That night, Kaelith pulled a dark cloak over his head and slipped out of the palace again. The cold stone felt familiar beneath his boots as he climbed down the same hidden rope. Getting out of the palace was not that difficult.
When he reached the gate, it was already open. Gabriel stood outside, arms folded, as if he had been waiting.
"You came," Gabriel said flatly.
"Yes.. I need to prove that I'm a good student." He stepped forward, his face unreadable.
Gabriel studied him for a moment, then raised his hand. A portal opened beside him, swirling gently like a mirror made of liquid light.
"Step in."
Kaelith entered the portal first before Gabriel. The portal closed as soon as Gabriel stepped into it.
The air changed instantly, the damp air and the smell of nature hit Kaelith's nostrils, as they stood in the middle of the forest, with wide clearing . A thin mist curled low across the grass, and the half moon hung high above.
Without warning, Gabriel lifted his hand again.
The world around Kaelith changed. The world had disappeared. Now he stood in the middle of a burning city.
Flames roared through the wooden houses. Dark smoke and flakes of embers drifted thickly in the sky. Sharp and raw screams echoed from all sides, with an unending cry. People ran in every direction, faces twisted in pain. A woman stumbled by with her hair on fire, her eyes wild in pain. Children sobbed. And men collapsed, clawing at the ground.
Kaelith stood in the middle of it all, unmoving like a statue.
He looked around slowly, as if he were watching a performance. 'Interesting.'
A charred body reached for him, its arm trembling. Then, hands burst from the scorched earth and clung to his ankles, their skin peeled and blistered.
Kaelith glanced down, his expression unreadable.
One of the figures tried to speak, but only blood bubbled from its mouth. Kaelith tilted his head, then a faint smirk formed on his lips.
He lifted his leg and kicked the hand away like it was nothing. Another body pulled at him. He whistled softly, the tune hollow and slow, and stepped over it.
He didn't flinch at the heat or the smell of burnt flesh. He didn't feel pity. If anything, he looked like he was enjoying their pain and chaos.
He closed his eyes, with his hands spread wide apart. Inhaled deeply, smiling eerily as if he was savouring their cries, their pains, and destruction. "Oh how I have missed this." he muttered with longing.
A man knelt in front of him, with his eyes melting away like plastic, he begged for help.
Kaelith snapped his eyes open, and crouched a little and stared into what was left of the man's face.
"You're not real," he said, his voice calm and low.
Then he stood up again, with his back straightened.
Something in the air felt… off. Not the illusion itself, but what held it together. Kaelith could sense it. Like a thread that wasn't woven properly.
He didn't try to resist the illusion, rather, he let it keep playing, letting the pain of others swirl around him.
And in that still moment, he reached out with his mind. His eyes brightened slightly, reflecting the chaos engulfing the city.
He saw many coloured thread-like magic, holding the illusion together. He held the wrong thread, snapping it in two. 'Enough play time.'
The world around him cracked. The fire froze. And the screams cut off with the peoples mouth wide open, their faces frozen in pain, the ones with melting skin, stopped midway.
Then, the illusion shattered like broken glass falling into water.
Kaelith blinked, and he found himself standing once more in the forest clearing.
Gabriel was there, watching him with a calm face and sharp eye.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Then Gabriel asked, "You managed to break my illusion as if it was a toy."
Kaelith said nothing. 'It was a toy.'
Gabriel's gaze narrowed. "That illusion was built to crush minds, including the great ones. Most people scream. Others run mad. You walked through it like it was a child's game."
Still, Kaelith didn't respond. He had nothing to say.
Gabriel began pacing, his brows furrowed in thought. "You didn't just resist it. You dismantled it. You shattered my advance illusion that even high mages can't even get out from."
He was stunned but losing his illusion he had formed and upgraded for years was a big blow to his ego, and the fact it was done by a kid, didn't make it any better.
He looked up at Kaelith, studying him again. "You didn't fight magic… you altered it. That's not normal."
Kaelith's eyes remained blank, but inside. 'If you knew my identity. You wouldn't have been this surprised.'
Gabriel continued. "It's not just power. It's something else. You bent the structure of the illusion without brute force. That's not basic magic. That's something deeper."
He paused, his eye widened as realization dawned on him.
"Distortion," he muttered to himself. "This… feels like distortion magic. It is very rare and… unstable… the first stage of chaos."
Gabriel's expression changed. It was no longer calm.
'Distortion touches the core of spells. It disrupts them from the inside. If he can do that…'
He exhaled slowly. 'The Vorrak are immune to magic, but maybe if he distorts what makes them immune, we can have a breakthrough. Maybe his power is the way to fight them without heavy casualties."
Gabriel nodded to himself, then looked at him again. "I'll train you. Not just because you're strong… But because you have a strong will."
The night was quiet again, the wind brushing gently through the trees.
Kaelith gave a small nod. "I look forward to being taught by you."
Gabriel's lips curved faintly. "We start tomorrow. I won't go easy on you."
"I don't want you to go easy on me." Kaelith flashed a smile at him, but it didn't reach his eyes.
Kaelith could already sense it. Gabriel's reason for accepting him had little to do with willpower. But whatever it was, he knew it was not a good one.
'Now that I have gained a teacher, I'm going to rise and the world is going to sing to the song of my destruction. Universe… just wait a while longer to taste the rich taste of chaos.' a sinister glint flickered through his eyes.