Maybe I shouldn't have burned down the apartment, but I decided to play it safe and cover my tracks. I felt sorry for the apartment owners, of course, but I felt sorrier for myself. And I don't think a dark mage at their doorstep would be better than a fire. I had little money left, so I decided to take a risk, since I had nothing left to lose anyway. And I robbed a bank.
Well, how did I rob it? They gave me everything themselves. However, let me tell it in order: I bought and put on a robe with a deep hood in Knockturn Alley, with Muggle-repelling charms cast on it, as well as a potion that has an effect similar to the Imperius curse. After that, I came to a Barclays bank branch and asked to call the senior manager who handles large sum deposits, because cashiers in large banks only handle cash registers and usually don't have access to the vault, which is logical.
When I entered the negotiation room with a middle-aged man, I sprayed the potion in his face from a spray bottle. It works poorly and briefly on mages, which is why it's not banned, but it's more than enough for ordinary people. So I filled my bag with expanded space with about ten million dollars, which would be much easier to use in other countries, and calmly left.
Already in Thailand, I read in newspapers about my adventures in England, where they called me "the hypnotist in a robe." Moreover, because of the charms, no one saw me, and thanks to gloves, I left no fingerprints.
Did such open criminality bother me? Not at all. I didn't kill or wound anyone, and the bank is unlikely to go bankrupt — for them it's a month's profit. I'm like Robin Hood, I robbed the rich to give money to the poor. And am I not poor? No housing, no money — couldn't be poorer!
Now, with the emblem as insurance, I was much calmer, but staying in London would be stupid, so I left for Thailand. If I'm going to die, at least let it be in warmth by the ocean, not in cold and damp London. I initially wanted to go to India, but quickly remembered that according to legend, that's exactly where I was supposed to go. Well, I should probably reflect on what I did all that time after I rented myself a small villa
…
Three months had passed, and Ariel should have settled well in France. I didn't contact her, otherwise all my attempts to maintain confidentiality would have gone down the drain. I also couldn't transfer money, but for another reason too: mages would immediately figure out that the money didn't belong to me and was obtained dishonestly, there are simple charms for that. And the fact that essentially I stole it, not Ariel, wouldn't concern anyone.
However, I left seven million in offshore accounts — perhaps one day I'll withdraw them and use the money only in the ordinary world. The accounts are under the name Marlowe, the family name of my mother's lineage.
Then I continued studying magic, sometimes falling into a stupor at how vastly different magical systems were in modern times compared to those of the ancient world.
Let me start with the fact that no one now teaches awakening true sight, instead they use expensive enchanted glasses, the secret of creating which is known by one and a half people in all of England.
Moving on, meditations and absorption of free ether from elements and surrounding background, not to mention dematerialization of matter into ether, no one knows either. And of course, about Palms — the most powerful spells of archmages that can affect entire continents, no one has even heard.
But let's finish with the bad and start with the good — wands are a really genius product of modernity. Even though they didn't give extra magical power, limited the mage himself, not allowing him to properly develop his Nous, and when lost, an ordinary wizard became completely defenseless.
Moreover, losing it wasn't hard, but very easy — not only are there many ways to disarm a mage, but the wand itself is quite fragile.
However, even with all its disadvantages, one advantage crossed out everything — the ability to perform quick rituals. To make it clearer, let me give an example. Sumerian mages have three most common ways to cast spells:
[Rituals] — the most economical method in terms of energy, but also the most complex in requirements.
Not only must the mage first calculate the ritual, often taking into account the position of celestial bodies, weather in Zimbabwe and the number of hairs on one of Nurgle's sixteen armpits, but often extremely difficult conditions are required in terms of time, place and necessary ritual ingredients.
But with rituals, a mage can really create anything — a student can kill a god, though this would require a monstrously complex magic circle and somehow convincing the god to climb into it, but when was anything ever easy?
[Word Magic] — medium in cost and power method.
You read a spell, invest ether and get a result — what could be simpler? Its advantage is universality, and even a water mage can cast fire spells, albeit with greater ether costs. And the disadvantage is duration — some charms need to be chanted for tens of seconds, or even minutes. And what are you supposed to do? Ask the opponent to wait?
