The Hybrid Mage

Act 1: Ch.18 - Together We Will Run Into...

A low rattling noise suddenly consumed the entire space, like a child screaming in my eye it was so loud it made me jump. Rei and I turned to one another, fear masking both our eyes.

"Rei? What's happening?" I whimpered before the floor beneath my feet open and I plummeted downwards like a dropped stone. White filled my vision like a bright light as a yelp of terror ripped out of throat as I fell.

The feeling of falling, exactly like it was when my father...

Panic flooded my entire body, suffocating me as if I was drowning. Only I actually was. The cold feeling of water consumed me as I hit a large body of water the size of an Olympic swimming pool with a smack. The muffled echo of my screams and bubbles of oxygen flooded my ears as I swam up to the surface, sucking in air before swimming frantically. With no sense of direction, I hit what felt like an edge and almost immediately scrambled out of the icy cold liquid.

I lay there, trying to breath slow deep breaths to stop the panic clutching at my heart. "Panic will only lead to failure" was something that Maddox always stressed in our training together. My heart continued to bear like a drum, pounding hard and fast that it was almost painful and seemingly went on for hours. Finally, it began to calm down to the point that it no longer felt like I was having a panic attack. I slowly stood, soaked in freezing cold water that dropped off me like rainfall, and gazed out at my surroundings.

I was in a vast atrium like room with a ceiling that was covered in bright white lights, the floor a shiny polished stone the colour of steel. Behind me was the pool of water in which hundreds of others could be seen frantically swimming to the same pool edge that I had scrambled onto. They were all Ethorians from all different types of the species except for Orthareals. I also immediately noticed that the beautiful wings all the Izereals had been chained together or were ripped to shreds like rags, preventing them from taking flight.

My eyes scoured the sea of people, searching frantically for the paper white hair and red skin of Rei to no avail.

"Rei!" I called out. "Where are you?!"

"Move it kid!" A large Demoreal roared, the defining golden ankh symbol stretched across his entire face like a tattoo, his eyes had no pupils or iris of any kind with the only colour filling his eye being a dark blue.

Before I could protest, he shoved me forwards and in moments I was swept away by the crowd and, like a sheep, followed the rest all heading in one direction. Bodies pressed up against one another as I was essentially pulled into the direction and before I even realised it, I was plunged into a light so dim it was almost darkness. It suddenly felt tighter, like a constricting python as I looked up and saw a ceiling.

I'm in a tunnel, aren't I?

Everyone continued to press forward. Chattering grumbles of voices and the stamping of marching feet echoed across the walls. A sound that was quickly drowned out by something else. That something was a voice. It sounded slightly grainy as if it were coming from hidden speakers, nonetheless it seemed to penetrate right into my brain in an almost painful way. As it spoke, I noticed the wincing and groaning of others who looked as if they were feeling the same uncomfortableness as me.

"Ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed your trip here; it's going to be your new home after all."

Wait a minute why does that voice sound familiar? It sounds feminine but that tone... I've definitely heard it somewhere before!

"Unfortunately for you all we've got a bit of a population problem so we're going to have to thin out the numbers." The voice said in a charming giggle however I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Something about, 'thinning the number', did not sound right.