Conquest Of The Fallen: Dark Dominions

Chapter 113: The Eye Of Myé

BY THE MARTYR'S DAY, all the first year students at the academy had been separated into mandatory classes suitable for their respective Arcs, and also left to choose one or two they fancied in other areas. Three days had gone since Rafel had first stumbled upon the Children of the Crow, at their loft in the shadows. He'd been holding his reply for as long as he could stretch it.

Apparently, since then, he had learned it was Percival who had sneaked the mystery map into his blazer pocket.

The secret elite group, and its totally character-unique members still shocked him whenever he thought of it.

Today was the last day of the school week, and posters of weekend parties and club meetings were already stapled on plumy fir trees around the campus blocks. Flyers, with trendy fuchsia highlights tumbled with rhododendron leaves down the sidewalks and across asphalt tarmac.

The day was windy, and the skies held the grayness of fall weather. Howbeit, it was still snowing in Titans Landing. The wintry breeze usually hit the Corynthian Isles from the polis at midnight. But winter itself wouldn't hit the islands of the Cold Sea until the very final month of the year, when the multiple religions of Eldoria celebrated their gods.

Rafel was the last one in to the final class for the day.

[Dark Arts Cultivation]

Many students just called it DAC.

The classroom had dark veils, and they were shut in. Air conditioners dropped the room temperature to arctic levels, but all the students gathered didn't mind. They were all superhuman.

Rafel took his seat at the right back, next to Cora.

"Hey," she said, smiling at seeing him in perhaps the only class they would share if he chose to explore Phoenix Arc and not Raven.

"Hey!" Rafel said back. He wanted to touch her, but stopped his fingers short of her fine white hair.

[Dark Arts Cultivation], alias DAC, was one of the general electives for all First Years, but was a core study for those of [Raven Arc]. Rafel noticed there were only a few of Phoenix red present, fewer in Pegasus blue, and none from Griffin. The gilded apprentices to magic had no use for the dark arts and specially found spells of black magic and ritual sorcery revolting.

Sunfire and wind was more their forte. The majority in DAC class were the Ravens.

Rafel spotted Rosa in the front, closest to the teaching Professor, Dr. Blood.

Professor Blood was a demon. A 4ft [B Rank] of the red elf race. His horns curled around his ears, and visibly, he resembled a satyr. But with red skin and long, pointy ears. Though Dr. Blood could not be said as handsome, his three-piece suit was impeccable.

His desk was built to match his small stature. The red elf demon race weren't the strongest of Hellions, but they were among the most ancient. And they were respected for it.

If you didn't respect Dr. Blood's ancestry, you sure as shit respected his razor teeth.

They could drain blood from a neck faster than a two hundred-year old Vampire.

Dr. Blood began; "The Dark Arts is not a terrifying fable of nightmarish monsters and Boogeymen; well! Not that alone, as we have true tales like Slenderman, Grimcutty, and La Ilorna. But that is not all it is. Neither is it some caricature to be used as a burlesque enticement in some Madame's brothel—suction for whores. NO!

The Dark Arts is a culture. You all in this class are present to experience and to cultivate a most primordial wisdom and boundless mana force of the universe. In all worlds discovered and explored, there might not be water; there might not air, it may just be a gigantic, floating rock of ice. But be it asteroid or planet, whatever realm you may find out there; there is always darkness.

As a practitioner of the Dark Arts, you are never alone in the universe—even without wand or a Familiar. Dark Arts Cultivation will groom you to give purpose to the blackest rituals, and conjure shadows in a thought.

Listen carefully, young ones, for you must tread lightly in the dark. Even the brightest lights have spots of black in them. Otherwise, you couldn't see the light."

Rafel raised his hand.

"Yes, good Master BlüdThïrste?" Dr. Blood encouraged his question.

"I'd like to know if there's any accursed book binding thousands of souls to its pages, and if it safe for use."

In the front of the classroom, Rafel observed Rosa lower her head in a smile. He was been witty with his question. But she already knew what he really wanted to know.

Dr. Blood answered, "What a brilliant ask, Master BlüdThïrste! Yes, there is such a tome. It is called the Book of Souls. Ranked a treacherous [Divine] level equipment, it's wielder is open to a wondrous supply of dark forces; be it boons, or wishes, or riches. But the Book of Souls was lost to the ages.

It is safe for use if the souls conjured deem their Master villain enough. I should have a picture here. . ."

Dr. Blood clicked his tongue. He quickly chanted a spell into the darkly enchanted class atmosphere.

". . .HELLSCAPE, BRING FORTH THE EYE OF MYÉ!"

A sudden coldness, which shamed the former frigid ambiance, besotted the students as a blue flame roared to life in Dr. Blood's open palm. It doused the classroom in wan bluish light. And it grew until it burned as brightly as the man himself. Out of the blue fires, smoke lashed out and a deathly blinking single eyeball revealed itself.

It was dreadful.

It was gigantic.

Rumored to be the orb torn of a god's face, the Eye of Myé possessed the ability to display any knowledge in picture form. It had a huge blue pupil. It was an alive thing, sentient and intelligent. It's bluish flames fanned under it, large as a man's head.

"EYE OF MYÉ, show the Book of Souls." Dr. Blood commanded.

The giant eye wobbled, hovering in the air and shooting a beam from its pupil into a wide, iridescent viewing screen—like a projector. The image was so clear and large. It was that of a macabre Grimoire, covered in heavy black chains from all sides.

Rafel immediately recognized the book whose cover was a mummified scalp of some ancient, vainglorious king as the very same book that was now hidden in the secret compartment of his bedside drawer.

"That!" Dr. Blood pronounced loudly. "Is the Book of Souls."

Rafel looked to the Eye of Myé. It blinked once at him; it was unnerving.

But he had gotten what he wanted. The Book of Souls was safe to use. Once he was fully recovered and his scars didn't hurt anymore, he would get to the business of employing the wisdom of a billion souls to reveal who had perpetuated the sin on Cora's mind. Rafel had less than 2 mil in his arcane [Soul Coin] packet. But at least a billion in the damned tome. The Book of Souls was an asset.

"Hey! Are you okay?" A hand touched his arm.

Rafel blinked. He followed the straight curve to Cora's concerned blues; beautiful and full of life, not anything like the Eye of Myé.

'Just the girl I was thinking of!' he mused. Your next chapter is on m v|l--NovelFire

Rafel moved his lips to reply. "Yeah. I'm fine. It's nothing."

Cora wasn't convinced. She decided to invite him to her workout later.

"Gym, later?"

Rafel smiled. "You bet, Corazón."

[Dark Arts Cultivation] class ended shortly after. And Rafel was running to his dorm for his tanks and trainers—and not to forget, bottle of water.