No, Sumerians figured this out too, and learned to read spells into their memory — where they remain in compressed form — and then, after filling with energy, instantly release them. After this, the spell disappears from memory and must be read again. But you can't stuff many spells into it, unless you're at least a magister who can stuff even a dozen personal protections. Lerah was a master, but weak, so no more than two protections fit in his memory.
[Direct Control] — this is a method of willful control over one's magic.
A fire mage can create a fireball by force of will, a mental mage can read and suggest thoughts to others, a metamorph can change their appearance, and so on. Its disadvantage, first, is long learning and training, second, lack of universality, because you direct most efforts into one or two, maximum three directions, acquiring affinity with them and losing it with opposite ones.
And third, it's the most costly, at least at low and medium mastery levels, which you can reach over a couple dozen years. Word magic was honed over centuries, and therefore costs for it are relatively small, that is, a fireball with its help can cost two to ten times less ether than with direct control.
And what's the genius of the wand? It's a quick ritual! Moreover, hybrid, combining word magic and rune, which you draw with swings of the concentrator. Thanks to this, ether costs are completely minimal.
They're even smaller because many charms have been used for centuries and literally pressed into the planet's reality, or infosphere, as it's also called. And the concentrators themselves in the form of wands are, compared to staffs and wands, a surgical knife, while the first two are two-handed and one-handed swords.
And now the decline of mages' art is clear to me: they simply don't need to develop their shells, because even the weakest mages with awakened Nous can cast spells.
But I didn't want to give up the advantages of either. Mastery by the Sumerian system takes long decades and depends not only on talent and work, but also on the speed of development of the seventh shell, which I have quite standard — better than Lerah's, but not much better.
All hopes are on the ritual I performed, because by merging with the shells of the unborn embryo and absorbing the mother's magic, I can change my potential.
But mastering the basics of wand magic can be done in a couple of years, and becoming a master in it in five to six, which is monstrously fast in comparison, though the development "ceiling" is much lower. Therefore, with a wand bought at Ollivander's shop, I learned to draw zigzags and lift objects with Leviosa or turn matches into needles.
And I meditated, gradually drawing ether from air, fire, earth and water. Drawing from earth worked best, but I tried not to go too deep into one element, adhering to universality.
The first month, however, I couldn't cast spells and directed all energy produced by my soul into the tear of the third shell, healing my soul. No miracle happened, and a scar still remained on my soul. And whether it will ever heal is a question. After that ritual, I swore off soul magic, at least regarding myself — it's too painful and affects personality.
Yes, I seemed to lose many colors in life and became more cold-blooded, a very unpleasant sensation that pursues you constantly. If not for learning magic, I would definitely have fallen into depression.
And so, lying on the beach and sipping whiskey with ice from a glass, I saw with true sight a huge protuberance of dark energy approaching me. Here comes my client, found me after all. And I performed the flesh severance ritual! Moreover, fearing magical marks, I destroyed Lerah's book!
My soul bled, because despite the problems it brought, this book became my teacher and gave me the opportunity to master magic, despite the fact that by modern standards I could never have done it.
Though there was something strange about it. Until the last moment I didn't want to destroy it, constantly came up with excuses to keep it — and this became the final reason to get rid it. I don't like when someone tries to manipulate me.
…
Still, as I expected, Gaunt is a dark mage, and of enormous power compared to me. I think he'd pull for a strong master or even magister, if comparing him to an average Sumerian mage.
Generally, by Sumerian terminology, mages are divided into the following groups in ascending order of knowledge: Student, Apprentice, Master, Magister and Archmage. Moreover, though there's no direct dependence on magical power, if you reach the rank of Archmage, you definitely possess enormous power.
If simplified, a student is just beginning their path in learning magic from their teacher — that's the level I'm at.
Apprentice level means the mage has already been recognized by the teacher and can continue independent research in chosen magical arts, of which there were sixty in Sumer.
Masters were achieved after mastering one of the Arts, creating a Masterpiece — an independently created spell or method of using magic.
Magister is one who achieved master rank in three arts.
And about archmages it was only written that they possess colossal power, and I suspect you need to either reach the limit of knowledge in your arts, have enormous might, or achieve mastery in no less than five arts, but I can only assume.
