — he replied, — I’m more into Arcana. I regret that I was so pathetic and did not learn this magical art.       - You’re not pathetic, — I objected, — to each his own. Before I… Before magic has awakened in me, — I lied, — I was a warrior and commander all my life, so I don’t know anything about magic at all. That’s why I’m heading to the Academy of Magic of Viragoth, because there are no and cannot be an Inferno Magic teacher in the Dragon Mountains.       - But what about ragnodragons? — Daniel asked.       - Who?! — I wondered.       - Dragons from the Pack of Ragnarion, — the Fallen Angel explained, simultaneously breaking some fallen tree into splinters. — It was they who initially served as the main echelon of defense of Valghargard.       - Valghargard is the afterworld of the Highlanders, isn’t it?       - This is not its primary function. This is the homeworld of the dragons, who decided to revive it from the demonic ashes with the help of the energy of the souls of the highlanders. The energy storage machine is your so-called Halls of Valor. It was precisely because of the ragnadragons that the need for this mechanism arose. Ragnarion, their leader, became proud, deciding to use the weapons of the demons against them, well, the demons drugged him. However, many of his Pack learned to resist the influence of demons and left the Infernal Legion forever.       - What the hell are you talking about? Which legion, which Ragnarion? This is madness.       - What do thou know about madness? — Daniel flared up, distracted from the destruction of the tree. — Madness is the exact repetition of the same action in the hope of changing the result! This is the root of madness.       Daniel returned to his work. Soon he threw an indecent amount of wood chips to the barely smoldering damp brushwood, and laid firewood on top. He released a fireball from his palm, from which immediately a flame began, engulfing the entire fire at once.       I didn’t see much point in continuing the conversation. I caught a pike on live bait in a nearby lake, baked it on coals, had dinner and started training. Daniel just watched. When I took out the sword and, having warmed up, began to practice the techniques, he sharply said:       - Not that. My lord, you don’t put magic into movement at all.       - And I must? — I was surprised.       - Yes the art, Overlord, because that’s how spells are done, — the Fallen One answered.       - Okay, I’ll try, — I said, trying to figure out what it meant to put magic into movement.       - There is no try, — Daniel sharply objected to me, — just do it or do not.       - How can you do something without trying? — I wondered.       - And this is a question for those meatbags that thou were taught by, — the Keeper of Eca was now perplexed, — this is an elementary truth!              - Okay, close the topic, — I said irritably.       I swung again, took a breath and delivered a powerful horizontal blow. The runes on the sword glowed crimson, and when I finished the strike, a wave of scarlet energy, shaped like the trajectory of a strike, flew out of the sword and cut down a nearby tree. And my heart suddenly seemed to be squeezed by an invisible hand, and my legs gave way. I dropped my sword and fell to the ground.

***

      When I woke up, my head was just pounding with pain. There were triplets in my eyes, a nasty taste in my mouth. Daniel was sitting next to him with a bowler hat in his hands.       - Thou hast finally woken up, — he breathed a sigh of relief, — I have already begun to fear that thine soul will also become part of the mechanism of the Halls of Valor.       - What happened to me? — I asked, barely able to keep from cursing.       - Magical exhaustion, my Overlord, — Daniel replied. — What a fool am I! An untrained magician was forced to cast spells outside a place with a high concentration of magical energy. What an idiot am I!       He began to beat himself in the jaw with his fists, scratch his face with his claws, pull out the hair on his head.       - Stop it! Immediately, — I said sternly.       I did not ask, but ordered, like to a soldier. And in such a tone that, if we were at war now, any soldier would be notably frightened.       And Daniel obeyed. Moreover, he helped me sit up in the bedroll and began to feed me with crookedly sliced ​​bread: he didn’t need to eat, so he forgot how to cut bread and cook porridge. Yes, he is also blind, and the aura is clearly weakly visible in the bread, if it has one at all, so I should have not been surprised that he cut off some pieces as thick as a finger, while others turned out to be paper-thin. I swallowed everything with some difficulty, but said that from now on I would cook for myself. I tried to stand up on my own, but I couldn’t. The strength seemed to have left me even when I tried to use magic. Well, no more magic until the Academy. I think Daniel will beg me not to. Although, elf knows of him, maybe he won’t. Damned crazy fanatics — you never know what to expect from them.       I lay in bedroll all day and only in the morning of the next day was able to get up. After a quick breakfast and turning camp, we set off. I decided not to take lunch breaks and not train for a while to make up for lost time. After a few days, I felt an even greater desire to kill than ever before. And it seems clear why. I partially awakened the power of the Scythe, which increased its effect on my mind. When a traveler loomed up on the road, I could hardly keep myself from knocking him down at full gallop.       Only five days later I returned to a normal rhythm. Daniel somehow suspiciously subsided. I even got worried and asked if everything was all right.        — My Overlord, I am silent only because you do not ask anything, — he replied.       - Sure, — I nodded.       I myself have not been the most sociable since childhood, so it’s even better that this Fallen one does not talk much, but simply does everything that I order.       Arriving in Viragot, the first thing I bought was all the textbooks and supplies needed for the Demonology course. I was satisfied to fill out an application for admission, but then I was taken aback, saying that they are served only on Mondays, in addition, it turned out that I still had a lot of other paperwork to do. It’s unpleasant, but oh well: it’s good that I arrived on Saturday, I can explore the city, since there is something to see.