Prophet of stolen dreams

I just came from a job to hunt down some magical beasts near Hiék. There I saw a group of people worshiping the self proclaimed prophet. I asked them why are they worhiping him and they said "because our luck has turned so that we see a lot of good luck." I argued "How can you be sure that it's because of what he did to you?" Then they said "It must be because of it. I can't find any other reason."

After this conversation, I was called for another job to clear out a factory that was occupied by some abyssal wolfs. Abyssal wolfs are wolfs that can open portals between abyss and overworld, meaning they can appear from out of nowhere. They have fur that consist of metal strands and they glow a bit in different colors. The fact that they seemed to gather on that spot was something that worried me, so I went in with causion.

When I was there, I felt an eary feeling down my spine and I was sure that there was something that lured these wolfs in. I didn't see many outside of the factory, but I saw that it was for the best to take care of them before I'm overrun by them. The trick to deal with these wolfs is to take them out as quickly as possible before they can disappear. They can walk between subspace, so even if they disappear, they might just attack soon later from your blind spot. I killed the few that were outside and I proseeded in.

There I saw many more wondering around. Before I could go further in, I had to deal with the group of them. When they noticed my presence, they quickly disappeared and I had to wait for their attack or use my sword to cut them before they entered the subspace. I decided on using my sword to cut them in the past and they appeared heavily wounded when they came out of the subspace. Some of them managed to sneak on me and I got couple of cuts, but I took care of the rest soon after. With light wounds, I casted healing spell on me and it made me feel a bit better. The wounds these things make to a living being causes some radiation burns. The wolfs themselfs aren't radioactive, but the wounds they inflict causes that effect. I need to later heal myself properly to get rid of those burns.

Then I entered the main part of the factory and I saw very big abyssal wolf that was covered in mercury. That wolf seemed to be the boss of this group, so I tried my best to kill it first, but I didn't manage to make big enough wound on him. Now that they all noticed me, I had to be carefull to not get overrun. The boss wolf attacked me first and I dodged it's attack followed by a much stronger strike on it's neck. When it's head was cut off, some mercury was splatered on me. Before I could clean myself, I had to dodge the oncoming attacks of the other wolfs. When I got a bit more breathing room, I casted a water spell on me to clean myself up and then I returned to action.

With only minor injuries, I now had dealt with the group of abyssal wolfs. Just in case I missed any, I checked the place for any remaining wolfs. I only found some eaten up corpses of the workers that were here and not another abyssal wolf. During my search, I found out that the factory was working on an meteorite. The metal in that meteorite had some void energy left in it, so that was probably what lured the abyssal wolfs to this place. Now was time to make a report to my superiors.

After I was done with the report, I took some time off until I was contacted to head for another job. My current work as a mercenary makes me able to choose what kinds of jobs I take. Since my track record is filled of successes, I was quite popular on the market. The people who hire me usually are some bigshots who have some difficulty with magical beasts or other nuisances. I'm also hired by the dragon lords quite often.

Speaking of dragon lords, Fafnir had an interesting development going on. After guns became a thing, many could clear the dungeon he had created pretty easily. I'm sure it caused him to lose some money when people weren't dying as often, so he closed his dungeon and made it an casino. I wish I was joking. A casino inside a mountain with nothing else in sight. Thanks to teleportation platforms, it somehow became popular among the gamblers. In fact, that place is called THE place to gamble. There are some higher levels where you don't spend and win as much as you could on the lover levels. The lower the level was, the higher the risks and winnings rose. Only the truly rich dared to enter the lowest levels. As for how Fafnir managed to find people to work for him, at first he created homonculi to work for him, but later some mortals came looking to work for him. I don't dare to enter the lower floors, but I have visited couple of times. I was treated as an VIP by the staff, so I could enter the lower floors without any difficulty, or get some drinks. I never liked to do much gambling, but every now and then I go there and spend some money. Nina and Mary don't like it much.

Then Lex told me and Mary to come to him so that he can explain his findings on Shane Decon's power. We go there and this is how it goes.

- So you are finally here. Come, I need to sho you something.

He goes to the computer and presses few buttons and the the screen shows an humanoid figure that showed his skeleton, veins and neurons with some graphs on the side. He explained what they meant.

