The Mage's Limits: Mages of Martir Book #2 (30 page)

Don't get distracted,
Darek thought. He looked up at the Arcanium, which was the only building that seemed to have avoided taking any serious damage yet.
Find Jakuuth. Kill him before he kills Mom or the Magical Superior or anyone else.

To find out where Jakuuth was, Darek ran toward the steps of the Arcanium, where Jiku was still in combat with Raka. Although both mages were hardly spring chickens, they still jumped around the steps a lot, dodging each other's magical blasts and countering with devastating spells of their own. The steps had large holes in them and smelled like burnt stone, though Darek ignored that smell as he aimed his wand at Raka and jerked it upward.

His telekinesis caught Raka by surprise and sent her flying. He then jerked it downwards, slamming Raka into the steps of the Arcanium as hard as he could. A sickening cracking sound shot from Raka's body when she crashed into the steps, no doubt every bone in her body breaking from the fall. If she wasn't dead, then she at least wasn't going to be getting up again anytime soon.

Jiku, who had stood there momentarily too surprised to move, shook his head and ran down the steps toward Darek, a big smile on his middle-aged face.

It was the only good-looking thing about him. Jiku's robes were torn and burned away in some places. His hair was as messy as mud and parts of his skin were burned or cut. Blood leaked from his nose and he seemed to walk with a minor, almost unnoticeable limp, not to mention he smelled like blood and smoke.

“Darek!” said Jiku, his tone joyous as he and Darek met at the foot of the steps. “Where have you been for a month? We're under attack!”

“I know,” said Darek, nodding. “No time to catch up. What's the situation like?”

Jiku frowned as the screams of someone—whether a Limitless or a fellow Academy student, Darek didn't know—pierced the air, only to be drowned out by an explosion. “I've lost track, but last I checked, the Sixth and Fifth Dorms are little more than rubble, Guardian was destroyed
again
, Junaz is missing, and Eyurna … Eyurna was one of the first killed in the initial attack.”

Darek grimaced. Eyurna was the school panamancer and head of the medical wing, but unfortunately, he had no time to mourn her death right now. “Where is Jakuuth?”

Jiku frowned. “Who?”

“The guy who led the assault,” said Darek in frustration. “Middle-aged, looks kind of like traditional Carnagian portrayals of Grinf, extremely crazy and powerful?”

“Oh,” said Jiku, nodding. “That's right. I do recall seeing someone who looked like Grinf run into the Arcanium around the start of the battle. I thought my old eyes were playing tricks on me.”

He's gone after the Magical Superior,
Darek thought.
That has to be the reason why the Superior isn't out here.

“And Mom and the Superior?” Darek asked.

“Not sure,” Jiku admitted. He gestured at Raka's lifeless form. “Too busy fighting this old hag to keep track of everyone. They might be in the Arcanium.”

“I need to go help them,” said Darek. He put a hand on Jiku's shoulder. “You stay here and help the others. If I can take our Jakuuth, we should be able to win this.”

Jiku saluted. “Sure thing, Darek. Teach that bastard what happens when you mess with North Academy mages.”

Darek nodded and then ran up the steps toward the Arcanium, hoping against hope that he would get to the Magical Superior's study in time to save him.

-

Upon entering the Arcanium, Darek expected to see the lobby as wrecked and destroyed as the rest of the campus. Yet he didn't see any sign that Jakuuth had even been here. The fountain in the center of the lobby was in one piece, the Wall of Mastery at the very back appeared to be in order, and the walls and floor showed no scars or signs of battle.

It was eerily quiet in the lobby, even with the doors open and the sounds of battle raging outside. It was like the Arcanium was somehow separate from the rest of the campus, like Darek had stepped into another world entirely.

Then he smelled burnt flesh wafting down from above and looked up. Attached to the ceiling by some kind of strange green goo was one of Darek's fellow students or teachers, though it was hard to say which or who because the mage in question was blackened to the point of obscurity. The sight made Darek want to run, as that was clearly the handiwork of Jakuuth; nonetheless, he ran toward the hallway to the left of the Wall of Mastery, determined to get to the Superior's study as fast as he could.

