The Conciege

(TLO) Chapter 48: We Do What We Must

What had the boy been thinking?

He had been watching Igor as he stepped in the room, just like the rest of his brothers, contemplating on Borriovani’s safety and his own. But when the priest had turned to speak to Seth, things had changed. Timilehin’s attack had been far from predicted. And how he had struck, it was ludicrous. How had he covered the distance so quickly?

All these thoughts made Jason frown as Igor left the room, their thrashing brother in his arms. With the absence of the priest, he moved to join Seth to ensur...

(TLO) Chapter 47: Time Left

Jason was the first to move as Borriovani put his life at risk, thrashing like a fish out of water. He left his bed with the same speed he always displayed in everything, as if always in a hurry. Seth had barely reacted when the boy was at Borriovani’s side, holding him down by the shoulders.

“Help me!” he barked. “I can’t hold him down.”

Fin reacted almost immediately, a soldier to his commanding officer’s instruction. He moved quickly, securing the Borrivani’s feet with both hands. Salem joined next. But when he...

(TLO) Chapter 46: He Is Not Jabari

There was a numb sensation in Seth’s hand when he woke up, some piece of pain between his fingers. That was the first sensation he felt. The first thing he saw, however, was Timi, sitting across from his bed, staring with a worried look in his eyes. When their eyes met, Timi’s expression eased a bit, but it still held worry, perhaps a fraction of what had once been there.

Sound came to Seth next. He heard the whispered mumbles of his brothers, pieces of knowledge and information passing from lips to ears as much as gossip.

He...

(TLO) Chapter 45: Fracture Quest

Seth knew what was to happen next, at least if Domitia was the opponent he was facing. The priest had a certain favor for attacks and defenses that it led him to a certain bias. Domitia had proven he knew all the techniques but favored the few. In the fighting stance his opponent had chosen, the next form was more than obvious when coming against a staggered enemy. So Seth pushed to the side with a single step, braced for impact, and prepared his counter.

His mind was like the priestesses of the convents; nothing more than an imitation...

(TLO) Chapter 44: He'll Remember

Seth’s hand moved without command. It rested against the wall and he eased himself against it. It was rough and hard. Its temperature was unknown as his ability to feel had remained an elusive lover since the beginning of the test.

He ran a trepid hand through his groomed, sleek hair as he heard the howl of a particularly pained voice from one of the replicas fighting. When he’d packed his hair back was beyond him. He remembered doing it, but it was as one remembers a particularly morbid dream. It came in bits and pieces with no tr...

(TLO) Chapter 43: A Dog In This Fight

All four of them met the mountain another day into their journey. Around its base the mist was nigh nonexistent.

It stood like all mountains do; solid and unmoving. It was littered in greenery the likes of which put most of what Seth had seen to shame. It was beleaguered with leaves as well as flowers. Hibiscuses and snapdragons blossomed from every groove and crevice. Plants climbed along its sides so that it gave it the visage of an African woman blessed in the beauty of her braids, the blossoming flowers daring adornments to each on...

(TLO) Chapter 42: The Stain of Individuality

The world remained covered in the tainted stain of mist. However, where it had once been all mist, white enough to put the bridal gown of any woman, it was now no more than a simple sheen, a hue on the world around them.

Behind it they saw the trees they’d known to be there. They were as black as he remembered with the mildest stains of green from the moss that grew on their rough barks with bountiful black leaves that only sprouted as high as they were tall, blanketing the world from any possibility of sunlight. If one did not look ...

(TLO) Chapter 41: Cognitive Dissonance

“I need silence,” Seth mumbled, needing sleep more than silence.

He needed a quiet world and a quiet mind. A silence that would let him think before he would drift. The replicas’ bickering and constant conversation was unwelcomed. Left to him, he would slit their throats and have only one left. Four was three too many. There could be only one. It was what was meant to be.

This fracture of a mind did no good. It did little in the path of unison. That they would disjoint their own was a greater discomfort than it had any righ...

