Doom III
The smooth white-gray-haired young man woke up with the back of his head against smooth fabric. His eyes calmly darted around and he realized he was in the interior of a room. “Huh…I don’t remember bringing myself here…” He turned his sideways head to the right of the fabric he laid on, and he saw two unfamiliar people. One was a woman in a blue adventurer’s outfit and a wizard hat; the other was a boy just below her height in leather clothing. “…W-Who are you people…”
“We found you as a still corpse at the entrance of the bunker.” The black-haired woman explained.
Both Marianna and Lucien remembered the man’s condition when they went to investigate the bunker doors. They saw a gray-haired lad with lacerations and wounds all over his body, and his face planted into the hardwood. One thing Lucien particularly noticed was the dark cold patches of his skin that seemed to be just inches from falling off. “…Is this the wizard that Roran was talking about?”
“Must be…” Marianna answered, keeping a cautious distance away from the body. Lucien, on the other hand, crouched down and further inspected the gray haired man’s body. He lifted his wounded arms, looking it up and down. “…This chief…Marua…he has shadow magic…I can tell, these wounds are cold with shadows…” Lucien noticed a red mark wrapped around the man’s neck and wondered where it came from. “Marianna…Let’s take this guy back to the village.”
“…You’re right, Lucien.” Marianna seemed hesitant at first to really…make contact with the man’s shadow-ridden body, but knew it was the right thing to do.
“Help me drag him,” Lucien puts one of the man’s arms across his neck.
“O-…Of course,” Marianna puts the other arm across her neck, and drags him to the Darksong Village
“We took you to the village and patched you up.” Lucien continued
“…” The young man observed each part of his exposed body and saw bandages on each of his limbs and on his torso. Lastly, he wrapped his hand around his marked neck. “Oh wow…Thanks…I couldn’t drag myself to the village this time…damn.”
“Now if I can ask…” Lucien started “…Are you the wizard who’s been trying to defeat the chief Marua?”
“Well, that’s Rhetorical, isn’t it?” The man sat up “Yep. That’s me.”
“And you lost to him, 6 times?” Marianna clarifies harshly
“…” the man sighs “Yes. I did. I know. I’m pathetic…”
Lucien and Marianna look at him with signs of slight pity
“Don’t pity me…the name’s Augustine. I’m from Canopy Island. When I was a young…like very young, a child…” Augustine bites his tongue “fuck, why am I saying this to strangers…” he mumbles “My parents…” he stutters “My parents…” he grunts a little.
“Uh, Are you okay?” Marianna asks concerningly.
“I’m fine, okay? I’m fine…My Parents…Sold me…For Aurem…”
Marianna puts her hand on her mouth “Oh no…Augustine…I’m so sorry…”
“Uh…What’s Aurem?” Lucien looked up to Marianna, in search of an answer to his question.
“It’s…a sort of rare currency amongst the sea…”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, Yeah, it’s nothing.” Augustine quickly recovered from his quivering “BUT I ESCAPED! Yeah…at a much, much older age, I escaped. Now I sail the seas…mindlessly…Maybe…I don’t know…make a name for myself or something…” He said in Marianna’s exact words “I came to this Island a few days ago…I’d say a week. The people of the island were looking for a mage…” he points at himself “I realized myself this could be a good opportunity to try to do one good deed. Only thing is…uh…I’m not really so good at using wind magic, OR LIKE, heh…I’m kinda of a…amateur…BUT THAT DIDN’T STOP ME!!! So I went deep inside that bunker…and I saw who they called Marua. And…yep, he beat. my. ass.” he shakes his head. “Barely got out of there alive. That cursed shadow magic…I hate shadow magic…”
“…” Lucien turns his head away in shame
Augustine gave him a weird look, oblivious of the fact Lucien had Shadow magic. “Anyways, The village nursed me up, since they still thought there was hope…but after uh…the third try, I think they lost faith.”
“…but there’s three of us mages now. We can help the village defeat Marua.” Marianna chimes
“Yeah that’s true, but-but, how do I know you two are worthy?” Augustine hops off the bed onto his feet as if his wounds don’t exist.
“That’s funny coming from you, who lost six times.” Marianna looked at him with a raised brow
Augustine tsked “I get closer each time! and I need to know that you guys won’t hold me down in the fight.”
“I mean, I guess you do have a point. I’m sure Marianna is strong herself, but as for me…I woke up just a few hours ago with no memory of who I am…and just remembered I can use magic.” -and not to mention that Marua has shadow magic…will my shadow magic be useless?-
“Hey, I’ll tell you guys what: We all go into the forest and you guys prove to me that you’ve got what it takes. What do you say?”
Marianna couldn’t help but feel disrespected by the fact that Augustine saw himself as superior to her and Lucien, but it wasn’t her to be rude so she just blatantly agreed “Fine,” with a hand on her hip.
“Yeah, Let’s do it!” Lucien shouts
“Aaaalright, let’s go!” Augustine grabs his clothes and leaves the hut to go off into the forest.
Before Marianna could leave, Lucien uttered a question “What’ll he think?”
“Huh?”
“What’ll Augustine think…about my magic…My shadow magic…”
“You’ll be fine…shadow magic is one of the primary magics…he can’t discriminate just because you use it.”