The halls of the Arcanium were even quieter than the lobby; he could no longer hear the screams of dying mages or the magical explosions outside now. Of course, Darek remembered that the Arcanium's halls were enchanted to be soundproof in order to help students focus on their learning. Still, if Darek hadn't known about the battle outside or about the mad man in the school itself, he might have been tempted to believe that all was indeed well in his home.

But it wasn't. He could not get the images of the corpses of his former fellow students out of his mind, nor could he stop himself from imagining what Jakuuth might be doing even now to the Magical Superior or his own mother. That thought alone propelled him up the steps to the next floor, and the next, and the next, moving as fast as he could, without hesitation or weakness.

Soon, he found himself running up the winding staircase leading up to the Superior's study. The pictures of past Superiors on the walls flashed by him as he ran. He fully expected to hear Jakuuth and the Magical Superior fighting each other, but he didn't hear anything. He briefly wondered if Jiku had been mistaken about seeing Jakuuth entering the Arcanium, but it was too late to go back now.

All of Darek's doubt were washed away, however, when he reached the top of the staircase and found the door—as purple as ever, its one eye torn out—to the Magical Superior's study ripped off its hinges and lying awkwardly in his path. He jumped over it without hesitation, landing on both feet in the Superior's study as he shouted, “Stop whatever you're doing, Jakuuth, or I'll—”

He stopped mid-sentence as soon as he got a good look at the situation he had jumped into.

The books in the Superior's bookshelves lay in scattered heaps on the floor, with many of them ripped or half-burned. The wooden table in the center of the room had been smashed in half, with the hundreds of statues of the different gods and goddesses from both Pantheons piled in a heap in the middle. Most of the statues had been smashed or broken in half, smoke rising from them, a sight that sent chills up Darek's spine.

At the back of the room, the Magical Superior and Mom stood side by side facing Jakuuth. The sleeves of Mom's robes were burned and her hair smoked slightly, with sweat running down the sides of her face like water in a river. The Magical Superior looked a little better, though he was panting hard, as if he had just run a marathon. Both of them held their wands defensively.

As for Jakuuth, he didn't even looked scratched. He held his gavel before him like a shield, perhaps to deflect magical attacks from Mom and the Superior. If that wicked grin on his face meant anything, he looked like he could do this all day and still never get tired.

All three of them were now looking at Darek, Mom with joy, the Magical Superior with surprise, and Jakuuth with anger and annoyance.

“Darek,” said Mom, her voice slightly shaky. “You're alive! I thought I wouldn't ever see you again.”

“How did you escape?” Jakuuth demanded, sparks shooting from the head of his gavel. “No matter. I will kill you just the same, you and your whore of a mother and this old frog masquerading as the most powerful mage in the world. Then I will go back and kill Aorja for failing to keep you imprisoned.”

Darek pointed his own wand at Jakuuth. “No, you won't. You may be powerful, but you're outnumbered three to one. If I were you, I'd suggest giving up. We might spare your life if you do.”

“Darek is correct, Jakuuth,” said the Magical Superior, returning his attention to the false Son of Grinf before him. “You already know that you can't beat us by yourself, no matter how 'Limitless' you might be. We will let you live if you put down your gavel and call off your Army.”

“And then what, send me back to World's End?” said Jakuuth, shaking his head. “You fools. World's End is crumbling even as we speak. The gods are weakening and the katabans are scared and scattered. Soon only the Limitless will rule … and the Limited will die.”

“Weakening?” said Darek. “How are the gods weakening?”

“Their power is tied to World's End,” said Jakuuth in a triumphant voice. “It's why the gods have always been careful to avoid bringing their conflicts to that island. If World's End is destroyed, then the gods—
all
of the gods—will fall with it.”

That explains why Uron is attacking it,
Darek thought.
If he makes the gods weaker, then it will be easier for him to kill them all.

That thought only flickered through Darek's mind for a second; the next, his focus returned and he said, “The gods won't fall. I bet they are defending World's End even as we speak.”

“That may be so,” said Jakuuth. “But there is no way they can defend their city forever. Uron is there, aiding my Army with his own forces. You would have been wiser to go to World's End than here, Darek Takren, because even if you defeat me, Uron will still win.”

“Then that's what we will do after we take you out,” said Darek. “We'll go to World's End and help the gods defend it.”