(TLO) Chapter 40: Something Wrong

One of the groomed versions of Seth waved a nonchalant hand. He dismissed Seth’s question as he said, “We don’t know why we are always late.” To the second version he added: “Perhaps he should be disjointed.”

The strangest thing happened immediately after. The other replica paled visibly. “We do not joke about such things Seth; it is not right.”

Seth opened his mouth to speak when the replica replied. “Calm ourselves, Seth. We merely jest.”

“An expensive one,” the replica said. “An unbecoming one.�...

Chapter 81: The Institute (2)

“I can’t believe you tried to fight attendant Don,” Peter laughed. “Isn’t he like the biggest guy here.”

Zed said nothing. He kept his lips in a thin line and continued walking. He was in one of the hallways of the institute with three other boys from his class. He was silent as they talked around him and made fun of his situation.

Peter was the oldest of them at seventeen years and was going to be eighteen in three months, which meant he’d be leaving them for his advanced classes soon, whatever those were. He had h...

Chapter 80: The Institute

· You have unlocked memory [The institute].

……………………..

The Berserker bashed Sassan’s face in a second time. Then a third. And continued till he lost count. Now the man laid unmoving beneath him, and sparing the crushed face, now more blood than face, he got up.

The Berserker teetered on his first step but caught himself before he fell. The only sounds that filled the air now were of burning cars and the occasional explosion of ammunitions subjected to severe heat. Behind him, Sassan lay in a pool of his o...

Chapter 79: With Great Power

Locked in battle, every mage around Zed was a walking perfume of aura, discomforting or not. The monsters were pretty much the same, but their auras were wild and feral, uncontrolled where the mages were contained, controlled to an extent.

True to Oliver’s words, Ash was the only Beta rank mage here, but there was something about the Olympians’ auras that didn’t sit right with Zed. The both of them exuded Rukh rank auras and while Kid’s felt like a second category, Daniel’s felt like a category three pushing beyond the bounda...

Chapter 78: Tangos

Shanine stared at the massive bone-white club Chris had hefted over her shoulder as they walked. She carried it as if it weighed nothing but Shanine knew enough about mages to know the club likely weighed just as much as it looked.

“Also,” Ash said, “you don’t have to worry about your height. Once you awaken you’ll add a few more inches.”

“Really?”

“Yup. I don’t know why, exactly. I just know it’s how magic works.”

Shanine did her best not to gauge Ash’s height visibly. Ash wasn’t that much...

Chapter 77: Memory Trigger

“Careful,” Zed said, both hands on Chris’ hand that squeezed his new shirt, “I just got this shirt and it wrinkles easily.”

“That’s not going to work, Bloodbath,” Chris said, her grip tightening. “You aren’t going to annoy your way out of this one.”

“Alright,” Zed sighed.

He raised an index finger between them and pointed left.

“It’s that way,” he said, defeated.

Chris turned to look in the direction he’d pointed. Her grip remained firm. Her expression molded into a thoughtful o...

Chapter 76: Man Of Culture

Zed was happy to see the others—mostly Oliver and Ash. In fact, he’d assumed meeting them would’ve been full of joy and some level of celebration. Well, he had expected at least a little bit of that. And if that wasn’t the case, at least Oliver would’ve been exceedingly happy.

Unfortunately, while there was happiness, it was difficult to dwell on. So while the others stood around him with words and mixed emotions, he struggled with pain. A pain that had no intentions of leaving him.

Cycling his mana had long become poin...

Chapter 75: Healing Magic Or Life Magic

Kid holstered his assault rifle easily. He placed it against his thigh and it simply stayed, as if held by some form of magnetic force. Then he retrieved his side-arm, a simple hand gun, and proceeded forward.

“Nice spellform,” he complimented Oliver as he passed him.

Oliver said nothing, gave no response or acknowledgement that Kid had even spoken. His eyes remained forward, however, staring into the shrubbery as if he could see past it. Behind them, the rest of Oliver’s team carried whispers of his expression, a small hop...

