Algernon Black

(Chapter 68) Once Upon Humans

A man with burning arms of light magic moving up towards his head lurched forward next and Loy could see in another few minutes his body would burn away, but in that time might take them out with him.

"And it makes them some of the most dangerous things you can come across," Loy added, ducking under his flaming arms and wrapping the chain of his weapon around his upper torso. His arms instantly melted away in the ashes they had become but he had to yank it through the ribs and organs of his chest to kill him. "They have no regard for their safety and can't even feel pain, which means they'll use extreme amounts of energy to attack with," Loy turned to the next devoid who looked to be choking on something. "Or they can detonate."

It regurgitated a huge blast of light magic from its mouth, a shot as strong as any attack Loy had faced with his magic barely able to protect the three of them. The discharge only lasted a few seconds before its magic punctured its lungs and stomach and it burst from the inside out as his guts exploded everywhere with the small bomb of his parting.

Loy shook his arm free of the guts. Devoids weren't a very common sight in his travels but he had seen them. Never in this quantity, however. What was most unsettling were the older ages of some. It was almost impossible to teach magic to anyone out of their formative years and training older men and women would almost guarantee their deaths as their bodies weren't able to maladapt in the necessary ways to channel the energies. And that meant the surveyors were getting desperate and a lot of demand.

"Who taught them?" Beal asked, still too stunned from what he was seeing to react in anything but unmovable fear.

"I already told you," Loy said, slightly annoyed that the boy took so long to grapes anything, "Surveyors." He drowned the word in the scathing hatred of which Loy felt for them. "They scout remote villages, or the slums of cities, anywhere where they can recruit people with the promise of teaching them magic." Loy elucidated as he killed two more of their victims "But they don't do it the proper way, and the outcome is more often than not this."

"I didn't know that kids were forced to learn magic," Beal uttered, as he recalled how it was the exact opposite for him and every child at his village.

"There are," Loy affirmed as the next devoid approached. This one wasn't very old either. Perhaps the same age as Beal. It didn't even try to attack him, it wanted death. One which Loy was merciful enough to give. "And they are the scum of the world, but scum breeds so easily in times like these," Loy said as he ended his life.

"Only those who learned to use magic quick enough without becoming devoids get sold into the control of paying hands," Loy disclosed, remaining entirely stoic as Beal and Selice's hearts lurched for the dead child at his feet. "While the others suffer to death like this." Selice couldn't tell if resounding strength was the source of Loy's composure or if his true sociopathic nature kept him from feeling the empathy he should upon seeing some of the worst human atrocity imaginable, but she was thankful for it.

"Where are they selling them too?" Beal asked, almost throwing up at the sight and smell of the corpses, some of which still had magic seeping from their bodies. "Emora?" He wondered, knowing it had a reputation for a very powerful army filled with practitioners.

"It could be any king or nation desperate to fill their armies," Loy stated as a half-dead young girl shot light magic at him. "And I need to find which ones they are," Loy said, fixating on the remaining fifteen or so devoids who started to gain speed. "And why they are preparing for war."

A devoid rushed over the splattered bodies, wailing dark magic out of his mouth and ripping its cheeks apart as it charged Loy. The sound was like some kind of dying high-pitched animal as it tore out of the man along with magic. Selice had never heard such a terrifying thing in her life and moved farther away from the blood bath. The suffering creature barreled closer and Loy used one hand to defend with light as his other swung his ball and chain at its feet. The devoid fell to its back as magic spilled from his mouth and into the sky. Loy bashed its stomach with his weapon, finishing him off, but its final shriek sent the more docile part of the hoard into a hysteric rampage.