“I-I suppose…”
Rarely On the deep night, the clouds hovering above Doom Island subside, exposing the clear skies. Short gusts of intense wins burst throughout the dark pine trees of the forest. Marianna and Lucien walked under the dark woods, tracking the sound of the fierce zephyrs. They finally see Augustine firing out the wind blasts with magic circles on each of his palms, in his clothes that were in an arguably worse condition than Lucien’s clothes when he woke up
“Oh, there you guys are? I was thinking you’d never show up!” He whips both of his arms out and retracts them multiple times, releasing an onslaught of gusts “Doomarians don’t go into these parts of the forest, so we won’t be interrupted.” He reels an arm far back, and releases it, unleashing a wind blast so powerful it uproots a weakened tree from the ground.
-This guy looks so experienced…and even he didn’t stand a chance against Marua…- Lucien thought, seeing Augustine as a well-grounded mage.
“Hey, Hey, check this out,” Augustine grabs a wooden log and chucks it up into the air, then forms a magic circle that creates a tornado around the log and shoots it further into the sky. “Pretty cool huh?” Seconds later the log fell and struck him in the head “Ack-”
Marianna sighed and faced in the distance “Are you looking?”
“Mhm, show me what you got!” Augustine chirped.
“…” Marianna summoned a large water magic circle with both arms. A beautiful stream of water bursts out of the magic circle, illuminates the forest with its majestic blue glow, and shaves off the sides of trees unfortunate enough to be in its wake. Marianna waved her hair around and looked at Augustine with sass. “Well, how was that?”
Augustine gulped nervously “Uh…yeah…you’re good.” He diverted his vision from her piercing eyes “Now what about you, er, what’s your name?” he looked at the shadow-haired boy
“Lucien…”
“Lucien huh? Then let’s see what you can do.”
Lucien tensed and turned away from the two. He formed a small shadow magic circle, raising his arms.
“S-Shadow magic, huh?” Augustine tugged at his collar. "Well, as long as you only use it for good and never hit me with it, " he said, resting his arm on Lucien’s shoulder.
A shadow flare flew out and weakly bounced off the bark of the tree in front of him.
“Don’t think I have to worry about that,” Augustine chuckles in the most quiet voice. “Looks like you can use some work with it. In the meanwhile, I and…uh,”
“Marianna.” she helped him
“yeah, Marianna…go sharpen our own Magic skills in the meanwhile. I learned a while ago that a good way to strengthen your magic is by just firing it off”
Lucien looked at an unenthusiastic Marianna and flamboyant Augustine converse as he strode deeper into the woods.
After secluding himself from the two, he stood surrounded by dark wood trees. He felt that he was holding back the two. He felt that he needed to do better, not just for himself, but for the sake of the village. “I know that my magic was stronger when we were fighting the crazy wizards. But now since there’s nothing at stake, it’s like it’s dormant now.” He pulled out the magic dagger from his pocket and looked at his reflection through it “What should I do…use this dagger, or should I continue trying to make my magic stronger…? Damnit…how could I conduct a dagger if I have no magic to use…I need to do better…” He raises his arms up and charges up magic energy around his arms “I have to do better…” -I have to do better…How could I even accomplish anything…make a difference…like Theos said…I need to do better…I need to do better…I need to do better…I NEED TO DO BETTER!!!- His hair soared upward as the energy around him enhanced -WHY DO I HAVE TO BE SO WEAK…I NEED…TO DO BETTER!!!-
Abruptly, a Massive magic circle larger than his entire body forms in front of him. Lucien was shocked when he saw it. Dark energy flowed around his whole body radius like a fountain, he was unsure of what to do next. He had too much power in his hands. It felt like trying to get some extra sauce out of a bottle, and hitting it by the back causing it to spew out a huger squirt than anticipated. He didn’t have the power to return the power, so he knew he had to fire it. Knowing what he had to do, he released it.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
The behemoth of darkness destroyed all of the trees in its path and shaved the ground. The power flung Lucien back and he hit his spine against a tree. “Agh!”
The blast sounded like a dark demon had roared and stampeded through the forest before dying off. Lucien sat along the tree, his hair ruined.
“Y-YO, WHAT WAS THAT?” Augustine called out as he and Marianna raced to find Lucien. They saw the path where everything was completely eviscerated.
“Lucien…did…did you do that…?” Marianna asked with a minute tone of fear
“Marianna…Augustine…I’m sorry, I was too eager to get strong in such a short time. I’ve only been conscious for a few hours…and I only know a few things about this world. I realize…I need to take this slow…my journey in magic…”
“Geez dude…what are you?” Augustine looked at the path of destruction
“Someone…with a lot to learn…”
-shit, I know Marua could…probably…never use an attack this large. He might be our trump card- “Well, Lucien, one thing is sure: You’ve got lots of potential, for someone who’s only been conscious for a few hours… What does that mean?”
“He woke up on Newground Island with no memories. He told you.” Marianna explained.
“Oh yeah…wasn’t really paying attention…Anyways, you’ve got some potential, you could be like some powerful wizard’s long-lost child, but who knows. But what is true…is that if you can train,” he looks at the destroyed path “THAT POWER…you’ll definitely make a name for yourself.”
“You… think so?” asked Lucien as Augustine helped him up
“Of course! I say we train a little longer, then we can take on Marua.”
“Yeah…that’s a good idea…”
“Lucien…” The corners of Marianna’s lips curled precariously
The next day, with the thunder clouds soaring over the island, Lucien looked at his magic dagger in the lone woods “…I think it’s time I start to utilize this…” Shadow magic faintly runs out of the blade.