Lex: I got a person to volunteer to take their information before and after the power that tooks away magic. As you can see, the magic itself isn't taken away and you can channel magic just fine to devices. The person who had this done to them loses their inert ability to form spells in their mind, meaning that the casting of spells is impossible. However, it is possible for the user to write down spells and runes on objects, meaning you don't lose all of your magical talent. Something that I found is that they have an active effect on them that permanetly boosts your luck. To boost luck, you need a high tier spell to make it happen, so just the fact that it is boosted on top of losing your ability to cast spells. Since it seemed impossible to do such a thing, I also tested the person's lifeforce before and after the thing. What I found was that person who goes through this ability, loses some part of their lifeforce, meaning that they will age must faster compared to people who haven't been affected by this ability. While the faster aging isn't noticable, it seems to be something that is unavoidable. I tried many things to reverse the ability with no avail.

Mary: So what you mean to say is that they will sacrifice their lifeforce to lose their spellcasting ability and the improvement of luck.

Lex: Yes.

Mary: Can you send these findings to my personal email so that I can further spread this information through official ranks.

Lex: That will be done.

Mary: Do you have anything else that you might add?

Lex: Let's see. I found out that they can now use Shane Decon's ability by storing it on crystals and shooting the energy through small magic nails. Even vaccines have been managed to be made, which makes the movement even faster.

Mary: I also heard something similar about the vaccines, but I didn't know about the guns. This might escalate to something more serious.

Lex: My estimate is that they will start moving more aggressively in a month or two. At latest in three months.

Mary: Is there any chance that it won't happen?

Lex: I find it very hard to believe that it's possible. In my opinion, it's not matter of if, but when.

Nor: And taking out Shane Decon is something we can't just do.

Mary: That would upset the public way too much. Maybe if we wait for their aggressive movements, but even so, it doesn't seem like the public will easily agree. Even spreading the information about lifespan shortening, there will be people who think that we are spreading false information to suppress their religion.

Lex: All we can do is hope that people will believe us and make them believe that anti-magic religion is dangerous as it currently is. Other than that, we should prepare for the inevitable aggression.

Nor: How about we meet Shane in person and discuss the matter?

Lex: That will prove most likely fruitless. But if...

Nor: What?

Lex: If we would offer something in return, then maybe.

Mary: But what can we give that makes them stay calm?

Lex: I have an idea. Let's prepare an official meeting with Shane Decon.

Mary: I will contact my people to get in contact with him. I will inform you if things go smoothly.

Lex: Good. I will hear you later.

Mary leaves and I was about to go, but Lex stoped me and said he wanted to talk about something.

- What do you want to talk about?

- This Shane Decon... how do you think he does it?

- I don't know.

- I have reached a hypothesis that is highly supported by the fact that his ability can be stored in crystals.

- Then what is it? Why couldn't you tell Mary about it?

- If she was here, then I would have to force to tell my identity. The reason I would've had to tell her, is because I believe that Shane Decon is a reincarnation of a kindled one.

- A reincarnation of a kindled one? Why do you think that?

- This is something that has happened in the past, once when we still grated them the abilities of the origin. Back then, he was also an elf who saw the world of magic as a hindrance to peace. He built up strong influence during those times and managed to take out hundreds of thousands' ability to cast spells. Back then he couldn't spread his belief as fast as this, so it's going to go to extremes sooner or later.

- But you don't know how reincarnation is possible.

- Reincarnation is actually quite common. That is just how souls end up when they return to the cycle. What we don't understand is how some are able to retain their memories after they end their current life.

- Do you think that Rahasia would know?

- If anyone knows, then it has to be her. But I don't have anything that's of equal value as payment. He might be someone who found a way to retain his memories and continues to do his past live's work. There is just a small chance that he doesn't have his memories of that time, but ended up doing the same thing again nevertheless.

- Can you confirm if he is kindled?

- For that I have to get close to him, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

- What are you going to do?

- I will tell you when the time comes. I just need to tell Relse and Aktor few things before the meeting.

And so we waited for the meeting to happen for couple of weeks. When the meeting conditions were aproved, we then waited couple of more days to enter the meeting itself. The meeting happened in Ost, a same place where those famous talks happened back in the day. Each side sat to the table. On the first side was Lex, Pope John, Lóng and me. The other side consisted of Shane Decon and his two retainers. He was a tall elf with a long blond hair. In the side sat a person who would record what was said and also someone who would write the paper that we would all sign. Don't ask me how I was a person who needed to put his signature. This meeting was prodcasted to people around the world.

Lex: Let's start, shall we? It has come to our attencion that you are building ways to spread your ability to others while not being there.

Shane: That is true. And might I add that it's wonderfull to see us all gather together to talk about our future.

Lex: Quite. Back to the topic, these methods of spreading your ability to spread are thought to be vaccines and modified weaponry.