Sumerian mages valued knowledge most of all and freely exchanged it, thanks to which Lerah's book contained many spells, exercises and rituals not related to artifactory. In contrast, at the present moment sacred knowledge is kept very carefully, many Arts are forbidden, such as necromancy, soul magic, demonology and even blood magic.
And they're fools, they don't understand that if they encounter the threat of undead invasion or demon incursion, they'll only be able to throw up their hands and wait to have their souls devoured, because they won't be able to resist, simply not knowing how. I hope they're not such idiots and have some specialists, they're just kept secret?
…
"Mr. Gaunt? Good day. Why do you have such a grimace of rage on your face? In our first meeting you made the impression of a gallant and courteous man?" I asked with such laziness.
I'm already tired of being afraid, and cold-bloodedness makes itself known, so I behave this way. Though possibly the cyanide capsule I bit affects me this way, or the timer counting down the last seconds beneath me. But that's not certain. However, all possible battle options fell away when I saw the opponent's power level.
"Muggle!" the man growled with anger, whose robe fluttered in the invisible wind of ether emanating from his body.
"You dared to deceive me?! Do you know how long I've been looking for you? If you give me the book and translation right now, you'll die an easy death!"
"Oh how scary," I said, smelling the stench of rot from his lie — he wasn't thinking of keeping his word. However, mage potions in the ordinary world are still a terrible thing. A couple drops of liquid Imperius, and here, a person tells you everything you want to know. Including where to get a couple dozen kilograms of quality explosives with timer and detonator.
"Why are you smiling?" the man became wary, renewing protection on his body and already casting some charms.
But it was too late — even before the red beam that burst from Gaunt's wand touched me, twenty kilograms of TNT, written off from Thailand's military base, exploded beneath me with enormous force, scattering damaging elements for four hundred meters around. Not for nothing did I choose such a deserted beach where no one else was.
Naturally, Gaunt managed to do nothing except put up additional protection for himself. And I died quickly and painlessly, not letting my soul be captured, as I wanted.
…
From the twenty-meter crater, a couple meters deep, emerged an even more enraged dark mage. He had no damage, but for him this had absolutely no significance. A Muggle had fooled him, a MUGGLE, damn it!
Where to look for the priceless tome now is unclear — maybe he destroyed it altogether! Especially considering the beacon disappeared and he had to search for the bastard in a complex, dangerous and humiliating way — using Legilimency and Imperius on representatives of Muggle and magical world authorities, because the hair taken from his former apartment seemed not to be his at all.
Did someone help him? Unlikely. He checked all his friends and acquaintances. Where did such skills come from? One answer — it's all the tome! Should have spat on caution and simply imperiused the little shit to feeble-mindedness! The only thing that pleased him — he still died, even if not by his hand. Tom Riddle needed to kill someone, though no, torture to death! But he can't, damn it, it's still too early!
…
I woke up not in a new body, but next to it. Which isn't surprising, since only a third of the pregnancy term had passed. However, the connection held me firmly, so I couldn't "fly away" further than a meter. The child's soul shells were already forming, only instead of atman, the fourth shell, was my emblem, and I pondered what I saw in Gaunt's astral body.
I'd never seen such a thing before. No, Darkness is a terrible thing, of course, but by itself isn't evil. You can darken from killing maniacs and demons, for example — is that evil? Hardly. No, the matter was in the rot permeating the man from top to bottom, speaking of his frequent lies, including to himself.
But even that's half the trouble — if astral bodies of all people usually resemble their physical ones, his not only looked like a snake's, but was all in tears, as if it had been chewed and spat out. My scar from the emblem looked like a surgeon's cut — what did he carve himself up with and why so much? Unclear.
Speaking of the scar — it was from it that a thin glowing line of connection to my new body emerged. And it was through this connection that I felt the emblem was already at its limit, being washed away by Ariel's powerful mana flow!
Looking more carefully — I didn't need to activate true sight, because in my state it's normal — I saw that the flowing energy was trying to change my vessel! Damn veela, why are you performing my request so well? You overdid it! If this continues, I'll be a girl! This won't happen, my little guy is dear to me as a memory!
So I immediately began absorbing ether in the state I was in, and I'll tell you, it's damn difficult, much more difficult than in a body! But astral energy flowed like a river, and I managed to stabilize the emblem with its help. From that moment began my great battle for Victor Jr.!
***
—————————————————————————————————
Thank you for your support!