Chapter 74: Help

Kid walked a step behind Daniel. His armor was switched to stealth mode so that the ground bore the weight of the armor surprisingly well, considering its size. Most people often wondered how suits of armor so large and heavy were able to move so quietly, but anyone who’d spent enough time with one of them knew it was all runes.

Each VHF suit of armor was a combination of mana infused metals and scripts of runes. For the stealth function, the armor had a rune situated in each limb and at its back. Each one was a variation of sound ru...

Chapter 73: Wrong Reaction

The forest was just as Zed remembered it with the addition of a bit of extra growth. A lot of extra growth. The trees were a countless myriad of colors as if someone had made a garden, planting a variety of flowers for nothing but their colorful beauties then splashed a bucket of bright paints all over the place.

The trees still had barks of fur so bountiful that Zed’s hand sank into them when he touched them and gave him a nostalgic tingling feeling like countless bugs trying to crawl all over him. Tree roots still refused to remain...

Chapter 72: Marigold

“Wow.”

Zed stood to the side, taking pleasure in the amazement he heard in Shanine’s voice.

“Told you,” he smirked.

“Beautiful trees are not blooming trees,” she said absently, staring at the sight before them, her mouth held slightly ajar.

Zed and Shanine stood before a wall of tall trees colored so brightly and so bountifully that it was a strain to count them all. Just the ones in front of them bore a total of at least eight colors by Zed’s count.

“There’s got to be at least twenty colors ...

Chapter 71: Elves

“Are we sure we have the right location?” Oliver asked.

He was walking down a plateau of small grass and scanty flowers, each a variety of different soft colors. Beside him Chris walked with her bone milk club hefted over one shoulder while Ash walked with a scowl a half-step behind her. In front of them, Jason led with a disk in hand that projected a miniature display of a blue map. A small arrow head on the map indicated the location of the disk itself while a blinking green dot indicated their destination.

The dot was supp...

Chapter 70: Not A Mage

The sky was a clear orange, basked in the glory of a bright afternoon sun. Under its tyrannical gaze, Shanine and Zed walked. Shanine was dressed in a half-torn gown, rips riddling it as if she’d gone through a particularly thick bramble. Zed on the other hand was a far cry from anything near the term ‘family friendly’ in what was left of his pants. He was a slim man with uneven length of red hair and what was the equivalent of a too short short-shorts.

At some point last night, Shanine had unwittingly fallen into the embrace of ...

Chapter 69: Bright Light of Cynicism

Ash stared at the hologram in front of her not for the first time. It was a blue rendition of a three dimensional map, complete with topographical arrays and the likes. It contained clear borders, differentiating over fifty-two regions. Each one was labeled with rising flags varying in colors of green, yellow, and red. It wasn’t a long throw to understanding what each one meant. Red indicated danger zones, most likely parts with either dense monster sightings or high ranking monsters. Yellow indicated a survivable level of monsters, but su...

Chapter 68: Not A Laxative

Zed’s breathing was measured. Eyes closed, there was nothing in the room that escaped his attention. He let his aura seep gently out of him like slow mist from a smoke machine. He pushed his breathing consciously, making adjustments here and there, tweaking the few errors born of the subconscious until he felt a notification come alive.

· You have activated [Refine].

· Your [mana] flows better.

· [Raw mana] detected.

· You have 0 unallocated [Aptitude points].

When he felt the notification, reading it even...

Chapter 67: You'll Break My Focus

“I fail to see the benefit of us helping you,” Madam Shaggy said with a twisted scowl. “Even if we do find the mana surge, what’s in it for us?”

Alvin shrugged in his suit of armor. “You get to get rid of the threat of a monster wave?”

He wore one of the armors that carried no specification. The VHF called it the Ranger armor but others called it the all-rounder for obvious reasons. He was resting against the wall of the room, actually tired of having to listen to the mages here.

He was in a room with five oth...