Shane: Those are parts of the things we are working on.

John: The fact that you are creating weaponry is making us worry that you are planning on more aggressive measures. What do you say to that?

Shane: Surely I would love to spread our belief peacefully, but there are some evil people out there that never will give up their evil ways of using magic for their own selfish reasons. For those types of people, we are planning on using some more forcefull methods.

Mary: Then what do you say about our current research that your ability makes people lose some of their lifeforce.

Shane: I find those accusations rude.

Mary: So you aren't denying it.

Shane: I would never lie to the people who have their faith in me.

Mary: So you admit it.

Shane: Unfortunately, my ability has that sort of effect, but most of us have a lifespan over 50 or so. That means that, at worst, you lose the last five years of your life. I'd say that the prosperity that my ability brings is something worth that sacrifice.

Mary: Then what about people who didn't know about this before they embraced your ability?

Shane: For those I say that it was unnecessary knowledge. But to those that would have asked me, I would have always told the truth.

Mary: So you're saying that no one asked.

Shane: Only few people have asked.

Lex: Then, let's get to the main topic at hand.

Shane: Oh, I've been waiting this.

Lex: In return of my and pope John's ability to cast spells, you will promise to hold out any aggressive spreading of your belief for 50 years. Do you accept these terms?

Nor: What?

Shane: While I see both of you as something that will further our cause, I don't agree with the time we have to remain passive. There are too many criminals misusing their magic around the world right now and those need to be taken down as soon as possible.

Lex: Do you have any other time we can agree on?

Shane: I will only halt our cause for four years at most.

Mary: You can't be serious. The worth of those two losing their magical abilities is much more valuable than mere four years.

Shane: I'm sorry, but that is the most I can tolerate. In fact, I see pope John to be an unnecessary piece in this trade. He is someone who is the pinacle of what magic should be used for.

Lex: Then is my worth only four years?

Shane: You are worth six years.

Lex: I see. Then let's agree that in return of me losing my magic casting ability, you will halt your aggressive spreading of your religion for six years. Is this acceptable?

Shane: It is. Though I would love if Nor would lose his magic casting.

Nor: What do you gain for blocking my magic casting?

Shane: If we start to move more aggressively, you'd be on the oposing side. You would make our progress much slower if you have magic.

Nor: Then how much am I worth.

Shane: Four years.

Lex: We politely decline this offer. Only my magic casting ability will be taken as an exchange.

Shane: Pity. I would have thought you want peace to last longer. Then again, what is peace when people undeserving of magical abilities roam the world.

Lex: Then let's sign the contract.

Shane: With pleasure.

The document was writen and both sides wrote their name on it. When it was done, Shane grabed Lex's head and took away his ability to cast magic. What is Lex thinking on givin up his abilities. He is the original power of magic for fuck sake.

Before the meeting ended, Shane came near me and whispered.

- I will have you and your family in no time at all. Just wait and see.

Then the meeting ended and all parties were dispersed, I went and asked Lex what he was thinking.

- What do you think you are doing givin your magic casting ability away?! You've had that ability for the entirety of existance and you just throw it away for mere six years!

- I saw it as necessary sacrifice.

- How so?!

- With this we have more time to prepare for the inevitable conflict against the anti-magic religion.

- But... your magic?

- It doesn't matter much if I lose the ability to cast spells on command. In fact, now that the technology has progressed so much, I can make equipment that will store spells for me and use them as my tools. And have you forgotten about how runes work?

- You... think you can live with it?

- I think it's something to get used to. But look on the bright side, I'm now most closest to an ordinary person than I have ever been.

- That still leaves me a bit sad.

- Don't worry about it too much. I made my peace with it. And we didn't leave without anything in return.

- Well the six years of peace is nice and all, but was it truly worth it.

- That's not all, I got to check for that brief moment that if he was an kindled or not.

- You did? Then which is it?

- He was indeed an kindled one and powerfull one at that. Be prepared to have hard time on fighting him in the future. Well, perhaps you have grown strong enough to take it easy. Who knows.

- I see. I will prepare. And on another thing, why was Lóng in this meeting?

- He was there to witness the meeting and my sacrifice as a dragon lord. He is the wisest of the dragon lords so he must know how much of a significance that was. I also informed him about what Shane Decon was. He will tell the other dragon lords of what happened.

- How will that make things better?

- It will give them the inspiration to go against Shane Decon. The contract didn't specify any of the consequences if the terms were broken, so we have freedom of choosing what we do, should that situation arise.

