A whole month had passed, and Henry could no longer keep from worrying about his master. There was no reply, or any sort of contact from him. The last time was the same day he left after putting Henry to sleep.
"Dammit old man. I swear if I were to see you again, I'll rip every strand of your beard!" The Emperor of Lioncrest growled under his breath after receiving yet another failed mission report from the scouts he sent to search for the old sorcerer.
All while the old man was gone, Henry spent the rest of the month restless and overthinking things. Without his teacher to guide him through his minor conflicts, they were turning into major ones.
Even though the Empire continued improving without Master Elias, the magical defences of the Royal Castle were left for Henry to attend to, which was a hassle considering he also had other important things to handle.
The only solution he could come up with was either he finds Master Elias and brings him back or he trains Lily as much as he can to the point that she'd be able to handle magic arrays and runes.
The latter is quite easy but takes time while the former's difficulty is hard to define. And so far, he's doing both.
"This is so hard! Why do I have to learn a new language again?"
Yet, teaching Lily seemed to be the hardest one as another complaint rang from her room.
"It's not just a language, little bud. It's the language of magic. It's the closest thing we have in communication with the gods themselves. Don't you want to talk to gods someday?" Henry rubbed his temples and entered the room, only to be greeted with the sight of his little sister slumped on the bed with an open book covering her face.
"Why would I want that?" She pulled herself up and threw the book towards Henry who caught it with a simple flick of his wrist.
Sighing, he sat on the bed and gently coaxed her, "Because it's the only way to protect our family, protect Mom, yourself. And even me. Don't you want to do that?"
She pouted at those words, "There you go again, Henry. You repeated those words again and even though I should've grown accustomed to them, they still tug at my heart."
Henry chuckled, he raised his hand and pointed them at the left side of her chest, "Because that's what your heart wants to do, but your brain thinks the opposite because it's hard and tiresome. Always follow what your heart says, Lily. Only use your brain in situations that involve saving your life."
The book she threw earlier slowly floated to Henry's side. He grabbed it and gave it back to her, "Now, instead of throwing complaints. Why not tell me where you're struggling and I'll do my best to help you."
She took the book and flipped to the middle page, "This one. The characters are too long for something as simple as preventing milk from spoiling. I mean, why not just go and buy another jug of milk instead of writing ten, TEN runic characters!"
Henry's face quickly turned sour as soon as he realized where she was struggling.
'Well, I can't admit that I skipped this part because I thought the same.'
Admitting that would ruin his reputation of beinga 'reliable big brother' that he had painstakingly built throughout the years.
"Oh, that one? That was one of the easiest ones I learnt. Just keep re-reading them again and again, and trust me, you'll memorize it in no time."
Before she could say anything or ask more questions regarding that section, Henry patted her head and swiftly left the room, wiping off his sweat in the process.
'I'm sorry little bud. I'll do my best to help you once you get through that part.'
———
While Henry was busy searching for his old master. The main culprit behind his concern was navigating through a dark and perilous passage.
Elias's eyes scanned his dark and sandy surroundings. His only source of light was the glowing gem on the tip of his staff. A few weeks ago, he found a connection between his former student Jafar, and the Coven.
Recalling old grudges with Jafar who betrayed him long ago, he sought him out only to realize he was being expected all along.
Long story short, he never had the chance to initiate a conversation with the lanky sorcerer when a trap was sprung under his feet all of a sudden.
He doesn't know where he currently is. He can't use his teleportation magic for some reason and then there's also the matter of monsters jumping on him at random intervals.
At first, he thought he fell into a well-crafted hallucination spell but after going through a series of anti-illusion spells, he seemed to see this entire thing as real.
And considering how this is all real and yet, he couldn't find his way out even with his current strength and experience made him realize that this is either an elaborate prank by the gods themselves or he underestimated the strength of the Coven.
"The Wishing Lamp. Something tells me they used one of the wishes to strengthen their magic to the point that they could almost imitate the divine ability of a god." He murmured to himself, his voice was raspy and hoarse as it had been a few days since he last drank water. Water magic spells couldn't exactly count as good drinking water as they're nothing but made of magic not actual water.
'Good thing I forced Henry to stay in my stead. If he were to fall into this kind of trap, no one would be left to manage the Empire.'
