Chapter 250 - Presentation

Beyond the door, a staircase wound upward, narrow and uneven. The walls bore no decoration, just cold stone.

Each step creaked under their weight.

Vell exhaled through his nose. "All that effort for an impressive entrance, and the inside is just... this?"

The stairs ended at a simple wooden door. No embellishments, no defenses. Sonder, front in line with flame in hand, reached out, half-expecting it to be locked.

It wasn't.

They stepped inside a study. Griffonage's study.

It was underwhelming.

Books and scrolls were stacked haphazardly, some spilling onto the floor. A desk stood at the center, cluttered with half-written notes and ink-stained parchment. Empty shelves lined the walls. An old, tattered rug barely covered the stone beneath it.

Vell sighed. "This is it?"

The knight was less concerned with aesthetics. His sharp gaze scanned the room, searching for anything dangerous.

Then he saw it. 

A massive cauldron—if it could even be called that—dominated the space. Its surface wavered between liquid and solid metal, shifting unnaturally in the dim light. Above it, a massive blue crystal hung suspended, melting in slow, shimmering droplets that fed into the cauldron.

The air around it shimmered with raw energy.

The knight's grip tightened on his sword as he had recognized it. "That crystal belonged to my kingdom. It is the crowning stone, the very one above the throne of the king himself." 

An unfamiliar voice drifted from the shadows. "Ah, well. Ownership is such a complicated thing."

A man stepped into the light. Griffonage.

His robes, once fine, were wrinkled and stained with ink and potion spills. His beard was patchy, his hair a wild mess of uneven curls. He looked less like a powerful wizard and more like a scholar who had spent too many nights awake, too many meals forgotten in the pursuit of something greater than himself.

Like his study, he was disappointingly unimpressive.

Vell crossed his arms. "Really? You build a grand, ominous tower, fill it with death traps, and this is how you dress?" 

Griffonage spread his arms. "I believe in presenting a certain image. The world respects my style."

"Except you apply none of it to yourself," Vell said dryly.

Griffonage sighed. "We can't all be effortlessly charming. It's not like you know anything about it, Dread Mage."

The knight wasn't interested in their banter. "Foul wizard. Whatever you've been doing, whatever you have been planning, it ends now. You will trouble my kingdom no longer."

Griffonage shrugged. "A few experiments. Unstable ones. Not my fault they wandered out." 

The squire's hands clenched into fists. "We hunted them for months. They killed innocent people."

"Ah." Griffonage tapped his chin. "Well, magic is a process of trial and error—"

The knight took a step forward. "Enough. All of this stops now." 

Griffonage smiled and considered it. "…No."

The tension in the room thickened.

The mana in the air thickened, drawn from the stolen crystal, coiling at Griffonage's fingertips. 

Vell pulled Sonder aside, lowering his voice. "He's not powerful. But with stolen magic, even the weak can be dangerous. Protect them."

The knight drew his sword. "This ends now."