- I see. Then what will your brothers think of your sacrifice?

- I talked with them about it, and they seem to be tolerant with the situation. Relse was against it at first, but I managed to calm him down. Aktor on the other hand said that it was my choise to do. I expected a bit more fighting with Aktor, but he seem to understand my point of view.

- If you all are okay with this, then what am I to say against it.

- You have no say in this in any case. Come, I want you to meet with someone.

- You do? What is this about?

- She is a genius with enchantments. She will be monumental on my journey with no spell casting.

- I see.

We go to a small town that is spewing with machines. There are even some automatons moving around and helping the town. We go up the mountain that has a building that hangs on the mountain's side. Lex seemed a bit out of breath when climbing the mountain, even with the elevators that went up pretty easily. He must not have walked this much stairs for a long while.

When we were on the final steps to get to the house, we see couple of armed automatons guarding the entrance.

- Identify yourselfs.

- Lexonor and Nor Los.

- Lexonor has been given the permission to enter. Nor Los has not been permited to enter.

- I will go talk to your creator.

He goes inside for a while, while I was standing on a cold and windy mountain. Luckily we weren't that high on the mountain that the altitude sickness would kick in. At least not much.

Then Lex comes out with a person right next to him. That person was a dark elf child who were about half my size. She said.

- Qua has given the permission for Nor Los to enter.

- Apprentice's aproval acknowledged. Nor Los has permission to enter.

Then I walked inside the house that was filled with things on the walls. It seemed to be quite well kept given the hoarder vibe the house gives. The dark elf girl then introduces herself.

- Hello nin Los. My name is Elviana Nit Jin Oulur. You may call me just Ana. I'm an kuln or apprentice of quan Ulvin. Nin Taican has given me the impression that you are skilled fighter. Is this correct?

- I do have some skill in fighting things and I'm told that I'm quite good in what I do. Haven't seen many dark elves around since they are quite rare race. Your name sounds interesting as well. Is it traditional dark elf name?

I see a dog and cat automatons walking around. They seem to be quite detailed.

- My name is quite traditional dark elf name. Do you know anything about our traditions nin Los?

- I would like to know more now that I actually met one dark elf who knows of their traditions. And what do the nin and quan mean? You explained that kuln means apprentice, but what does the other two mean?

- Nin means mister or mam that is gender neutral. Perhaps some would call it elder, but that is more close to the term uten. Quan means master or teacher in common. If you noticed, things that refer to a person end with the letter "n" and most of our language is gender neutral if you take out the words that specificly refer to man or woman. As for my name, Elviana is my first name, Nit means I'm a woman, Jin is my last name and Oulur is my mother's first name. Normaly it would be the parent's name would be from the same gender as you are, but if you don't have one, you are a boy and you don't know your father's name, then the mother's name is used instead or just the word tiolun, meaning parentless.

- Why doesn't the word used for gender end with "n" even if it refers to a person?

- That's because it is classified as a thing to describe the person and not the person themselfs.

- It sure sounds interesting.

- Yn always told me to be proud as an dark elf since it's an rarity.

- What is yn?

- It means mother.

- I see.

- Then, while there is a lot of stuff to talk about when it comes to dark elf culture, I'm sure nin Taican is quite bored at listening. And so I will guide you two to quin's workshop.

We go to a room that is filled with metal scraps. There is a dark elf woman who is doing something to a piece of metal.

- Quin! We have visitors!

- Hah?! Visitors?! Oh yeah, now that you mention it. Wait a minute will you. I'm just about to finish this.

- We will wait at the dining table.

We leave the room and sit at the table while Ana makes us some coffee in the meantime. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but as she is making it out of kindness, I will drink it in regardless. A while passed and the coffee was ready. Then couple minutes after, the woman came to the dining table and sat down. She started speaking.

- Oh, hello old friend Tim. How are you doing?

- I've had better days, and I told you to not call me Tim.

- Details, details. It doesn't matter what we call each other.

- It's the matter of respect.

- Oh bother. So, is this lin the person you talked about before?

- Yes.

- Fantastic. So little lin Nor, how are you doing? How do you feel now that our great original power of magic has lost his spell casting ability?

I answer.

- I'm doing fine. I was bit surprised when Lex just gave it away. I'm still bit stunned by it. You know what Lex is?

- Of course I know. I figured it out by reading few books.

Lex says.

- You say that as if reading anchient scriptures is a simple thing.

- You're so worried about the details. Why don't you just let a bit go?

- Those scriptures weren't even writen in any spoken languages.

- Again, details. Now then lin Nor, what do you think of my automatons?

