The Prince Of Magic

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After a few moments of contemplation, Hadrian sighed as he made a decision.

Nearby, the two old mages, Hugo and Edward, heard his sigh and turned to him with curiosity on their faces.

It was Hugo who voiced their mutual curiosity.

"What's the matter, young master?" The older mage asked, causing Hadrian to look at him.

"I must go above the platform." Hadrian answered, calmly glancing up the ceiling. "My two friends will need my help there."

"Er… then what about…" Edward trailed off, gesturing to the people around the control room.

Before, the control room had a bit of space, but after the alarm was sounded and the headquarters was put under lockdown, the rest of the Watch members stationed above the headquarters had been commanded to wait inside in the room along with them till the intruders were dealt with and the danger passed.

The control room was spacious, but now, there were a lot more people than there was previously.

Most of the Watch members looked nervous and scared as they watched the battles happening in the island and the building above the underwater headquarters. Although, they do still maintained their professionalism as they worked together with the core members of the control room, assisting them with technical issues here and there.

Knowing that he couldn't leave the people here without an assurance, Hadrian went to Hugo and stood in front of him.

Before the latter could open his mouth to ask, the young mage calmly lifted his right hand up and plucked his fluffy white familiar from his comfortable nest (which happens to be on his master's head).

"Kyu?" The white fluffy familiar cooed.

The pudgy familiar did not even resisted as his master grabbed him with both hands and faced him.

"Okay, Ryu. You stay here, and protect these people in my place." Hadrian instructed, looking at the small familiar in the eyes. "If something happens, you know what to do. Got it?"

"Kyukyu!" The familiar chirped with a smile, his thin white furry tail swishing in confirmation.

Hadrian smiled at his familiar's enthusiasm to follow his order, then he turned towards to Hugo, who looked surprised at his sudden attention.

"Do you happen to have a free chair here?" The young mage asked.

"Um… why do you ask?" Edward inquired, curious as to why he would need one.

"Oh, just something." Hadrian answered with a mysterious smile and twinkle in his bright cyan eyes.

For some odd reason, Hugo and Edward felt that the expression the young mage wore in that moment was nearly identical to the one that their liege lord would often wear, which was whenever the old Wizard Marshall felt like executing a prank that would give many mages headaches just by witnessing it.

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Meanwhile, above the underwater headquarters of the Watch…

Kieran let out a sigh of satisfaction, wiping the sweat off his brow with the back of his left hand.

He had just finished playing (torturing) the black clad soldiers, and now he was standing on a small pile of their bodies. Most of his clothes were covered in blood (theirs, of course) and bits of their flesh, including their innards that Kieran took great joy in plucking out of their bodies.

Now that he looked at it, he can see some bite-sized remnants of their entrails managed to get stuck in his fingernails.

Pulling out a clean handkerchief from his pocket, the amber eyed servant tried to clean himself as best as he could, wiping off the bits of fleshes and fresh blood off his face and body before chucking the piece of cloth away in some direction without care.

He looked around the room, admiring his own bloody handiwork once more.

The grand hallway looked perfectly thrashed, even more so before. The once clean walls and floors were painted with blood and broken furniture can be seen everywhere strewn around the room.

It was simply no longer as grand, polished and majestic as it was once before.

Once he had his fill, Kieran came back to reality and walked down from the pile of dead bodies.

Just as his feet landed on the carpeted floor, his sense of danger blared in his mind like loud horns, causing him to pick up his modified firearm from its holster in a blink of an eye as he turned around to the direction where he had sensed the threat to his safety.

An incredulous expression came upon his face as he saw it was the old mage, who he had killed first earlier.

'The hell? How's he not dead? I thought I was thorough. Either he's not human, or he got a trick up his sleeve...' The retainer thought, a bit surprised by the old mage's perseverance.

The amber eyed retainer watched as the old mage simply stood where he was, eyes closed and seemingly calm with his arms by his sides.

The magical energy Kieran was picking up from the old mage was the opposite told a different story, however. It was dangerous, ominous and undeniably not akin to a human's.

Just by watching the old mage stood there eleven feet away from him felt foreboding, as if there was something dangerous about to come next.

That was when he noticed it.

In place of the dead bodies of the black clad soldiers, there were skeletons instead.

It was as if the corpses shriveled up and had been reduced to bones. The only evidence that the skeletons were the soldiers are the black clothes and the puddles of blood that remained behind, which begged the question as to what happened while his attention was on the old mage.