———
Unbeknownst to Elias, everything that he had been doing even until now was under the watchful eyes of the Coven.
Circe, one of the well-known members of the Coven, sometimes serving as its pseudo-leader, smirked at the scene being played on the surface of the water that is sitting inside a dome-shaped bowl in the middle of the room.
"Look at him, struggling to realize that he's stuck in a time and space loop spell. It's a pity it's not the Destiny Child that fell into our trap, that would've accelerated all of our plans in one fell swoop."
"Still, with the old man temporarily out of the picture, Lioncrest is as defenseless as a single lion protecting his pride of cubs all by himself. Don't you think so, my dear Genie?"
Floating behind her was a blue majestic being with golden wrist braces and a sad look on his face. He did not expect his first customer after thousands of years of slumber to be a cruel witch who sought to pull the entire world into darkness by using his wish-granting powers.
She had now used two of her wishes and knew full well what would happen if she was granted her last wish. The witch was also afraid of other people using him to reverse everything she worked hard for.
So she did what she thought was a smart thing to do. She didn't use her third wish, forever trapping him alongside her.
'What have I done to deserve this?'
———
"I'll tend the farm now, darling! I'll be back before dinner!" After kissing his wife goodbye, Ulfric left his humble abode with a smile on his face.
His name is Ulfric Stormrobe, a local farmer from the continent of Helessi, just south of the continent where Lioncrest resides. Unlike them, the continent is mostly made up of earth and dirt, with only a single body of water located at the center of the continent.
As a farmer, Ulfric is well-versed when it comes to rare sources of water. Here on his farm, there was a small pond located in the middle of the nearby forest that is just a few minutes' walk away from his humble home.
And now, he's on his way there with two huge empty buckets on both of his hands.
He was in the middle of the gravel road when all of a sudden, a familiar sight of shiny knights in armor skidded their horses to a halt in front of him.
Anxiety instantly struck his chest. He dropped the two buckets and rubbed his hands together, doing his best to make himself look as pitiful and defenceless as possible.
"What do I owe the pleasure of meeting such fine knights, sirs? I am just a humble farmer not far from here." It was rare to see a knight along these parts of the road, not to mention a squad.
The knight in the front reined in his neighing horse, opened the cover of his pointy helmet, and flashed a soft but strained smile, "Rest assured, farmer. We're not here to cause you trouble. We are tasked with escorting all the remaining people under the orders of the Baron. Please come with us."
His words made Ulfric tilt his head in confusion, "Wait? Why? What's going on?"
At first, the knight was hesitant but gave in soon after, he leaned forward to whisper, "The continent is under a grave threat. There's a world-class dark magic spell occurring on another continent East of us. I don't know the details but it is said that the darkness is consuming everything."
He didn't need to finish his words as Ulfric's mind instantly went to his wife at home, "Wait! If you're going to take everyone, please take my wife too! She's at home all alone!"
The knights glanced at one another, understanding flashing between them, "Then lead the way. I'll follow you."
Ulfric didn't bother to say anything else and quickly ran as fast as he could. Behind him, the knights separated, each with their own goals in mind. The knight he was just talking to earlier followed closely behind him.
It didn't take long for him to get back, he hadn't walked that far yet after all.
His wife, toiling in the kitchen, was surprised to see her husband back so soon, especially when she saw the knight behind him.
"Honey? What's going on? Is that a Sir Knight?"
"It's too complicated. I'll explain everything on the way. Grab everything you need, we're leaving with Sir Knight!"
A few minutes later, his wife sat atop the knight's horse while Ulfric jogged behind.
Only when they were a few miles away from their home did they come across with the other knights from before, and they weren't alone this time. Several hundred people were following them, some were on their own horses while others were like Ulfric, jogging on foot.
The farmer even recognized a few of his friends and fellow farmers, much to his silent relief.
'Just what in the hells is going on?' He murmured under his breath. Even though Sir Knight had already explained the gist of the situation to him earlier but the terms and words like dark magic and such were confusing to a farmer like him.
As hundreds of them marched on the road, following behind the knights, unbeknownst to them, they failed to notice the upcoming darkness thousands of miles away from their current position. It was slow but with nothing capable of blocking it, it might as well be seen as fast.