I answer.

- I think they are pretty advanced.

- I know right! No one is better at creating enchanted things as me. I'm the one who invented the legendary weather orb.

- You were the one who made that?

- But of course. Though I had to be bit carefull as to not make it a weapon. Though it can be used to make the ecosystem go off the rails, it still has plenty of limiters to prevent it from doing too much damage. Though I still can't beat the genius of the true creator.

- You mean Aktor?

- Yes. He is someone who is leagues above my abilities. The genius of that man is terrifying yet I still want to be someone who he can be proud of.

- I mean he did create a base in Inanis.

- He did? Hmmm... He must have done something truly remarkable that he can't show to the world just yet. We must advance more to get to the point where we can travel to Inanis just like that. Perhaps then, we are permited to know the truth of what the lord of creation has done for us.

- You really look up to him.

- Can you blame me? He created things that no one else could. Even if magic isn't in his realm of expertise, he still is a master of enchantments.

- I see. Is there a reason why I'm here?

- Yes. Do you want an upgrade to you circuits?

- I mean if it doesn't cost too much.

- Excelent! Then take off your clothes and let's go to the basement.

- Wait.

She starts draging me to the basement and I just watch Lex siping his coffee in peace. What have you done you old bastard?!

And couple of hours later, I woke up in daze. The circuits seemed to be gone and in their place was just small wires that you could barely see. The dark elf... what was her name again? Anyways, she was sitting on a bench doing something to a small object and when she noticed that I was awake, she started to talk to me.

- Do you feel more powerfull now?

- I'm... I can't really tell just yet.

- What a bother. Well go upstairs and tell me if you notice anything.

I put my clothes back on and I go see Lex and Ana talking, so I ask them.

- How long was I out?

Lex answers.

- About three hours.

- That long huh. Why do you speak so slowly?

- I... don't. Perhaps it's the enchantments you received.

- I... I see. Can I have something to drink?

Ana says.

- Sertainly.

She then broght me a glass of juice and I drink it. It tasted a bit weird, but I drank it anyways.

- What have you two done for the past three hours?

- Mostly talking about you and quan. And somethings about past.

- I see. You seem to talk a bit loud.

- I'm not though.

- I... I see.

Then the master comes from the basement and asks.

- Have you noticed anything yet?

- Everyone talks a bit slow and they sound a bit louder than usual. Also the juice tasted funny.

- I see. You just haven't abjusted yet to your current abilities.

- What did you do?

- Mostly enhanced your senses a lot. If you focus now on one of your senses, you will feel the change. Since you felt that people talked loudly, it's probably that you can't just control it yet. Also your natural physical abilities were increased by a lot. Your resistant skin made things a bit more hard for me to make the modifications, but I just had to get more patient with the proses at hand.

- I... I see. Then may I ask what is your name?

- I didn't tell you? Well, in any case, my name is Ulvin Nit Jin Aliona.

- You have a same last name as Ana?

- Yes, she is my niece.

- Then if she is underage, why is she living with you?

- It's... complicated.

- Can you still tell me?

- Well... it doesn't matter. Her father was found using necromancy illegaly so he was put in prison and her mother, my sister, was in a car accident. I'm Ana's emergency contact so she has lived with me for couple of years.

- Then why is she calling you master?

- That she chose herself. I do teach her about my craft and I must admit that she has talent for this. In due time, she would make an excellent enchanter.

- How is her mother?

- She is currently on coma. There were many healers who tried but couldn't bring her back. It's something that must take time.

- I see. My condolences.

- No need, but it's appreciated. Now Lex, about that thing you asked me.

- Wait, I wasn't the reason we came here?

- Oh you were just a bonus.

- Of course I was.

Lex says.

- How is it?

- I have done my best to make it according to instructions, though I still can't beat the real thing.

- That is good enough.

She hands Lex a small cube.

- What is that?

- This is my new way of casting spells.

- You can do that?

- I can just picture a spell, channel my magic to this cube and when it's time, release it. Let's test it out. Fire.

A small fire comes Lex's other hand.

- Good. Then how about teleportation.

He teleports another side of the table.

- Good. You have done well Ulvin. Here is the payment.

He hands him some cash. We do use lux coins still, but paper money is a thing now. We even use to pay things electricly.

- Good, that's about it. Now if you excuse me, I have some things to build.

- See you later, old friend.

- Will do rin Taican.

We then leave the house and Lex teleports us near a platform that can teleport us further. I think he just doesn't fully trust the cube that Ulvin gave him.