Even as Kieran had his gun pointed at him, the old mage didn't moved an inch.

The retainer was beginning to wonder whether he was even breathing, seeing as he didn't saw the fall and rising motions of his c.h.e.s.t. The long haired mage was that still.

Not only that, the foreboding sense of danger he was feeling from the old mage was getting more prominent as the seconds went by.

Feeling that he was getting nowhere with his internal musings, Kieran had decided to break the eerie silence.

"Oi��� the f.u.c.k are you up and about?" The retainer questioned, glaring at the intruder.

In response, the old mage opened his eyes, and that was when it dawned on Kieran.

The old mage's dark gray eyes were no longer so. Instead, replacing them were a pair of bright crimson ones that was one of the familiar characteristics of a certain race.

"Dead Apostle… f.u.c.k.i.n.g awesome, really." Kieran muttered under his breath, internally cursing his luck.

His attention turned to the old mage when the latter began to speak.

"I must say… you did quite a fantastic work taking me out first. You caught me off guard, this I have to admit." The intruder smiled wryly, as if amused by his own incompetence.

"Why thanks, I'm flattered." Kieran replied with thick sarcasm in his voice.

"Still, that was also quite rude of you." The old mage idly said, brushing off imaginary dusts from his shoulders and front, despite the blood and bits of gore that stained them. "I was merely asking for your master's whereabouts to give him something, not to harm him."

"Oh? Well, Boss ain't interested in seeing ya, so you can either f.u.c.k off or die right here. I highly recommended for ya to choose the second option though." Kieran stated nonchalantly.

"Awfully charming, you are." The old mage(?) smiled thinly, clearly amused.

"Some say that it's one of my charmin' points." Kieran said with a shrug.

"Nevertheless, I insist."

After flashing him with another smile, one that revealed the two fangs peeking below his upper lip, the blood-s.u.c.k.i.n.g creature crossed the room in a span of split second, almost too fast for Kieran to notice. But, fortunately, his spars with the others improved his basic abilities and honed his senses to a manageable level, so he didn't s.u.c.k.e.d more than he was originally.

Using the underside of his gun, Kieran managed to block the thrust attack from the intruder's sharp nails that nearly pierced his throat.

He did a roll to the side to evade the intruder's kick, firing several shots at him as he moved to the other side to maintain a distance.

The Dead Apostle was about to follow up another attack before he was rudely interrupted by an unexpected newcomer.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

Endless barrages of black magical energy in the form of tiny marbles, launching off with the speed of a bullet, hit the Dead Apostle in specific areas. They landed on the center of Jester Karture's head, his torso, arms, legs, knees and repeat.

The magical bullet storm came out of nowhere, but seeing the direction of their appearance, Kieran saw that the attacks came from below Jester.

The 'black bullets' was actually a simple curse called 'Gandr', but due to the highly concentrated magical energy contained in them, they are called 'Finn Shot'.

The assailant was targeted his vital spots with such marksmanship and terrifying precision in perfect order, it was almost a beautiful sight to watch.

Knowing who was behind the attack, Kieran simply stood to the side and enjoyed the show, smirking at the way the Dead Apostle kept getting hit.

The intruder was not happy with his current predicament though, seeing as he tried to escape the onslaught of black hailstorm.

But alas, every time he did try to escape, he would be interrupted, getting shot in the face or forehead in return as the speed of the barrages slowly and steadily increased.

Also, Jester's high-speed regeneration, one of the abilities that was normal and expected in most vampires, helped him recover his limbs and other body parts he had lost.

But, the powerful effects of the Gandr was reducing the speed of his regeneration, preventing his body from being fully restored.

Kieran had already lost count how many times Jester got hit, but after a whole twenty seconds was done, the furious black hailstorm stopped. But, not after one shot, one that looked a bit larger in size and power, was fired off and landed on the intruder's face.

The power behind the shot launched the blood-sucker off of his feet, away and down to the other end of the hallway near the entrance.

Jester landed on his back with a rough 'thud', thoroughly pelleted with so many Finn Shots that he was reduced to an ugly pile of blood, flesh and curses on the dirty floor.

"Damn…" The retainer whistled, highly impressed at what he had seen.

*DING*

The gentle chime of the elevator's arrival to the current floor caused Kieran to look over his shoulder and behind him.

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