Chapter 22: Sacrifice (2)
Liam's body trembled, his muscles straining at the red chains that bound him together. His vision blurred with tears, memories of his time with the professor played in a loop in his mind as he watched the professor turn into a red mist, fueling the dark mages and the bandits.
"Prepare them for the sacrifice," the lead mage shouted, pointing at the villagers.
The mages nodded, pushing the villagers onto a large magic circle in the ground. It looked like it had been drawn using blood, and flies hovered around it. The mages then went and stood across at the pillars from earlier, only leaving the lead mage, Liam, and the bandit leader.
The lead mage let out a crooked smile, his eyes glinting maliciously as he looked at the terrified villagers. Some let out tears, while some clutched their hands together in prayer. Anything to get them out of this situation, but they were out of luck.
The lead mage took the red crystal again, throwing it in the air, but it it didn't come down. It hovered in the air above the magic circle and between the pillars, as if suspended by invisble threads. Suddenly red tendril of energy burst out from the crystal, connecting to the pillars, lighting up the red runes.
The mages began to cheer, raising their hands into the sky, the red wolf mark on their foreheads lighting up. The villagers fell silent as a beastly aura accompanied by a wolf howl.
The lead mage smiled as he raised his hands into the sky, slowly rising above, and hovered above the red crystal. He smiled, looking below towards the trembling villagers. He then turned towards the mages.
"Begin." He commanded
The mages raised their staffs into the air as they began chanting the same spell the Lead mage had just done to the Proffersor. Liam looked in horror as he saw a blood-red mist begin to appear around the villagers.
The magic circle on the ground also began glowing red, the wind around started picking up, carrying on it the smell of iron. Blood, Liam thought. A scream tore through the night. Liam quickly turned his face towards the noise, it was coming from the villagers, a red crack had appeared on her arm, slowly spreading upward. Red mist slowly leaked out, floating upwards towards the red crystal hovering above.
Liam stared in horror, and suddenly, more screams erupted as the mages continued to chant, all along the villagers' bodies, cracks began appearing, accompanied with the sounds of cracking bones.
More red mist began covering the despairing villagers as some began glowing completely red, their bodies turning into red mist at a rapid rate. The crystal began glowing brighter as more and more of that red mist was absorbed by it.
The mages finished their chanting as they all simultaneously slammed their staffs onto the ground, causing a ring of red light to spread into the surroundings. The villagers slowly began rising into the air, their bodies contorting in weird positons. They screamed in agony but there was no escape. One by one, they all exploded into a bundle of red mist just like the professor, all being absorbed by the crystal.
The red light in the area slowly dimmed as the red mist faded, and the lead mage slowly descended onto the ground. He walked to Liam a smirk on his now youthful face, white now flowed down his scalp, his teeth no longer rotten they were long and pointed now, just like a wolfs.
"Did you enjoy the show?" He asked Liam, towering over him.
Liam's head stayed facing down, memories of life in the village replaying in his mind. He had just lost everyone and everything he knew, all because he was weak. Weakness, he thought. If only he weren't so weak, then this wouldn't have happened he would have been able to save everyone from their death.
He looked up into the red eyes of the leaf mage, rage clouding his eyes.
"I'll KILL YOU!" He proclaimed. He struggled from the chains but something shocking happened the chains snapped. But Liam didn't care, he lunged onto the lead mage. An enormous pressure came from the mage, smashing Liam onto the ground, but thats when he heard it.