Jakuuth chuckled. “You think you can defeat me? I am the Son of Grinf. I am a Limitless. No mortal mage, not even other Limitless, can defeat me.”

“We've been holding you off on our own pretty well so far,” said Mom as she brushed some strands of stray hair out of her eyes. “Maybe you're not as powerful as you like to think you are.”

Jakuuth grunted. “True, you two are much stronger than I expected. Nonetheless, you haven't seen me operating at my full power yet. I could smite you two from existence like the ants you are if I wished.”

There was some truth to Jakuuth's boasts. Darek sensed that, while Jakuuth had indeed used much of his magical power already, he still had quite a bit more to go. By contrast, Mom felt almost out, like she had expended most of her power already, while the Magical Superior was maybe half empty at best.

“So you've been holding back,” said Mom, sounding unimpressed, though her wand trembled. “Why?”

“Because I didn't think I would need to use my full power against you,” said Jakuuth. Then he smiled. “It was good to see you again, Jenur, after so many years. Though you are much older than when I last saw you, I can see the beautiful young woman I initially fell in love with all those decades ago … the beautiful young woman I should have killed the moment I saw her.”

A sudden spike in Jakuuth's power was the only warning any of them got. A huge fire blast, hot enough to incinerate the scattered books and curtains lying on the floor between them, erupted from his gavel, so bright that it forced Darek to cover his eyes to avoid damaging them.

The fire blast was heading straight for Mom, but the Magical Superior intervened. He appeared between Mom and the fire blast and spun his staff in a circle like the arms of a windmill, creating a bright glow of energy that erupted into light when the fire blast hit it.

The fire blast deflected off the energy shield and hurtled toward the ceiling. Darek covered his head as the fire blast hit the ceiling with a loud
boom
, sending chunks of heatstone flying everywhere as the Magical Superior's study opened up into the bright blue sky above, though it was partially obscured by the smoke from the fire.

Without hesitation, Jakuuth teleported and reappeared behind Mom, but as soon as he did so, Mom whirled around and kicked him square in the jaw. Instead of sending Jakuuth staggering backwards, however, the Limitless just shook his head as if that had been a minor annoyance before pointing his gavel at Mom.

A loud
bang
followed, causing the spot where Mom and the Magical Superior stood to burst into flame, cutting off Darek's sight of them.

“Mom!” Darek screamed. “Magical Superior! No!”

But his screaming turned out to be premature, because a second later Mom and the Magical Superior reappeared next to him. Mom's robes were slightly burnt in the back and the Magical Superior's staff was blackened, but aside from that they appeared to be okay.

“We're fine, Darek,” said the Magical Superior with a cough. “Thank you for your concern, however. We appreciate it.”

Before Darek could respond to that, Jakuuth yelled, “This works fine for me. I'd rather have all three of you in one spot anyway. Makes it easier to administer justice onto you!”

Once again, Jakuuth swung his gavel horizontally, only this time, he conjured a massive wall of flame that ate through the fallen books and curtains on the ground. The temperature in the room shot up a hundred degrees, causing Darek to break out into a sweat.

Nonetheless, he stepped forward and drew upon his own Limitless energy. Aiming his wand at the incoming wall of fire, Darek conjured an even thicker wall of ice that completely blocked off their view of Jakuuth and the fire wall coming toward them.

A moment later, the
hiss
of fire melting through ice met Darek's ears. He poured more energy into the ice wall to reinforce its thick coldness. He felt Jakuuth's flame pushing against his ice, but he wasn't going to give up yet.

Time to show Jakuuth what happens when you teach your worst enemy how to do everything that you can,
Darek thought, squinting his eyes as he focused more and more on maintaining the wall.

Then without warning, something heavy and thick smashed through the ice wall, heading directly for Darek. The Magical Superior swung his staff, using his magic to divert the object's course and causing it to break through a nearby wall, revealing another portion of the sky outside.

“What was that?” said Darek, looking at the Magical Superior in surprise.

“A large rock that likely would have cracked your skull open if it had made contact with your head,” said the Magical Superior, tapping his forehead. “But enough talking. Jakuuth is still active and we cannot afford to be distracted by anything.”